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Some apprehensions began to be felt lest the discon- CHAFTER tents in America might extend to Ireland, where the Protestant portion of the inhabitants had hitherto been 1775 employed to keep the papist majority in subjection. That majority, amounting to seven eighths of the entire population, were not only deprived of all political privileges, but were subjected also to a great many rigorous and cruel restraints, designed to keep them ignorant, poor, and helpless. Even the Protestant minority, on whom England relied to keep down the papists, were by no means on a level with the inhabitants of Great Britain. They had, indeed, a Parliament of their own, but that Parliament had not even the rights possessed by the American colonial Assemblies. It was held in strict subordination by the British ministry, without whose consent no bill could be introduced. In matters of trade, Ireland was regarded as a foreign country; we have had more than one occasion to notice with what jealousy she had been excluded from trade with the colonies. It was now judged expedient to conciliate the Irish by relaxing somewhat these commercial restrictions. But already the ideas started in the colonies were sowing the seeds of a revolution in Ireland.

Toward the end of the session, Burke asked leave to May lay before the Commons the remonstrance lately voted by the Assembly of New York. Much to the disap

pointment of those who had counted on the defection of that province, this document was found to be so emphatic in its claim of rights that the minister opposed and prevented its reception.

Meanwhile, in the colonies, matters had reached a decisive issue. Daniel Leonard, a royalist writer of uncommon art and ability, had made, in a series of articles in a Boston newspaper, a very vigorous effort to con

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CHAPTER Vince his countrymen of the folly and danger of further resistance. To these articles John Adams promptly re1775. plied. Ruggles got up a counter-association against that Jan. of the Continental Congress, and he persuaded a few persons to sign it; but it became necessary to send a detachment of British troops to Marshfield to protect Ruggles and his signers against popular vengeance.

F'eb !.

The new provincial Congress of Massachusetts, consisting of upward of three hundred members, having met at Cambridge, Elbridge Gerry, a merchant of Marblehead, for two or three years past prominent in the General Court, was placed at the head of the Committee of Supplies. Active measures were taken for arming and drilling the militia, and especially for procuring powder; and magazines of provisions and military stores began to be laid up at Concord, Worcester, and other places. An appeal to the people was put forth, and a day of fasting and prayer appointed; after which the Congress took a short adjournment.

Aware of what was going on, Gage sent a detachment to Salem, whence the British troops had been withdrawn for concentration at Boston, to seize some cannon said to be deposited there. A hundred and fifty regulars, sent Feb 26. from Boston by water, landed at Salem on this business. Not finding the cannon there, they marched in search of them toward the adjoining town of Danvers. At a bridge between the towns they encountered a party of nilitia, under Colonel Pickering, who claimed the bridge as private property, and proposed to dispute the passage. It was Sunday; one of the Salem ministers interfered, and, taking advantage of reverence for the day, with much difficulty prevented a collision. The soldiers were allowed to pass the bridge, but soon returned without finding the cannon.

About the same time, two officers

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sent in disguise to examine the country and the roads CHAPTER toward Worcester, reported the people very hostile.

The Connecticut Assembly, in a special session, though 1775. they declined to take immediate steps for enlisting troops, Mar. 2-29 yet commissioned Daniel Wooster as major general, and Joseph Spencer and Israel Putnam as brigadiers. The Massachusetts Congress, reassembling shortly after, voted April 8 to raise an army for the defense of the province. They sent committees to the other New England colonies to solicit their aid and concurrence, and meanwhile took another recess.

Gage had asked for twenty thousand men. As yet he had short of four thousand; but as the spring opened, he determined by active movements to nip these rebellious preparations in the bud. The officers sent from Boston to make a reconnoissance, reported that some cannon and a quantity of provisions and military stores had been collected at Concord, an interior town about twenty miles from Boston. To destroy these stores, eight hundred British troops, light infantry and grenadiers, left Boston, under Colonel Smith, with great secrecy, shortly after midnight, and reached Lexington, within six miles of Con- April 19 cord, before sunrise. But the alarm had been givenit was supposed their object might be to arrest Hancock and Samuel Adams, who were lodging at Lexingtonand the minute men of the neighborhood, about a hundred in number, had assembled on the Green in front of the meeting-house. The head of the British column. came suddenly upon them, led by two or three officers, who called upon the minute men to throw down their arms and disperse. When these orders were not instantly obeyed, a volley was fired, by which eight of the minute men were killed, and several wounded. The British alleged, however, that the minute men fired first. The

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CHAPTER survivors scattered at once, and the regulars marched on to Concord. As they approached that village, another 1775. body of minute men was seen assembled on a hill in

front of the meeting-house; but, as the regulars advanced, they retired across a bridge to another hill back of the town. The bridge was taken possession of by the regulars, a guard of three companies was stationed at it, and three other companies were sent across to destroy some stores at a distance. The main body halted. near the meeting-house, and commenced destroying the stores found there. The minute men on the hill, increased by constant accessions, presently advanced toward the bridge. The guard, having retired across it, began to take up the planks, and, as the minute men continued to approach, they were fired at, and two were killed. The fire was returned with effect, and the regulars fled; yet such was the hesitation of the colonists, that the three British companies beyond the bridge were suffered to recross without molestation. They fell back to the village, and the whole detachment commenced a speedy retreat. It was time. The alarm had spread; the country was up. The minute men, hurrying in from every side, threatened the rear, the flanks, the front of the retreating column, and from behind trees, fences, and stone walls, poured in an irregular but galling and fatal fire. The British suffered very severely; the commanding officer was wounded; the retreat was fast turning into a rout; the whole party would have fallen into the hands of the provincials but for seasonable aid found at Lexington, whither Gage, at Smith's request, had dispatched Lord Percy with a supporting column of nine hundred men and two pieces of cannon The artillery kept the minute men at bay; Percy's men received their exhausted companions within a hollow

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square, and the retreat, after a short halt, was again re- CHAPTER commenced. By throwing out strong flanking parties, Percy covered his main body, and by sunset the regu- 1775. lars reached Charlestown, worn out with fatigue, and with a loss in killed and wounded of near three hundred men. The provincial loss was about eighty-five. The exhausted regulars encamped on Bunker Hill, under cover of the ships of war in the river. The next day

they crossed the ferry to Boston.

From all parts of New England volunteers marched at once, and within a day or two after the fight, Boston was beleaguered by a considerable but irregular army. Gage agreed with the Bostonians that, if all arms were given up, such as chose might leave with their families; but, having obtained the arms, he found pretenses for breaking his agreement.

The reassembled Congress of Massachusetts voted to April 22 raise thirteen thousand six hundred men, arranged presently into twenty-seven regiments. The other New England colonies were called upon to make up the army. to thirty thousand men. Ward was appointed captain general, Thomas lieutenant general. A regiment of artillery was authorized, the command being given to Gridley, appointed also chief engineer. A captain's commission was promised to any person who would enlist fiftynine men; any body who could procure the enlistment of ten companies was to be made a colonel. This method facilitated raising the men, but brought many incompetent officers into the service.

The issue of paper money, one of the greatest miseries of war, disused in Massachusetts for the last quarter of a century, was now revived. Provincial notes were issued to the amount of £100,000, $333,333, in sums small enough to circulate as a currency.