tory Resolves" of 1764, which were the precursors of the "Stamp Act." The discussion occasioned by these measures was more important than any other immediate effect they produced; they afforded an academy of political education for the people. Those who had called themselves Whigs gradually took the name of Patriots, and from Patriots they became "Sons of Liberty." Every successive measure struck at once the double chord of patriotism and pocket, so that "Liberty and property" became the common cry. The colonists took the position, which is found everywhere in Otis's Rights of the Colonies, that their claims were not dependent on the validity of their charters, but that their rights as British subjects were quite sufficient to protect them. From this time forth the antagonisnf increased, and it so roused and united the people that the student wonders how it happened that the actual outbreak was delayed so long. It is quite remarkable, in view of the recognized differences among the colonies, that there should have been such unanimity in tone. There was hardly anything to choose, in point of weight and dignity, between the protests drawn up by Oxenbridge Thacher in Massachusetts, by Stephen Hopkins in Rhode Island, by the brothers Livingston in New York, and by Lee and Wythe in Virginia. The Southern colonies, which suffered least from the exactions of the home government, made common cause with those which suffered most. All the colonies claimed, in the words of the Virginia As sembly, "their ancient and indestructible most in open rebellion. I rejoice that right of being governed by such laws re- America has resisted." Then came the specting their internal polity and taxation riot between people and soldiers called the as were derived from their own consent, "Boston Massacre," in 1770; and the capwith the approbation of their sovereign or ture by the people of the armed British his substitute." schooner Gaspee, off Rhode Island, in 1772. In 1773, the tea was thrown into the harbor at Boston; at Annapolis it was burned; at Charlestown it was stored and left to spoil; at New York and Philadelphia it was returned. The next year came the Boston Port Bill, received with public mourning in the other colonies, and with grim endurance by the Bostonians. A thriving commercial city suddenly found itself unable to receive any vessel whose cargo had not been first landed at a port then thirty miles away by road-Marblehead-or to discharge any except through a custom-house at Plymouth, then forty miles by road in the other direction. All the industries of the place were stopped, and the price of fuel and provisions rose one-third; for every stick of wood and every barrel of molasses had to be landed first on the wharf at Marblehead, and then The blow fell in 1765, with the Stamp Act-an act which would not have been unjust or unreasonable in England, and was only held so in America because it involved the principle of taxing where there was no representation. For a moment the colonies seemed stunned; then the bold protest of Patrick Henry in Virginia was taken up by James Otis in Massachusetts. He it was who proposed an "American Congress" in 1765, and though only nine out of the thirteen colonies sent delegates, this brought them nearer than ever before. It drew up its "Declaration of Rights." Then followed, in colony after colony, mobs and burnings in effigy; nobody dared to act as stamp officer. When the news reached England, the Earl of Chatham said: "The gentleman tells us that America is obstinate, America is al REV. EZRA STILES, D.D., LL.D., PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE, 1777-1795. From the painting in the Trumbull Gallery, New Haven. laboriously reshipped to Boston, or be sent on the long road by land. But as tyranny usually reacts upon itself, the voluntary contributions which came from all parts of the colonies to the suffering city did more to cement a common feeling than years of prosperity could have done. In this chafed and oppressed position the people of Boston awaited events, and the country looked on. Meanwhile the first Continental Congress had met at Philadelphia, September 5, 1774, with a sole view to procuring a redress of grievances, the people of every colony pledging themselves in one form or another to abide by the decision of this body. In July of that year, long before the thought of separation took shape even in the minds of the leaders, Ezra Stiles wrote this prophecy: "If oppression proceeds, despotism may originate an American Magna Charta and Bill of Rights, supported by such intrepid and persevering importunity as even sovereignty may hereafter judge it not wise to withstand. There will be a Runnymede in America." Such was the change from 1640 to 1774; the mother-country which to Hooke signified paradise, to Stiles sig nified oppression; the one clergyman wrote to deprecate war in England, the other almost invoked it in America. The Congress met, every colony but little Georgia being soon represented. Its meeting