There was woman's fearless eye, Lit by her deep love's truth, There was manhood's brow serenely high, And the fiery heart of youth. What sought they thus afar, The wealth of seas, the spoils of war? They sought a faith's pure shrine. Aye! call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod, They have left unstained what there they found, Freedom to worship God. -MRS. HEMANS. iii. SUPREMACY OF THE ENGLISH IN THE NEW WORLD 1. Why did the English prevail over the other colonists who had already explored and laid claim to the New World? Why did the great nations of France and Spain which had so proudly declared themselves owners of the vast extent of the entire western hemisphere fail to keep the advantage of their early discovery? 2. There were two reasons which brought about the final victory of the English over the other nations. The first was their increasing power on the sea; the second was their character and high ideals of political and religious liberty. 3. During the colonizing years of the seventeenth century the English came in ever-increasing numbers, and not only took New Amsterdam from the Dutch, but also established settlements in many parts of the eastern seaboard. Later, when they wrested Canada and the Ohio valley from the French, they found themselves possessed of the greater part of the discovered part of North America. 4. The other colonists had not brought with them as many ideas of political or religious liberty. The English, who in the earliest days of their settlements had claimed the right to both these priceless privileges, continued the practice of local self-government by means of representative assemblies in all their new colonies. They thus prepared for their great destiny of establishing a free government in our country and of forming the character of the enlightened and liberty-loving nation which inhabits it. CHAPTER III THE BIRTH OF OUR NATION i. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE Hail, Columbia, happy land, Let independence be our boast. Ever mindful what it cost, Ever grateful for the prize, Let its altar reach the skies. -JOSEPH HOPKINSON. 1. We pass now over more than a century from the years 1619 and 1620. In 1619 the House of Burgesses, the governing body of Virginia, was established. In 1620, the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The seeds of liberty then planted bore abundant harvest on July 4th, 1776, the day long to be remembered as our nation's birthday. This was the birthday of the Declaration of Independence. The colonists, through their representatives, met in Philadelphia in our first Continental Congress. There they declared themselves a free and independent people and took their place among the family of nations. 2. What were the reasons why the American colonists refused to continue to obey the British king? These reasons are clearly set forth in the "All men," it Declaration of Independence. announces, "are created equal. All men are endowed with the rights of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." The king of England denied these rights to his subjects in his American colonies. He denied their equality with his other subjects because he refused to permit them to send representatives to the English Parliament to look after their interests and to help make the laws. He prevented the exercise of their right to govern their own affairs in their own colonies by breaking up their assemblies. He refused to pass necessary laws, and he passed bad and unjust laws. He laid unjust and heavy taxes upon them for the support of a government in which they had no share. This injustice was particularly resented by the colonists. When they were ordered to pay a tax on every pound of tea, they at first refused to drink any more tea. Then in the famous attack upon a tea-laden ship, an event which we have proudly called the "Boston Tea Party," they boarded the vessel as she lay in the harbor of Boston and threw the tea all overboard. The English king determined to punish the colonists for this and other acts of rebellion, and sent his soldiers to force them to obey him. But this king, although he ruled over England, was of German birth, and in his ruthless and unjust measures against the American colonists, disregarded not only the rights of those colonists but also the wishes of the majority of his own liberty-loving people. The voices of the greatest of the Englishmen of that day were raised in vain against him. Supported by dishonest ministers, George III pursued the course which deprived his country of the greatest and most valuable of its colonial possessions. 3. You have seen that the vision of Columbus led to the discovery of our country. The vision of religious and political liberty which inspired the Pilgrims laid the foundations of our republican form of government. Now again the vision of liberty, rising still higher against the oppression of England's German king, inflamed the colonies in a united struggle to win for all time their full right to liberty and an independent government. "We shall not fight alone," declared Patrick Henry to the delegates in the Virginia House of Burgesses. "There is a just God who presides over the destiny of Nations. The war is inevitable, and let it come! I repeat, let it come! Gentlemen may cry Peace, but there is no peace. What is it that gentlemen wish? What will they have? Is life so dear, is peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God. I know not what course |