The Washington herald., 1912-05-05

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French army lay under the guidance oi
the ldarquis Of Montezlm. The com
mander Of the English forces was
brave young general. James Wolfe
who was the idol Of his soldiers, bui
man of feeble frame. much wasted
by disease. He made one desperate at
tempt to storm the heights Of Quebec
but the failure proved how impossible
It was to gain the city from The front
So he divided his army; sent apart tc
make feint of attacking the city upor
the north, while he took the other por-
fion of his troops up the ST. Law
resce, disembari1ed them. and scaling
some steep heights. drew up on the
Plains of Abraham in the rear of the
town. Here Montcalrn attacked them
but. being defe1ed and killed. his mer
capitulsted, and this practically ended
the great war.
The contest was now over. New
France disappeared from the map Of
North America, and England was SUI
preme The Indians, however, had
borne an important part in the war
and they were not ready to see the
country, which they regarded as their
own, transferred by the stroke of .
pen from one power to another II
was one thing to have the French trad
ing among them, and another to have
the hated English occupying their
lands. They were vindictiVe, savage
unreasonable; but-before the advance
Of the white settlefs-they had grad
ually to give way, because of the su-
perior intelligence and fighting prowess
of the men Of another race.
There we're thirteen separate Eng
lish colonies, lying along the Atlantic
coast, when France lost her share OF
North America, and the boundaries be-
tween them were not always clearly
marked. The people who lived here
were not all alike. Massachusetts, was
the most northern and eastern colony
(as It included what is now the coast
of Maine) the people of which were
mostly of English extraction. In Penn
sylvania the colonists were nearly al
Germans, while many French Hugue-
nots had settled in the Carolinas. The
people of Virginia were, for the most
part, descended from pure English
blood, and on the sea coast worked
their vast plantations with African
slaves.
Virginia was ruled by governor ap-
pointed by the King of England, who
also appointed other officers in the col
ony, with the exception of members of
the Virginia Assembly. who were elect
ed by the people The people who
chose the members were the land own
ers and slave owners, and they natural
ly took a great interest in politics.
Throughout the colonies the people
were the descendants of men and Yom-
en- who had left England, Scotland,
and France because they wished for
greater freedom, and they had the habit
of discussing religious and political
questions with much interest. This
made them quick to distinguish be-
tween right and wrong.
The thirteen colonies were thirteen
distinct governments, but they had a
great deal in common, for they obeyed
English laws, called the King of Eng
land their King, traded with one an
other, both by land and by water; fam
lies moved from one colony to an
other, and letters and newspapers were
sent back and forth. The Indian up
risings had more than once led them
to seek union among themselves and
there was growing belief that COM
plete union was necessary. The Eng
lish did not know much about America,
they were like landlords who own diff
ferent farms and who only care to get
as much profit as possible out of them.
They regarded the colonists chiefly as
a market for their goods. A host of
officers were stationed in American
posts TO collect the revenues which Eng
land levied and to see that her laws
were enforced. The colonists were i'm
patient under these restraints, but they
were prosperous and paid their taxes
out of their abundance.
Finally, the King of England's chief
adviser proposed to Parliament to pass
an act by which all deeds, contracts,
bills of sale, wills, and the like, made
in America, should not be legal unless
they bore stamps upon them, which
were to be sold by the government
through its officers. The Stamp Act,
as it was called, was passed by Parlia-
ment in March, I7o5, against the re-
of the best friends of the
both in and out of Parlia-
ment. As soon as il was known that
this act had been passed, the colonists,
from one end of the land to the other,
we're in a ferment Of indignation The
men of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania,
Virginia, and the rest of the colonies,
claimed that England had no right TO
evy a direct tax like this, while in the
Virginian Legislature a famous orator
Patrick Henry-introduced resolu-
lions, which declared that the people,
and the people only, had the right to
AK their own people, as Englishmen
md men of honor. For they had their
own assemblies and here they could
vote the taxes.
At last the ferment grew so great
that the Massachusetts, Legislature
proposed a general convention of all
The colonies which met in New York,
and drew up a declaration of rights
md demanded the repeal of the Stamp
Act, alleging that until the act was re-
pealed they would not import English
goods. In some towns mobs destroy
ID the houses of the English revenue
ofhcers. The people of America were
n q frenzy of rage against the mother
country, so finally the Stamp Act was
repealed, as the English government
Jaw that it was impossible to enforce
Yet this did not end the trouble.
had the excitement over the
Stamp Act passed away than Parlia-
nent passed an act by which the colon
sts were to support the troops quar-
cred on them, and also insisted that a
AK placed upon tea chould remain.
fhe people accordingly refused to buy
"a. although formerlv they had hduoht