CHAPTER the king, declaring the colonies in a state of rebellion, XXXIL and threatening with punishment all who should aid or 1775. abet them, Congress also proclaimed their resolution to Dec. 6. retort upon the supporters of the ministry any severities which might be inflicted upon their friends and parti sans. A correspondence was im A secret committee, of which Franklin was chairman for corresponding with the friends of the colonies in Brit Nov. 29. ain, Ireland, and elsewhere, constituted the first rudiment of a state department. mediately opened by this committee with Arthur Lee and C. W. F. Dumas. Arthur Lee, a brother of Richard Henry Lee, resided in London as a barrister, and had taken a warm interest in American affairs, having acted as agent for Virginia, and, after Franklin's departure, for Massachusetts also. Dumas, a Swiss, but long resident in Holland, where Franklin had become acquainted with him during a visit to that country, proved a faithful and assiduous agent. Nov 2). Already three additional millions in continental bills of credit had been ordered to be issued, to be apportioned like the former three millions, and to be redeemed in four annual installments, to commence at the end of eight years. Meanwhile, on the other side of the water, a strenuous opposition continued to be made by the mercantile interest, and especially by the corporation of London, to the coercive policy adopted by the ministers. Lord Ef fingham and the eldest son of Lord Chatham took the unusual but honorable course of resigning their commissions in the army rather than to be obliged to scrve in so unnatural a struggle. Oglethorpe, founder of Georgia, now the senior general in the British service, having declined the proffered XXXII. command in chief, it was given, after Gage's recall, to CHAPTER General Howe, younger brother of that Lord Howe who, fell in the attack on Ticonderoga, and who himself had 1775. commanded the light infantry in Wolfe's famous battle on the Plains of Abraham. In In the debate on the address, in reply to the speech Oct. 26. from the throne at the opening of Parliament, the conduct of the ministry was severely canvassed. They lost the support of General Conway and the Duke of Grafton, both of whom resigned their places and went over to the opposition. Lord George Germaine was appointed secretary for the colonies, but Dartmouth still adhered to the ministry, and received another office. spite of a few defections, Lord North was still sustained by a powerful majority, and Parliament promptly voted twenty-five thousand men to be employed in America. As it was difficult to obtain enlistments in Great Britain, Hanoverian troops were hired to garrison the fortresses in the Mediterranean, in order to set free an equivalent number of British soldiers for service in America. This employment of foreign mercenaries was very much stigmatized by the opposition; but the same policy was presently carried much further. In the course of the session, treaties were laid before Parliament, by which the Duke of Brunswick and the Landgrave of HesseCassel agreed to hire out seventeen thousand of their subjects to serve as mercenaries in America. The employment of German troops had been suggested by Lord Howe, who expressed, in his correspondence with the ministry, a great dislike of Irish Catholic soldiers as not at all to be depended on. These treaties, after violent debates, were sanctioned by Parliament, and the necessary funds were voted. The forces to be employed in America were thus raised to upward of forty thousand men. CHAPTER The petition of the Continental Congress to the king, intrusted to the care of Richard Penn, had been pre1775. sented through Lord Dartmouth, who informed Penn Sept. 3. that no answer would be given. Examined as a wit ness before the House of Lords, Penn expressed a positive opinion that no designs of independency had been formed by Congress; and as he had been lately a resident at Philadelphia, and was personally acquainted with many of the members, his opinion seemed entitled to great weight. But the ministry, at this very time, were in possession of letters written by John Adams, and intercepted at the Newport ferry, which looked very much the other way. On the strength of Penn's testimony, the Duke of Richmond moved that the petition of Congress, which had been laid before Parliament along with other papers relating to the colonies, might be made the basis of a conciliation with America; but after a warm debate this motion was rejected. In the House of Com Nov 16 mons, Burke introduced a bill repealing the offensive acts, and granting an amnesty as to the past, thus waving the points in dispute. This bill, though supported by one of Burke's ablest speeches, was rejected by a majority of two to one. A similar movement, made shortly after by Hartley, on the part of the other section of the opposition, shared a similar fate. Dec. 21. The ministry, on their part, carried a bill prohibiting all trade with the thirteen rebel colonies, and declaring their ships and goods, and those of all persons trafficking with them, lawful prize. A section of this act, deemed in America excessively cruel, authorized the impressment, for service in the royal navy, of the crews of all captured colonial vessels. Another section provided for the appointment of commissioners by the crown, with authority to gran pardon and exception from the penal. ties of this act to such colonies or individuals as might, CHAPTER by speedy submission, seem to merit that favor. XXXII. Besides a corps of "Royal Fencible Americans," three 1775. companies of "Loyal American Associators" had been organized at Boston, under the command of Ruggles. Gage, Howe, and the ministry were all satisfied that Boston was not a point from which operations could be advantageously carried on, and, but for the deficiency of shipping, it would have been evacuated before the setting in of winter. Abundant supplies had been sent from England at very great expense, but many ships were wrecked, and others were captured; and the British troops felt the want, during the winter, of fuel and fresh provisions. Fuel was supplied by pulling down houses. To diminish the consumption of provisions, numbers of the poorer people were sent out of the town. The troops on Bunker Hill, remaining under canvas the whole winter, suffered severely from the cold. The British officers amused themselves as they could. Faneuil Hall be-. came a theater. The Old South, the largest meetinghouse in the town, was turned into a riding school. Informed by his spies that preparations were making in Boston for sending off a squadron, Washington's attention was turned to New York. The Committee of Safety for that province were not thought to act with much energy. The city and the neighboring districts were full of those who refused to sign the Association, and with whom Tryon, from on board the Asia, kept up a constant communication. Rivington's Gazette, the government paper in New York, had long been a thorn in the side of the patriots. More than once already the publisher had been called on, and obliged to promise less freedom in his strictures; but of late he had grown bolder, and more offensive than ever. The Committee XXXII. CHAPTER of Safety having declined to interfere, Sears, on behalf of the "Sons of Liberty," proceeded to Connecticut, 1775. mustered there a party of seventy-five light horse, and, after calling several suspected Tories to account on his way to the city, entered New York at noon, drew up his men before Rivington's office, and, amid the cheers Nov. 25. of an assembled crowd, broke his press, and carried off the type. The party, on their return to New Haven, were welcomed back by salvos of cannon. Of those not sorry for the destruction of the press, many did not like this interference from abroad. When the new Provincial Congress presently met, a petition was presented complaining of the outrage on Rivington by rioters from Connecticut. Thus urged, the New York Congress made a representation on the subject to the Continentul Congress and to Governor Trumbull, who was requested, at least, to send back the types. Richmond and Queen's county had refused to elect delegates to the new Provincial Congress, and the machinations of Tryon continued to excite a good deal of alarm. As there were no Continental troops at New York, and the local militia was not much to be relied upon, the agency of Sears and the authority of Governor Trumbull were employed to raise in Connecticut a body of volunteers for the defense of that city. General 1776. Lee was ordered thither by Washington to take the Jan. command. A list of "delinquents" who had voted against sending members to the Provincial Congress having been published, the Continental Congress ordered that they should be put out of the protection of the United Colonies, and that all trade and intercourse with them should cease. Under their orders, also, Colonel Heard, with a regiment of New Jersey minute men, joined by some of Stirling's regulars, proceeded to dis |