Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 15.djvu/192

 UNITED

162

UNITED

ignored Parliament; it prepared Articles of Associa- tion, to be signed by people everywhere, and to be enforced by committees of safety. The members of these committees were to be cliosen by the inhabitants of the cities and towns. The articles bound the people to import nothing from Great Britain and Ire- land, also to export nothing to those countries. Hence- forth the Committees of Safety were to perform an important service in promoting the Revolution. On 8 Oct. the Congress adopted the following resolution: "That this Congress approve the opposition of the inhalDitants of the Massachusetts Bay to the execu- tion of the late Acts of ParUament; and, if the same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case all America ought to support them in their opposition." Before the Congress ad- journed it was ordered that another Congress should meet on 10 May, 1775, in order to consider the result of the petition to the king. It then adjourned.

When the king and his friends heard of the pro- ceedings of the Congress, they were more determined than ever to make them submit. On the other hand, the friends of the colonists exerted themselves to promote conciliation, but neither the influence of Pitt nor the eloquence of Burke could alter the resolution of the king's party. The ultimatum of the First Continental Congress led to considerable mihtary activity. When it was seen that force would be met by force, the people began to arm. As was generally foreseen, the conflict between the people and the royal forces occurred before the meeting of the Second Con- tinental Congress. An encounter was hkely to occur anywhere, but most likely to take place in Massa- chusetts. Up to the meeting of the First Continental Congress there were in America thirteen local govern- ments. From that time there came into existence a uew body politic, with aims and with authority supe- rior to the local governments. These several govern- ments had actually formed a new state. The Declara- tion of Independence was merely an announcement of an estabhshed fact.

National History. — War of the Revolution. — When the Stamp Act was passed, the Congress which assembled acted as an advisory rather than as a legis- lative body. Perhaps the chief result of its meeting was that it accustomed the colonists to the idea of union. This feeling was confirmed when the First Continental Congress convened (1774). On 10 May, 177.5, the Second Continental Congress assembled. By that time the notion of union was much more famihar; besides, the military phase of the war had begun three weeks earlier. Tidings soon came of the taking of Ticonderoga by a force under Ethan Allen. This was the key of the route to Canada. Thus far the chief object of the Americans had been to secure a redress of grievances. Independence w'as advocated by nobody, and a little earlier John Adams said that it would not have been safe even to discuss it. How- ever, events moved rapidly. Separation was dis- cussed, and on 4 July, 1776, a Declaration of Inde- pendence was adopted by the Congress, which had already become a revolutionary body. It had ceased to be an advisory assembly, and for some time had been exercising the powers of a national government. A constitution, entitled "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union", was proposed, but it was not until March, 1781, that it was adopted by all the states. For the conduct of the war in which they found themselves engaged they were wretchedly pre- pared: they had no money, no system of taxation, no navy.

Early in the war Congress sent to Canada a com- mission to win over its people to the side of the insur- gent colonists. This body included Benjamin Frank- lin, Samuel Chase, and Charles Carroll. A cousin of the last-named. Rev. John Carroll, accompanied the commission to assist in promoting its patriotic pur-

pose. By virtue of the Quebec Act the Canadians were enjoying religious liberty, and they must have wondered what thej' could gain from an alhance with a people who considered that measure of toleration as a ground of reproach to England. As to the enlarge- ment of the Province of Quebec, already noticed, the people of Canada must have been somewhat indiffer- ent. These and other considerations led them gener- ally to adopt a policy of neutrahty. The presence in the American army of one or two smaU battalions of Canadians did not to any considerable extent affect the sentiments of the French population. During the progress of the war their loyalty was often sus- pected by British officials, perhaps not without cause.

Under General Montgomery an army also was sent into Canada. A co-operating force under Benedict Arnold reached Canada by way of the Kennebec River and the Maine wilderness. Montgomery had won several small advantages, but the joint attack on Quebec, 31 Dec, 1775, resulted in his death, in the wounding of Arnold, and the defeat of their forces. Then was begun a disastrous retreat toward the State of New York. Either this step of Congress or the plans of the British War Office led to a counter inva- sion. A force under St. Leger, moving by way of Oswego and Fort Stanwix (Rome), was intended to create a diversion in favour of the main army under Burgoyne, which was advancing leisurely from Can- ada. With these two commands Clinton was expected to co-operate along the fine of the Hudson. St. Leger's army was defeated or dispersed, and, instead of co-operating with Burgoyne, General Chnton had gone oil to attack Philadelphia. A detachment from Burgoyne's army was defeated at Bennington, Ver- mont. This event left nearly all New England free to act on Burgoyne's Une of communications. After two severe battles he surrendered, near Saratoga, on 17 Oct., 1777, his entire army of nearly six thou- sand men. Thus ended the struggle for the pos- session of the Hudson. The event influenced France to form an alhance, Feb., 1778, with the young RepubUc.

After the commission had returned from Canada, several agents were sent to represent the United States in Europe, and Frankhn's abihty had much to do with the establishment of friendly relations with France. When in March, 1776, Washington drove the British from Boston, he brought his army southward and occupied New York and Long Island. That portion of his force in Long Island met with disaster in the following August. To avoid capture, he turned northward, crossed the Hudson, entered New Jersey, and passed over into Pennsylvania. From his camp in that state he surprised a regiment of his pursuers at Trenton, 25 Dec, 1776, recrossed to Pennsylvania, and early in the following year again encountered the enemy at Princeton. This ended the first stage of the struggle for the Delaware. CornwaUis gradually retired towards New York.

In the West, Colonel George Rogers Clark took Kaskaskia, 4 July, 1778. The influence of Father Pierre Gibault, its parish priest, enabled Clark speed- ily to recruit two companies at that place and in the neighbouring settlement at Cahokia. A generous loan by Frangois \'igo enabled him to complete his equipment for the march on Vincennes, which, after terrible hardships, was surprised and taken. These were the first steps in the winning of the West. That term included the region now- covered by Ohio, Indi- ana, lUinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and a part of Minnesota. In this great achievement of Clark's, Catholics acted a very praiseworthy part. When that commander arrived at Kaskaskia, he was not unex-pected; the terms of enlistment of many of his men had already expired, and in the battalions with which he marched to Vincennes there was a great preponderance of Catholics. In the conquest of that