Military Events at the Head of Lake George: Britannia and Adams

France and England were still at peace with each other. The British cabinet was then controlled by absurd men, who were likely to embroil the nation in useless war at any time by their folly or by acts deserving a harsher name. They did so by rank perfidy. Secret orders were suddenly issued to the commanders of all British men-of-war to seize all French vessels, public or private. The British king's share of the spoils gathered under the operations of this order was three and a half million dollars; and eight thousand French prisoners were made captives. "What has taken place," indignantly exclaimed a French minister, "is nothing but a system of piracy on a grand scale unworthy of a civilized people." He was right. "Never," said the French monarch, "will I forgive the piracies of this insolent nation;" and in an autograph letter to the British king, he demanded full reparation for the insults offered to the French flag, and the injury done to the French people. But Great Britain then arrogantly claimed, and with reason, that she was "Mistress of the Seas;" and Thomson had lately uttered the sentiments of the proud British nation in his stirring song, "Britannia rules the Waves," saying boastfully:

The exploit of the British ships-of-war in capturing so many French vessels was boasted of in the British parliament, and the people, rejoicing in their strength, were almost unanimously in favor of war with the French. That spirit prevailed for three-quarters of a century until the mistressship of the seas was successfully contended for by the Americans in the war of 1812-15.

The home governments of the two nations now took up the quarrel. The campaign of 1755 had assumed all the features of regular war between their respective subjects. When the flowers bloomed in the spring of 1756, the British ministry and people had resolved to make war, and the French were compelled to accept the issue. On the 17th of May, 1756, a declaration of war went forth from the British cabinet. This action was reciprocated by the French cabinet on the 9th of June following. The die was then cast. The peace solemnly guaranteed at Aix-la-Chapelle was ruthlessly broken to gratify a lust for power. While these two potential nations had been preparing, for several years, for the impending strife for dominion, the thoughtful men among the English-American colonists, who loved liberty more than power, had been musing upon the glorious probabilities of their future. John Adams, a school-teacher in Worcester in 1755, in a letter to Nathan Webb, wrote: "Mighty states and kingdoms are not exempted from change." Soon after the Reformation, a few people came over into this new world for conscience sake. This apparently trivial incident may transfer the great seat of empire into America.. If we can remove the turbulent Gallics, our people, according to the exactest calculations, will, in another century, become more numerous than in England itself. The united force of Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves, is to disunite us." This dream became a prophecy. Less than thirty years afterward, the dreamer stood before the monarch of England, as the representative of an American Republic where, only ten years before, were flourishing English colonies. And just a century after that dream, the number and strength of the people here exceeded the calculation of the dreamer. The population was more than double that of England; and while his country was fiercely torn by a savage civil war, its government defied the powers of Great Britain, France, Spain, the Papal States and other European nations whose rulers were the enemies of our free institutions. In the utterance of that defiance, a grand son of John Adams bore a conspicuous part. That government lives to enjoy the respect of the civilized world. In 1765, Lord Kames uttered a prophecy similar to that of young Adams.