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025 - Chapter 27 · The American Revolution A Historical Overview Vol. 3

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty five of History of the Rise, Progress and
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis Wong.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
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  Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. History of the Rise, Progress, in
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  Speaker 1: Termination of the American Revolution, Volume three by Mercy Otis
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  Speaker 1: w Chapter twenty seven, Part one discontents with provisional articles.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Hartley sent to Paris the definitive Treaty of greedto
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  Speaker 1: and signed by all the parties, a general pacification among
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  Speaker 1: the nations at war. Mister Pitt, Prime Minister in England,
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  Speaker 1: his attention to East India phaeues some subsequent observations. After
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  Speaker 1: provisional articles for peace have been agreed on at Paris
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  Speaker 1: between the British and American commissioners, the impatient curiosity of
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  Speaker 1: the British nation for a full communication of their contents
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  Speaker 1: was inexpressible. The ultimate determinations with regard to the unconditional
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  Speaker 1: independence of America were among the most interesting of their inquiries.
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  Speaker 1: But the necessity of concealing affairs of such national moment
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  Speaker 1: for a time within a veil of secrecy was urged
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  Speaker 1: by the ministry, as it would bring on discussions and
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  Speaker 1: objections which might embarrass the work of peace. All ambiguity
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  Speaker 1: was opposed in the House of Commons, with several members
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  Speaker 1: with no small degree of warmth. They insisted that no
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  Speaker 1: disguise ought to be used, but that the whole business
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  Speaker 1: should be laid open before irretrievable stipulation should bind the
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  Speaker 1: nation two disadvantages or dishonorary terms. But when the general
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  Speaker 1: tenor of the provisional Articles was made known, it was
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  Speaker 1: far from restoring tranquility or heart commonizing the several parties.
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  Speaker 1: The general dissatisfaction expressed by persons of high rank and
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  Speaker 1: consideration against both the provisional Articles with America and the
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  Speaker 1: preliminary articles for peace with France, Spain and Holland which
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  Speaker 1: now lay under consideration, was so great that many began
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  Speaker 1: to be alarmed lest all pacific ventures should be set afloat,
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  Speaker 1: and the hopeful tranquility which had dawned upon the nations
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  Speaker 1: might yet finally be defeated. Some of the first characters
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  Speaker 1: in the Cabinet the Parliament in the nation discovered the
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  Speaker 1: most singular disgust and uneasiness of the proposed articles of accommodation,
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  Speaker 1: and debating contention ran high in both houses of Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: The lords Walsingham, Stormont, Sackville, Carlyle and others were violent
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  Speaker 1: in the opposition to the whole system of peace comprised
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  Speaker 1: in the provisional articles. They thought the character of the
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  Speaker 1: nation tarnished, and the concession made by the negotiators on
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  Speaker 1: the part of Britain in favor of the revolted colonies,
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  Speaker 1: whose obstinacy had invollowed the Crown and the Kingdom in
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  Speaker 1: distresses incalculable, but that the nation was not yet so
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  Speaker 1: reduced as to submit to a mean dereliction of their rights.
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  Speaker 1: They asserted that they had yet an army, a navy,
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  Speaker 1: and resources sufficient to justize the insolence of the House
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  Speaker 1: of Bourbon. It was observed that though the councils of
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  Speaker 1: France had upheld the revolted colonies in opposition to the
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  Speaker 1: power of Britain, and now justified their bold demands, that
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  Speaker 1: the combined fleets of France and Spain had recently felt
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  Speaker 1: the superiority and fled from the power of the British flag.
