ALEXANDER HAMILTON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. CHAPTER I. WASHINGTON. HE British Colonies in North America had risen TH in arms against the mother-country. No acts of gross cruelty and oppression, such as roused the Swiss to throw off the yoke of Austria, or nerved the people of the Netherlands to resist the power of Spain, could be urged in justification of this revolt. Yet a long course of unwise and vexatious measures, of just claims neglected and services ill-requited, had been sufficient to provoke the deep and bitter resentment of men of English blood, who, proud of their descent, and jealous of their rights and privileges, were already conscious of the strength derived from increasing wealth and numbers and from the B possession of a vast territory that seemed to promise an almost boundless future. In the memorable war which wrested Canada from the grasp of France, the colonists had taken their full share in the sacrifices and exertions necessary to bring it to a successful issue. They had cherished a strong feeling of loyalty and attachment to the parent-state; and there can be little doubt, that a generous and conciliatory policy on the part of England might have retained their allegiance for years to come. But narrow and petty restrictions on trade, prohibition of manufactures, interference with the freedom of navigation, and that general mode of dealing with the colonies which Burke described as "the system of a monopoly," excited and kept alive a growing spirit of discontent; and when to all this was added the attempt to tax the Americans by a parliament in which they were not represented, the discontent became disaffection, and took the shape, first of passive resistance, and then of open rebellion. It is well to remember from the very commencement of this narrative, that the thirteen colonies, which were now united in opposition to the authority of the British Crown, could in no sense be considered as a single nation or people, but rather as an assemblage of small, distinct societies, founded at different times, under various circumstances, each with a character and history of its own, and with little to bind them together, save a common determination to uphold the right of self-government. The Puritans of New England, the Catholics of Maryland, the Quakers of Pennsylvania, and the High-church Anglicans of Virginia, had each impressed a specific type on their descendants; and so, in every one of the colonies, there might be found some peculiar marks of its origin and antecedents, by which it was easily distinguishable from the rest. And whilst they all laid claim to the benefits of the common law, and to the traditional liberties of Englishmen, their provincial constitutions differed very materially from each other, and political power was variously distributed amongst them, according to the several charters and customs by which their local affairs had hitherto been regulated. The people of New England, with their Puritan principles, and strong democratic tendencies, were fitted to take the lead in the path of revolution. Already in 1760, the town of Boston had resisted the attempt to collect duties on foreign sugar and |