The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1892-07-05


was born, who was destined to lead the
American army to victory and everlast-
ing glory.
The colonists, often times compelled
to defend their lives and property
against the treachery and rapacity of
| the Indians, were brave, hardy, God
fearing and liberty-loving people, and
the original thirteen colonies, consisting
Of Virginia, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire,
New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Delaware, Maryland, South Carolina,
North Carolina and Georgia, all pos
sessed free and democratic govern
ment, wherein the voice of the people
was considered the voice of God
Meanwhile frequent disputes arose
between the French settlements in Can
ada, and those of the English in the COL
onies. These disputes were generally
determined by an appeal to arms, but
the French government, having wars
enough at home to utilize her resources,
was unable properly TO defend her pos
sessions in Canada, and accordingly Ft.
Crown Point and Niagara, fell into the
hands of the English, and when in the
year 1859, the heoric Wolfe had climbed
to the Plains of Abraham and Quebec
had surrendered, the British flag with
out a rival to dispute her sway. waved
in triumph over region extending from
the Arctic ocean to the Mississippi
river.
In these wars with the French the
Colonies were obliged to unite their
forces for mutual defence, and thus were
taught the lesson, ''that in unity there
is strength" They saw that. the raw
American recruits so despised by the
British regulars, were superior in yalor
to the "red coats" They realized that
the vast ex penditure of blood and treas
ure which these wars demanded, was
largely borne by themselves; and they
perceived that the government of Great
Britain, not content in denying then
protection from their enemies, pursued
toward them policy characterized by
rapacity and tyranny, u policy tending
to crush and suppress their liberties,
and to promote and maintain foreign
depotism.
The navigation act compelled Ameri-
cans to send their produce to England
in English ships. Obliged them to,
purchase manufactured articles i'll the.
mother country and would not allow the
Colonists to manufacture anything, not
even Il nail. Yet this was not all,
England regarded the Americans as an
inferior and dependent people :, and the
English parliament claimed the right
and exercised the power of taxing the
Colonists without their consent.
The famous stamp act required that
stamps should be purchased from the
British government and affixed to all
legal instruments newspapers, paInph-
lets and the like, to give them validity.
But the Americans met these fragrant
encroachments upon their liberties with
prudence, tirmness, courage and heroic
patriotism. Men who had left dear
homes and loving hearts, to settle in the
wild American wilderness, in order that
they might worship God according to
the dictates of their conscience; men
who had braved the perils of the sea and
the perils OF the land; who had suffered
the intense heat of summer and the Kill
ling frost of winter; men who had battl-
ed with the fierce and savage Indian,
that they might breathe air of freedom,
were not the kind of men that could be
deprived of their liberties without a
struggle. In remonstrance after re-
monstrance to the king and parliament
of Great Britain, they solemnly declared
that taxation without representation
was tyranny, and Patrick Henry, the ora
the fixed and unflinching purpose OF the
people of America, when in language
that will live as long as freedom is cher
ished by the sons of men, he exclaimed,
''give me liberty or give me death"
The British government. seeing with
what tenacity the Americans resisted
the stamp act, repealed that odious law,
but retained the tax on tea to maintain
the principle. The Americans however,
had not resisted the tax that they might
hoard up the paltry gold that would be
required to pay it, but they had opposed
it upon principles of right, justice and
equity. Therefore at New York and
Philadelphia, ships laden with tea, were
sent back to England. At Charleston.
South Carolina, a large quantity of tea
was purposely stored in damp cellars
where it was ruined, and at Boston 342
chests of this odious commodity we're
publicly dumped into the harbor; where
upon the British government declared
the colonies to be in mutiny and ordered