Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/410

386 property thus taken were vested in the captors, and the crews were to be treated, not as prisoners, but as slaves. "By a most extraordinary clause in this act," says Pitkin, "it was made lawful for the commander of a British vessel to take the masters, crews, and other persons, found in the captured vessels, to put them on board any other British armed vessel, and enter their names on the books of the same; and from the time of such entry, such persons were to be considered in the service of his majesty, to all intents and purposes, as though they had entered themselves voluntarily on board of such vessel. By this means the Americans might be compelled to fight even against their own friends and countrymen. This clause in the act excited the indignation of many in both Houses of Parliament, and drew from them the strongest epithets of reprobation. This treatment of prisoners, they declared not only unjust, but a refinement in cruelty unknown among savage nations. No man, they said, could be despoiled of his goods as a foreign enemy, and at the same time compelled to serve the state as a citizen. Such a compulsion upon prisoners was unknown in any case of war or rebellion; and the only example of the kind that could be produced, must be found among pirates, the outlaws and enemies of human society. Some of the lords, in their protest against the act, described it 'as a refinement in cruelty,' which, 'in a sentence worse than death, obliged the unhappy men who should be made captives in that predatory war, to bear arms against their families, kindred, friends, and country; and after being plundered themselves, to become accomplices in plundering their brethren.' The ministry, on the other hand, pretended to view this treatment of American prisoners rather as an act of grace and favor than of injustice or cruelty."

It was evident, from these measures of Parliament, that the great crisis had been reached, when the American people were called upon to choose whether they would yield submission to the mother country in her imperious demands, as children in fear of the rod, or whether they would persist in resisting aggression and wrong, as became freemen and the heirs of an illustrious ancestry of freemen. The time had now arrived, when they must either retrace their steps with shame and dishonor, or prepare to go forward and sustain their position at the risk of their lives and the great uncertainty of final success. Happily for us, their children, our fathers did not falter, but calmly and resolutely entered upon the work set before them.

The voting a band of foreign mercenaries to carry fire and sword into America, was felt to be a grievance utterly insupportable, and a measure which clearly indicated that England would stop short at nothing less than absolute conquest over the colonists. However it might have been hoped by numbers, who loved peace and dreaded the horors of war, that in some way a reconciliation could be effected, this last