Preface.

THE period of time under review in this volume, is one of the most remarkable in the political history of the world. The transactions of that epoch owe their importance, not so much to their individual magnitude or splendour, as to their as to their prospective character, and inevitable consequences. The minds of men were every where excited to investigate their civil and political condition; ancient abuses began to lose that sanction which a blind, hereditary reverence had long given them; and the intelligent citizens of every nation became convinced that they possessed certain indefeisible rights, of which they had been forcibly deprived in ages of ignorance and barbarism, and which were now withheld by a claim of prescription, founded on that very usurpation. The struggle that ensued from this revival, produced the American revolution first, and afterwards that of France. These great events were signalized by actions and results, as different as were

the circumstances of the two countries in which they occurred. But the spirit of the age still advances it visits every region where commerce, intelligence, and enterprize can penetrate, and will be sooner or later universally triumphant. The unholy purposes of the Holy Alliance may effect some partial and momentary checks, but the re-action will be proportionate. Even the unfortunate Italians, overwhelmed for a time, and forced to renounce their scheme of reformation, while they look at Spain, Portugal, and Greece, may exclaim with their countryman Galileo, rising from his recantation, Pero si muove! It moves notwithstanding! Even among nations that are farthest in the rear in this course of amelioration, there are some individuals who believe that governments are made for the people, and not the people for governments. The great principle which originates and secures all liberty and social improvement, the principle of representation, is now the wish of every country, and it will be finally obtained, unless all example of its advantages be effaced from the earth.

The spirit which predominates in particular eras among civilized nations, will often be promoted, at the same moment, by incidents that have no striking similarity, and which are entirely disconnected with each other. Thus, about the same time that Otis ar

gued the cause of the Writs of Assistance, and wrote his Vindication of the Massachusetts Legislature, Rousseau published his Social Contract. The novelties, the mixture of truth and extravagance, and the glowing eloquence with which these were conveyed in that celebrated performance, made it generally read on the continent of Europe, and tended in a very remarkable degree to excite the disposition on that continent to examine and reform political institutions, by which, after the lapse of a generation, some of them were riven to their foundations. The animated arguments of Otis, awakened at the same moment, a close and attentive watchfulness in America of every movement of government; and united the idea of taxation and representation, inseparably, in the mind citizen.

of

every

It so happened, from the plan of the British ministry in their experiment of taxing the colonies, that the attention of the people of England was strongly directed to the discussions in this country. The question was to be first settled here, and the friends of liberty, or the followers of arbitrary principles, equally watched this scene of action. Their sympathy was actively shewn by the clamors that were made, with partial success, for relief from the accumulated abuses that crushed the people of Ireland; and a similar feeling originated the questions of par

B

liamentary reform, which so many eminent men have from that time to the present, successively attempted and relinquished in England. This long and momentous struggle began in Massachusetts, and her capital witnessed most of the leading measures, till it terminated in actual war. There, the innovations projected by the ministry, inflicted the greatest injury; there, the most active and able of their partisans were stationed, and the main body of their forces was concentrated; there in fine, from various circumstances, the ministry and the sovereign resolved" to try the question."

It was, therefore, in the British North American colonies, and especially in Massachusetts, that the statesmen and the politicians of England, were occupied, in the attack and defence of the opposite maxims of government, which they had adopted.

From 1763 to 1775, Massachusetts was the scene where all the dearest interests of the colonists were most powerfully assailed, and to which the public characters of America and England looked with deep solicitude. It was the system attempted to be enforced here, which was to destroy or to establish principles of the widest bearing, and the most lasting importance.

The question concerning the rights of the colonies, directly affected the interests of the whole empire.

It was the defence of these rights that engaged the purest and highest minds in the mother country, in a long series of efforts. It was in this cause, that in either branch of the British senate, the finest models of eloquence were produced which modern times. can boast; and it was in the support of these rights, that the greatest statesman of his time, with the truest foresight, wisdom, and magnanimity exclaimed, "I thank God that America has resisted!"

It is difficult to repress enthusiasm in considering the conduct of the men, who opposed the arbitrary designs of the British ministry, and who in a great crisis of human affairs, had the sagacity and firmness to discover and maintain the right course. Our admiration is the greater, because their conduct originated, not so much from the feeling of actual oppression, as from a true foresight of the intolerable evils, that would be the future consequences of precedents which were the more to be feared, as they were insidiously and plausibly introduced. Their resistance too, was made from the highest convictions of duty, and as the event proved, with an exaggerated, yet not unnatural apprehension, of all the dangers that might have occurred from the contest.

Nor should this admiration be confined to Ameri

cans, but may be justly felt by liberal men of every country, since it was the cause of all mankind. Even