CHAPTER made prisoners. The rest, having had a few minutes' XLVI. warning, fled hastily by the northern road. Most of the 1787. leaders escaped into New Hampshire. The insurgents east of the Connecticut being thus dispersed, Lincoln moved into Berkshire, the extreme western county, where the malcontents were still more numerous.

Feb. 3.

Meanwhile the General Court had been called together in a new special session. A declaration of rebellion was put forth, and money was voted, and men also, to supply the place of Lincoln's militia, whose term of service would soon expire. The neighboring states were called upon to assist in arresting and dispersing the insurgents, some of whom lurked in their borders, whence they made plundering incursions into Massachusetts, proceeding even so far as to kidnap and carry off some of their most obnoxious opponents. Some eighty of these plunderers from New Feb. 27. York, after an attack on Stockbridge, were intercepted by as many militia, and an action ensued, in which two were killed and thirty wounded. New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York promptly complied with the request of Massachusetts to assist in arresting these refugees. Rhode Island and Vermont were more backward. Some of the leaders fled to Canada, but they found no countenance there.

A free pardon, on laying down their arms and taking the oath of allegiance, was offered to all who had served among the insurgents as privates merely or as non-commissioned officers, with deprivation, however, for three years, of the right to vote, to serve as jurymen, or to be employed as schoolmasters, inn-keepers, or retailers of ardent spirits. A commission was instituted, authorized to confer pardon, on such terms as they might see fit, on those not included in this offer-active leaders, those taken in arms a second time, or such as had fired

XLVI.

upon or wounded any loyal subject of the common- CHAPTER wealth. Of those taken in arms and tried by the courts, fourteen were found guilty of treason and sentenced to 1787. death. Many others were convicted of sedition. None, however, were executed; indeed, the punishments inflicted, and the terms imposed by the commission above mentioned, of which seven hundred and ninety persons took the benefit, were in general very moderate. Harsh measures would not have been safe. At least a third of the population were thought to sympathize more or less with the insurgents; and even the slight penalties imposed upon those who submitted did not pass without serious opposition. At the ensuing general election the May. prevalence of these sentiments became very apparent. The energetic Bowdoin was dropped, and the popular Hancock was reinstated as governor. Many of those, also, who had been most zealous against the insurgents, lost their seats in the General Court.

These events, during their progress, had excited the liveliest interest throughout the Union, and they tended to confirm the impression, for some time past every where gaining ground, that some extensive political change was absolutely necessary. That which struck every body as the first and most essential step was the reorganization of the federal government, with powers adequate to its important functions.

Hardly, indeed, had the Articles of Confederation been adopted, when the Assembly of New York unanimously recommended a convention to revise and amend them, by 1782. giving to Congress an increase of authority. The General Court of Massachusetts had subsequently passed similar resolutions; but, by the representation of their delegates in Congress, had lately been persuaded to repeal them. Commissioners appointed by Maryland, of which

CHAPTER state General Smallwood had been lately chosen governXLVI or, to arrange, with other commissioners from Virginia, 1785. a compact respecting the navigation of the Potomac, had

agreed to recommend a new commission, with authority to fix, subject to the consent of Congress, a tariff of duties, to be enforced by both states. On this question of duties, and, indeed, of commerce generally, Virginia had invited all the states to meet in convention at Annapolis. Eight states had appointed delegates, and those from Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New 1786. York actually met at the time and place appointed. Sept. But, finding their number so few, and the powers of sev eral of them very much restricted; considering, also, the alarming aspect of affairs-for Shays's rebellion was just then on the point of breaking out-reflecting, moreover, that the regulation of commerce involved other important political questions, they resolved to recommend a convention of delegates from all the states, to meet at Philadelphia the following May, to consider the Articles of Confederation, and to propose such changes therein as might render them "adequate to the exigencies of the Union."

This proposal was transmitted to all the state Legislatures, and was presently laid before Congress.

After

great delays, occasioned by the non-attendance of its mem1787. bers, that body had been organized at last by the elecFeb. 2. tion of General St. Clair as president. The idea of the

proposed convention was at first rather coldly received; but seven states had already appointed delegates to it; and, what had no less weight, all hopes of an independent federal revenue were finally dashed by the peremptory refusal of the Assembly of New York to grant the impost on terms compatible with the acceptance of Congress. Under these circumstances, a resolution was passed giv

XLVI.

ing sanction and approbation to the meeting of the pro- CHAPTER posed convention, to which delegates were presently chosen from all the states except Rhode Island and New 1787. Hampshire.

Feb. 21.

Shortly after the treaty of peace with England, overtures had been made to Franklin, by the pope's nuncio at 1784. Paris, on the subject of appointing a bishop, or vicar apostolic for the United States, to which Congress had replied, that the subject, being purely spiritual, did not fall under their control. The pope, soon after, appointed as 1786. his vicar apostolic John Carroll, of Maryland, consecrated afterward Bishop of Baltimore, and ultimately Archbishop of the United States. The Catholics, though in several of the states still liable to some political disqualifications, not entirely removed to this day, had every where attained, under the state governments, freedom of worship. In Maryland, where they were most numerous, they had been raised by the state Constitution to full political equality with Protestants. Even in the Puritan city of Boston a Catholic church was presently opened, the first in New England.

1789.

The Church of England in America, which had suffered greatly during the war, immediately after the return of peace sought to reorganize itself. Samuel Seabury, minister of New London, at the request of the Episcopalians of Connecticut, proceeded to England to obtain 1786. ordination as a bishop. The English bishops, however, under existing acts of Parliament, could raise no one to the episcopal dignity who did not take the oaths of allegiance and acknowledge the King of England as the head. of the Church. Under these circumstances, Seabury applied to the Jacobite non-juring bishops of the Episcopal 1784. Church of Scotland, by whom he was ordained. There was, however, a strong inclination among the Episcopal

Nov.

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CHAPTER ians of America, mostly Low Churchmen, and without any sympathy with the non-resistance politics of the Scot1784. tish bishops, to derive, through the heads of the English Church, that uninterrupted and divine tradition from Christ and the apostles, deemed essential to the due administration of the ordinances. A convention, held during Seabury's absence, of delegates from several states, adopted certain resolutions as the basis of a fundamental constitution for the "Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States of America." Another convention, held the next 1785. year, matured this constitution, which was afterward ratSept. ified by conventions in the separate states. The title of "lord bishop," and all titles "usually descriptive of temporal power and precedency," were dropped, and the bishops and clergy were declared liable, in case of misbehav ior, to deposition from office by the general and state conventions. Some portions of the Liturgy were left out, others were modified to suit republican ideas. A letter was addressed, at the same time, to the English bishops, expressing friendly regards, and the desire to obtain Episcopal ordination for American bishops through their hands. Some demur was made to the constitution of the new Church, particularly the article relating to deposition from office, and to the changes in the Liturgy; but presently an act of Parliament was obtained, under which White, of Philadelphia, Provost, of New York, and, a year or two afterward, Madison, of Virginia, were ordained as bishops, they constituting, along with Seabury, the validity of whose ordination was expressly acknowledged by the Convention, the nucleus of episcopal authority in 1789. America. At a General Convention held shortly after,. the constitution of the new Church was ratified and completed.

Shortly after the peace, Thomas Coke, one of Wes