Then came
Bunker's Hill, the siege of Boston, the attack upon Quebec. There was
open war between Great Britain and her Colonies. The Americans had
drawn the sword, but were unwilling to raise the flag.
From the beginning of the troubles the Colonists had been consistent in
their acts. Public meetings, protests, burnings in effigy, tea-riots,
militia levies, congresses, skirmishes, war, followed each other in
regular and logical succession;--but theoretically they did not make
out so clear a case. They had fine-drawn distinctions, not easy to
appreciate at this day, between taxes levied for the purpose of raising
revenue and duties imposed for the regulation of trade. Parliament
could lay a duty on tobacco in a seaport, but might not make the weed
excisable on a plantation,--could break down a loom in any part of
British America, could shut out all intercourse with foreign nations by
the Navigation Act, but had not the legal right to make the Colonial
merchant write his contracts or draw his bills on stamped paper. As to
independence, very few desired it. "Independence," it was the fashion
to say, "would be ruin and loss of liberty forever." The Colonists
insisted that they were the most loyal of subjects; but they had men
and muskets ready, and were determined to resist the obnoxious acts of
Parliament with both, if necessary.
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