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  Speaker 1: It was not passed over in silence, that all hearts
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  Speaker 1: had lately been warned by their gallant conduct, and every
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  Speaker 1: turn aloud in the applauses of the magnanimous officers who
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  Speaker 1: had defended to Pralder, That the House of Commons had
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  Speaker 1: expressed their gratitude by a vote of thanks to Governor
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  Speaker 1: Elliott and General Boyd for the astonishing example of courage,
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  Speaker 1: patriotism and patient suffering which they had displayed in the
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  Speaker 1: vigorous defense of a fortress devoted to destruction by a
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  Speaker 1: most formidable fault. That the Navy had contributed its full
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  Speaker 1: share in this glorious success, And that the just thanks
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  Speaker 1: of the nation had been offered to Lord's Howell, Rodney
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  Speaker 1: and others who were still ready for the most gallant
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  Speaker 1: defense of all the claims of England against the combined
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  Speaker 1: fleets of France, Spain and the world. In short, the
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  Speaker 1: sum of their declamations were that the proud glory of conquests,
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  Speaker 1: which had so often purched on the helmet of British officers,
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  Speaker 1: was not, by the dash of an inexperienced pen to
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  Speaker 1: be merely prostrated to obtain a peace either from an
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  Speaker 1: old hereditary enemies or the pertinacity and refractory conduct of
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  Speaker 1: theirs their own offspring in the colonies. Little delicacy was observed.
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  Speaker 1: Mister Oswald's abilities for the business of the negotiated were
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  Speaker 1: hardly ridiculed. Many objections were made and coulviviously dwelt on
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  Speaker 1: by the orators and the British Parliament with regard to
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  Speaker 1: the pendic articles, particularly on the right to the fisheries
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  Speaker 1: on the boundaries of the United States, the free navigation
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  Speaker 1: of the Mississippi, and the forlorn condition of those Americans
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  Speaker 1: who had been attached to the crown from the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of the contest. Their friends asserted that they abandoned their
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  Speaker 1: loyalists and consigning them over to the cult recommendations of
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  Speaker 1: the American Congress, only on the promise of their commissioners
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  Speaker 1: that their situation should be considered by the several legislatures,
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  Speaker 1: and that the legislative power should advise to applaque a
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  Speaker 1: book spirit and urge the peoples to forgiveness. Was the
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  Speaker 1: fallicious security on which no reliance would be placed. It
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  Speaker 1: was observed, as the commissioners themselves could not expect that
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  Speaker 1: such a measure would succeed They knew too well that
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  Speaker 1: this class of men would consider it in America as
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  Speaker 1: a tenfold more infetterate goal than any of the native
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  Speaker 1: sons of Britain. The proposal of their return to in
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  Speaker 1: residence in the United States or a limited term was
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  Speaker 1: viewed by gentlemen of the First Penetration as a chimerical project.
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  Speaker 1: They were too well acquainted with human nature to imagine
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  Speaker 1: that this description of persons would be received by them,
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  Speaker 1: which they knew that the Americans in general would consider
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  Speaker 1: it as taking a piper into their bosoms whose nature
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  Speaker 1: could not be altered, and althoever well fed, its benefact
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  Speaker 1: could not be secured from its stam The neglect of
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  Speaker 1: stipulations in favor of a class of people who had
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  Speaker 1: forsaken their country, lost their property, and risked their lives
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  Speaker 1: in the field from the attachment to the British ground
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  Speaker 1: and their fondness for the government of England was styled
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  Speaker 1: criminal in every view. It was asserted that it was
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  Speaker 1: marked with cruelty, in justice and in gratitude. Doubtless, many
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  Speaker 1: of the advocates of loyalists in the British Parliament argued
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  Speaker 1: from what they thought the principles of rectitude, rather than
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  Speaker 1: from the prejudices of party, and could those principles alone
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  Speaker 1: have had their full operation in the minds of men,
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  Speaker 1: notwithstanding past provocations. It might have been the policy of
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  Speaker 1: the Americans at this period to have laid aside their prejudices.
