The sun., 1903-12-06


which in public and in private he had been
accustomed severely to condemn.
VIII.
The purpose Of the concluding chapter
Of the second volume is to show that while
England's colonial difficulty like her civil
war, arose ostensibly and Immediately
from a question Of taxation; yet in 1775,
as in 1912, the contending parties were
also inspired and stimulated by religious
considerations. That truth was perceived
by some contemporary spectators of the
American contest, and it Is Almost uni
versally recognized by those who, in our
own day, have applied themselves to a
comprehensive and unbiased study OF the
past. There is no doubt that the attitude
Of the Church Of England toward all Ameri-
cans who did not belong to it was in marked
degree ominous and menacing. From
the outset the Anglican Church had been
established in Virginia and the Carolinas,
and In one way or another Episcopalians
had since annexed New York and New
Jersey, Georgia and Maryland. In those
Colonies where Congregationalism was
established Episcopalians received, with
out any sign Of gratitude, their share of all
the taxes imposed for purposes of religion;
but in Virginia and the Carolinas they kept
the whole Of those taxes for themselves.
While religious persecution was dying
out elsewhere, Baptists were still being
punished for preaching in Virginia, colony
where the English Church held sway. AS
late as l7ss-when the country was ablaZe
with the agitation against the tea duty
the Anglican clergy Of Virginia contrived
to get three Baptists into Jail for the crime
OF having refused to discontinue preaching.
In the province Of New York, about the
middle of the eighteenth century, Moravian
missionaries were prescribed and perse-
cuted by Episcopalians on the pretext that
they were Popish emissaries with designs
against his MajesCy's Government. In the
public assemblies OF the English Church
and in it's printed literature nine out Of
ten Americans we're classified as schisTnatio.
Under the circumstances it was inevitable
that all the great evangelical organizations
Of America should regard the Anglican
communion as an aggressive power.
1t was impossible to contemplate without
uneasiness state Of things under which
the strategical operations of Anglicanism
in America would be directed by bishop
the appointment Of bishop was believed
to be imminent-quartered on the scene
Of action, possessing the ear Of the royal
governors, and backed by all the power and
authority of Great Britain, whenever
ministry with Church proclvities should
happen to be installed at Downing street.
The foreseen consequences are thus indi-
Gated by Sir George Trevelyan: There
would be an end thenceforward to COM
Portable and friendly relations between
neighbors and kinsmen who professed
different creeds. Each colony would be
divided int O two hostile camps, and all other
religious bodies would have to be perpet-
ually on the watch against the assaults and
inroads of Church which could never keep
herself contented and tranquil until her
own faith became recognized as the State
religion. In their opposition to the intro
duction of bishop, the American people
may be said to have anticipated the Monroe
Doctrine. and to have applied it to eccle-
siastical affairs. John Adams-lo oking
back to the early Revolutionary period
across a space of fifty years-pronounced
II to be a fact, as certain as any in the his
tory of North America, that the appre-
henson of Episcopacy, as much as any other
cause, aroused the attention, not only of
the inquiring minds, but of the common
people, and urged them to close thinking
on the constitutional authority Of Parlia-
ment over the colonies
Edmund Burke warned the House of
Commons that the opponents of Episco-
palianism in America were not a feeble
folk" Our author points out how appro-
priately the words quoted were chosen.
All along the western frontier lived Irish
Presbyterians Of Scottish descent; sklful
and truculent Indian fighters; men of war
like traditions. and with very long memories
indeed. Their great-grandfathers had
borne the brunt of the struggle against
James II. and Tyrconnell at Londonderry
and Enniskillen; and, when the peril was
over. they had, as their reward, been driven
from their Ulster homes in scores of thou
sands by the savage and inquisitorial Test
act. which the Bishops of the Established
Anglican Church, who disliked Noncon-
formists at least as much as they feared
Roman Catholics. had insisted on obtaining
from the Irish Parliament" The central
colonies held many Huguenot families,
whose ancestors, the salt and leaven of the
French nation, had escaped into exile after
the revocation OF the Edict of Nantes. Far
more numerous than Huguenots or Irish
Presbyterians, and to the full as vel! pro-
vided with reasons for an hereditary dis
trust of Bishops, were the sons of the o..
English Puritans. most of whom, in creed
in temper and in the usages of their daily
life, might still be accounted as Puritan
themselves.
II is certain that after the outbreak of
hostilities between King Georges troops
and the Minute Men of Massachusetts, in
l775. the clergy of the great evangelical
churches throughout the Colonies believes,
that something was at stake which they
valued more highly than all their mat orlai
possessions put together. There was nc:
single instance in hist ory, said one OF
them. in which civil liberty was los, ana
religious liberty preserved entire. SO that
if the colonists accepted political subiuga-
tion they would, at the same time, deliver