signified that the colonies were at last united. In Patrick Henry's great opening speech he said: "British oppression has effaced the boundaries of the several colonies; the distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, NewYorkers and New-EnglandI am ers are no more. not a Virginian, but a NewEnglander." There is, I think, an undue tendency in these days to exaggerate the differences between the colonies; and in bringing them to the eve of a great struggle it is needful to consider how far they were different, and how far they were one. I agree with that careful student, Professor Shaler, in thinking that the points of resemblance among the different colonies far exceeded the points of difference. They were mainly of the same English race; they were mainly Puritans in religion; they bore with them the local institutions and traditions; all held slaves, though in varying proportions. On the other hand, they were subject to certain variations of climate, pursuits, and local institutions; but, after all, these were secondary; the resemblances were more important. The style of architecture prevailing throughout the colonies in the early part of the eighteenth century gives proof enough that the mode of living among the higher classes at that period must everywhere have been much the same. The same great square edifices, the same stacks of chimneys, the same tiles, the same mahogany stairways, and the same carving are still to be seen in the old dwellings of Portsmouth, Newburyport, Salem, Boston, Newport, Philadelphia, Annapolis, and Norfolk. When Washington came from Mount Vernon to Cambridge as commander of the American army, he occu pied as head-quarters a house resemblingness of the windows as to have made a note in many respects his own; and this was of it. of it. The stairway at Arlington is sinone of a line of similar houses, afterward gularly disproportioned to the external known as "Tory Row," and extending dignity of the house, and there is a tradifrom Harvard College to Mount Auburn. tion that at the funeral of Jefferson the These were but the types of the whole se- stairway of his house at Monticello proved ries of colonial or rather provincial houses, too narrow for the coffin, so that it had to North and South. Sometimes they were be lowered from the window. All this built of wood, the oaken frames being was the result of the out-door climate, and brought from England, sometimes of apart from these trivial variations the life bricks brought from Scotland, sometimes North and South was much the same stately and ceremonious in the higher classes, with social distinctions much more thoroughly marked than we are now accustomed to remember. of stone. The chief difference between the Northern and Southern houses was that the chambers, being less important in a warm country, were less ample and comfortable in the Southern houses, and the We know by the private memoirs of the windows were smaller, while for the same provincial period-for instance, from the reason there was much more lavishness in charming recollections of Mrs. Quincy— the way of piazzas. Every one accustom- that the costumes and manners of the uped to the Northern houses is surprised at per classes were everywhere modelled on the inadequate chambers of Mount Ver- the English style of the period. Even non, and it appears from the diary of Mr. after the war of independence, when the Frost, a New England traveller in 1797, wealthier inhabitants of Boston had largethat he was then so struck with the small-ly gone into exile at Halifax, the churches were still filled on important occasions with gentlemen wearing wigs, cocked hats, and scarlet cloaks; and before the Revolution the display must have been far greater. In Maryland, at a somewhat earlier period, we find an advertisement in the Maryland Gazette of a servant who offers himself "to wait on table, curry horses, clean knives, boots, and shoes, lay a table, shave, and dress wigs, carry a lantern, and talk French; is as honest as the times will admit, and as sober as can be." From this standard of a servant's accomplishments we can easily infer the mode of life among the masters. A striking illustration of these social demarkations is to be found in the general catalogues, now called "triennial," or "quinquennial," of our older colleges. Down to the year 1768 at Yale, and 1773 at Harvard, the students of each class will be found arranged in an order which is not alphabetical, as at the present day, but seems arbitrary. Not at all; they were arranged according to the social positions of their parents; and we know from the recollections of the venerable Paine Wingate that the first thing done by the college authorities on the admission of a new class was to ascertain by careful inquiry the relative social position of the parents. According to this position the young students were "placed" in the dining-hall and the recitation-room, and upon this was also based the choice of college rooms. Had they always retained this relative po |