Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/391

 measures to be pursued towards the prisoners in his hands, but he speedily relented, and with noble generosity released them upon parole, in the hope that "such conduct would compel their grateful acknowledgments that Americans are as merciful as they are brave." His reply to Gage's letter was dignified and worthy of the man: "You affect, sir," he said, "to despise all rank not derived from the same source as your own. I cannot conceive one more honorable than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people, the purest source and original fountain of all power. Far from making it a plea for cruelty, a mind of true magnanimity and enlarged ideas would apprehend and respect it."

Shortly after, General Gage was recalled to England, ostensibly "in order to give his Majesty exact information of every thing, and suggest such matters as his knowledge and experience of the service enabled him to furnish." He was succeeded by General Howe, a brother of Lord Howe, who had been killed before Ticonderoga, and whose memory was cherished by the Americans.

Although there was no difference of opinion, among the colonists as to the necessity of defending their rights and liberties; although, too, the people did not hesitate to take possession of public stores and ammunition, and to assume all the powers of government; still the large body of the colonists had not yet resolved upon independence and a complete separation from the mother country. This is evinced, is Pitkin properly states, not only by the declarations of Congress, but from the proceedings and declarations of the colonial assemblies and conventions, in the course of this year. Some of these we shall bring to the notice of the reader. In August, a plan of confederacy, submitted to Congress by Dr. Franklin, in the preceding July, was also laid before the convention of North Carolina—they declared, "that a confederation of the colonies was not, at present, eligible; that the present association ought to be further relied on, for bringing about a reconciliation with the parent country, and a further confederacy ought only to be adopted, in case of the last extremity." In September following, the same convention, in an address to the inhabitants of the British empire, used still stronger language on this subject: "We again declare," they say, "that we invoke that Almighty Being, who searches the recesses of the human heart, and knows our most secret intentions, that it is our most earnest wish and prayer, to be restored, with the other united colonies, to that state in which we and they were placed, before the year 1763; disposed to glance over any regulations which Britain had made, previous to this, and which seem to be injurious and oppressive to those colonies ; hoping that, at some future day, she will willingly interpose, and remove from us, any cause, of complaint."

While the convention of Virginia, which met on the 18th of July, proceeded to place that colony in a state of defence, and to give their reasons for this measure; they, "before God and the world," made the