Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-03-18

of that country for the first application
for assistance the fact that in the event
OF total separation from Great Britain,
France would be the power whose
friendship it would be fittest to obtain
and cultivate.
At the same time Congress had de-
decided to send commissioners to Can
ada to foster a state of feeling similar 10
that pervading the colonies and espe-
cially TO encourage the formation of
local government. John Adams men
tions the commission in letter to his
wife, about this date, and dwells par
ticularly on the important results an
ticipated from the good offices of the
Rev. Carroll, the brother of Charles
Carroll, of Carrollton, Nd, who was to
remove from the minds of the Canadian
Catholics the fear of an anathema
against American rebels; and, cuTiously
enough, after speaking in the highest
terms of the patriotism of the CAROLS,
warns Mrs. Abigail to bear in mind the
prejudices of the Puritans, and not to
breathe it in New England. One clause
in the official instructions issued by the
Congress to the commissioners is signi-
ficant as amounting almost to an actual
declaration of independence, and it was
not adopted without vigorous debate.
1t was this: You are to declare that
it is our inclination that the people of
Canada may set up such form of gov
eminent as will be most likely in their
Judgment to produce their happiness. "
But the commission proved failure.
The news that Parliament had pro-
hibited trade of every kind with the
colonies and declared their ships and
cargoes liable to confscation, reached
the Congress in the early part of the
month, and ON the sixteenth that body,
sitting in committee of the whole, de-
! liberated upon remedy. Franklin was
for extreme measures, and urged a de-
claration of war, while the most conaer-
vative delegates thought it wiser to take
no action whatever. The discussion took
o wide range and lasted two days, but
on the eighteenth, against the votes of
Pennsylvania and Maryland. resolutions
were adopted authorizing privateers to
cruise against the commerce of Great
Britain, exclusive of Ireland and tn
West Indies. A still sharper debate
sprang up on the twenty second on the
preamble, to which Wythe moved an
amendment, definitely accusing the
king himself as the cause of their OPP
preston, in that he had rejected their
petitions with scorn and contempt" 1t
was but step from this declaration to
that which formally severed the ale
glance of the colonies forever, and its
importance was at once recognized.
Lee seconded the amendment, but the
opposition was 80 strong that it went
over for the day. On the twenty third,
however, it was triumphantly carried,
to be followed the next month by what
h storians tell us was the first real act OF
independence, the abolition of the
British custom house and tie opening
of our ports to the commerce of the
world.
So important was the month. In il
King George abandoned finally the
thought of reconciliation, Washington
won his first great victory, the Congress
first definitely asserted the principle o.
colonial liberty, and France began tc
consider the wisdom of an American al
lance. The child still chung to the
name of mother, but the leading strings
had been snapped forever.-PhiLadeI
| 11hiG Times,