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  Speaker 1: At the same time, it would have exemplified their benevolence
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  Speaker 1: to have forgiven, cherished, and secured the friendship of large
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  Speaker 1: body of people, instead of perpetuating alienation and transmitting it
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  Speaker 1: from sire to son through successive generations. But it was
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  Speaker 1: the indispensable duty of the British government to protect and
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  Speaker 1: to compensate this day afterwards dead in some instances in
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  Speaker 1: a very ample manner. But many of this unfortunate class
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  Speaker 1: were exposed to suffrage which they had never contemplated, when
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  Speaker 1: they forsook their neighbors, their relations, and their families for
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  Speaker 1: the precarious hope of better fortune than the oppressors of
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  Speaker 1: their country. These and other circumstances shook the minister in
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  Speaker 1: his place. He felt he did not stand on very
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  Speaker 1: firm ground, however, recently encircled by fabriotessm though at the
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  Speaker 1: summit of power and still the bubble of popularity, the
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  Speaker 1: girl who was about to pass off and lay him
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  Speaker 1: in private life the sport of change, but not in
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  Speaker 1: the quietude of retirement. The rivals of Lord Shelburne were powerful,
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  Speaker 1: his enemy subtle and sagacious, and the inconsistency which appeared
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  Speaker 1: in his principles relative to the independence of America gave
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  Speaker 1: them a fair occasion to discuss as the opinions and
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  Speaker 1: to displace him from office. Desirous, as was mister Fox
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  Speaker 1: and some other gentlemen for a happy accommodation with America
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  Speaker 1: and a happy termination of war with all the nations,
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  Speaker 1: they spurned at several other proposed articles of peace, and
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  Speaker 1: singular as it may appear, the consequence of the present
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  Speaker 1: fermentation was the second coalition, composed of still more jarring
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  Speaker 1: atoms than the first. The leopard was indeed to lie
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  Speaker 1: down with the lamb, notwithstanding their former disagreement in opinion,
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  Speaker 1: their rancor and bitterness on many occasions, antipodies and political
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  Speaker 1: sentiment with regard to the prerogative of the crome the
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  Speaker 1: majesty of the people. In the American War, a strange
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  Speaker 1: connection took place, viewed by the nation as a kind
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  Speaker 1: of political phenomenon. Lord North and mister Fox were seen
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  Speaker 1: acting together in administration in conjunction with the low Cavendish
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  Speaker 1: and Stormont Keppel and Carlisle, the Duke of Portneer was
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  Speaker 1: appointed First Lord. That the Treasury in the womb of
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  Speaker 1: Lord Chelburn had enjoyed little tranquility in that elevated station.
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  Speaker 1: The reputation of neither party was much enhanced by the coalition.
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  Speaker 1: It created a general suspicion of the patriotism of both,
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  Speaker 1: and both were considered as acting a part for the
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  Speaker 1: gratification of their own interests and passions, rather than from
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  Speaker 1: regard to the public welfare. Mister Fox was reproached with
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  Speaker 1: forsaking his former friends and assimilating his character and his
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  Speaker 1: attachment as conveniency required to the politics of the day.
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  Speaker 1: To this, he replied that with the painful loss as
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  Speaker 1: he had experienced in his friendships, he must find a
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  Speaker 1: consolation on the purity and consistency of his intentions and
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  Speaker 1: that rectitude of design which had ever been his guide
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  Speaker 1: in his political life. While the general expectation of risheathing
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  Speaker 1: the sword they had spread a humane satisfaction over the
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  Speaker 1: countenances of many in Europe, and in America. The minds
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  Speaker 1: of the contemplative and sagacious characters in the United States
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  Speaker 1: were filled with anxiety on a variety of difficulties which
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  Speaker 1: lay before them. They anticipated the impracticality of disbanding an
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  Speaker 1: army become discontented from deficiencies and payment. They saw the
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  Speaker 1: impossibility of a speedy discharge of the public debt, have
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  Speaker 1: defraying the expenses of a long war and paying up
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  Speaker 1: the reerages due to the soldiery or bravely borne the
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  Speaker 1: toils of the field amidst poverty, hunger, danger, and death.
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  Speaker 1: They were too well acquainted with human nature to expect
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  Speaker 1: that a people who have been so long in such
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  Speaker 1: a perturbed state should sit down in tranquility and order
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  Speaker 1: until some necessary arrangements were the operations of a free
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  Speaker 1: yet energetic government should be established. This, they considered, in
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  Speaker 1: the situation of their country, a work that required the
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  Speaker 1: talents of the most able statesmen and the virtues of
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  Speaker 1: the most disinterested patriots to digest the during interests of
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  Speaker 1: the states and of individuals, and the dissonant opinions of
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  Speaker 1: forms and modes of government might prevent the adoption of
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  Speaker 1: the best that could be suggested, and create jealicisons for
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  Speaker 1: events yet might terminate in domestic confusion and war until
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  Speaker 1: anarchy or despotism should succeed. End of Section twenty five