The American Revolution

JEFFERSON'S immortal manifesto has been pecked at by certain latter-day dilettante critics for alleged indifference to the dictates of genteel literary style, as by them understood. As if thunderbolts are to be gauged by the snapping of popguns! The men who signed the Declaration were men in earnest; they spake as they were moved by patriotic fervor, and their sound still echoes from the ends of the grateful world.

The important action taken by the Continental Congress in the passage of the Declaration of Independence was received with enthusiasm by the people of the newly-created United States of America. On the 8th of July the independence of the country was proclaimed with great solemnity at Philadelphia, and welcomed by the people with the greatest exultation, artillery being fired, bonfires kindled, and other manifestations of joy displayed. It was read to the army in New York on the 11th, and was received by them with wild acclamations. That evening the statue of King George, which had been erected in 1770, was dragged through the streets by a party of soldiers, and a resolution taken to convert into bullets the lead of which it was made. This riotous proceeding was severely rebuked by Washington.

In Baltimore independence was proclaimed amid the roar of artillery, while the effigy of the king became the sport of the populace, and was afterwards burned in the public square. In Boston the rejoicings of the people surpassed those in any other section of the country. Independence was there proclaimed from the balcony of the State-House, in the presence of all the authorities and of a great concourse of people. Salutes were fired, the troops paraded, the bells were rung, and the people went wild with joy, in their excitement tearing to pieces and burning all the ensigns of royalty. A banquet was prepared for the authorities and the principal inhabitants, at which toasts were drunk to the destruction of tyrants, the propagation of liberty, and a series of similar sentiments. In Virginia great enthusiasm also prevailed, and the convention passed a number of acts designed to remove every vestige of royalty from the public proceedings of the commonwealth.

The passage of this declaration entailed new duties upon the people, which would exhaust their powers, legislative and military, for years to come. A new government had to be formed, on a plan which had never before been applied to a country of such extent, and which involved innumerable difficulties. And the independence declared by the legislature had to be sustained by the army against all the power of the richest and most energetic nation of the Europe of that day. Some consideration of the steps taken towards the accomplishment of these purposes is important as preliminary to the story of the subsequent events of the war.

The resolution of independence had abolished one phase of political existence; it had not created a new phase. A nation was yet to be made out of the discordant elements of the separate colonies, And to this essential purpose Congress at once addressed itself. The tie which had hitherto held together the colonies was slight and temporary. It needed to be made strong and permanent. Articles of confederation satisfactory to all the States of the newly-formed republic needed to be adopted ere the American Union could claim the title of a nation.

A committee was at once appointed by Congress to frame such articles. A report was made by this committee on the 12th of July. On the 22d the House began the consideration of the proposed articles, the principal subjects of debate being the proportion of money which each State should pay into the common treasury, and the manner of voting in Congress. The financial article, as proposed, required each State to pay into the treasury a sum in proportion to its total population, exclusive of untaxed Indians. This was objected to on the plea that it included slaves, who, properly considered, were property and not persons, and that Southern slaves had no more right to be considered in fixing the tax-rate than Northern cattle. John Adams took the opposite view, with the argument that slaves by their labor added to the wealth of the States, and that they had always been taken into the estimates of taxes by the Southern provinces. The question was carried, on this basis, by the votes of the Northern delegates, who were in a majority. The other article which led to prolonged debate was that concerning the voting power of the States in Congress. The original report provided that each colony should have but one vote. Mr. Chase proposed as a compromise that on financial questions each State should have a voice in proportion to the number of its inhabitants. Franklin supported this proposition, saying that if the States voted equally they ought to pay equally. Dr. Witherspoon contended that each State should be considered as an individual, with a single vote on all matters. John Adams, on the contrary, advocated voting in proportion to numbers. He held that the individuality of the States was a mere word; it was the purpose of the Confederacy to weld them, like separate pieces of metal, into one common mass. Mr. Wilson, of Pennsylvania, ably followed from the same point of view, bringing European illustrations to show the danger of giving too much separate independence to the members of a confederated union. Thus early was brought up that burning question of State Rights, as opposed to the supremacy of the Union, which has not yet been definitely settled.