A History of the United States - Charles Kendall Adams

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Some of the most interesting operations of the Civil War took place within the Shenandoah Valley.
[46] Born in 1698; died, 1785. Officer of the British army; received grant, which he named Georgia, in 1732; founded Savannah in 1733; returned twice to England, and had a somewhat unsuccessful military and naval career; gave up the charter to the Crown in 1752, nine years after finally leaving America.
[47]
[48] The region along the St. Lawrence of which Montreal and Quebec have always been the two chief centers.
[49] French explorer; born, 1643; died, 1687. Migrated to Canada in 1666; explored westward as far as Lake Michigan and the Illinois River; was in France in 1677, but at once returned, and, passing via Niagara, ascended the lakes to Mackinaw, finally (1679) exploring the Illinois River beyond Peoria; descended in a canoe the Illinois and Mississippi rivers to the Gulf in 1682; organized a new expedition in 1684; sailed from France for the Mississippi, but landed by mistake at Matagorda Bay; murdered by his followers at some unknown spot in Texas.
[50] Metaphysician and theologian; born in Connecticut, 1703; died, President of Princeton College, in 1758. Became pastor of Congregational church in Northampton, Massachusetts, 1727, where he remained till 1750; preached to Indians at Stockbridge from 1751 to 1758; wrote many works, of which Inquiry into the Freedom of the Will is the most noted.
[51] Born, 1680; died, 1765. Accompanied Iberville to the mouth of the Mississippi, and became director of the colony of Louisiana in 1701; in 1713 was appointed lieutenant governor; founded the city of New Orleans; was removed from office in 1720; reappointed in 1733; returned to France in 1743.
[52] See Longfellow’s Evangeline.
[53] Born, 1712; died, 1759. Fought in the War of the Austrian Succession; was sent to take command in the New World in 1756; took Oswego in 1756; Fort William Henry in 1757; repulsed Abercrombie’s greatly superior force at Ticonderoga, July 8, 1758; was met and defeated by Wolfe at Quebec, September 13, 1759. His defeat practically transferred America from the French to the British.
[54] Born, 1708; died, 1788. Entered the House of Commons in 1735; Secretary of State and practically Prime Minister, 1756–1761; laid the foundation of subsequent British greatness by securing the defeat of the French in America and in India; resigned in 1761 on account of George III.’s attitude toward America; gained the appellation of “The Great Commoner,” through his oratory and his personal influence; was a constant advocate of the American cause; was raised to the peerage in 1766 as Earl of Chatham, but was subsequently given no important office.
[55] From an old print in the possession of Frank W. Coburn, of Lexington, Mass.
[56] Born, 1727; died, 1759. Fought in the War of the Austrian Succession; also against the Young Pretender in 1745; was sent as brigadier general under Amherst to the siege of Louisburg in 1758; was promoted for his gallantry to rank of major general, and selected by Pitt to lead the British against Montcalm at Quebec; was victorious, September 13, 1759, in one of the most brilliant assaults ever undertaken; died in the hour of victory. The event gave Wolfe immortal fame, and secured America to Great Britain.

      The British Colonies in 1764

      PART II.

       PERIOD OF THE REVOLUTION,

       1765–1789.

       Table of Contents

       causes of the revolution.

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      117. Tendencies toward Separation.—From the first there were certain conditions that tended to force the American colonies away from the mother country. The colonists, especially those of New England, had very generally left Great Britain for the purpose of escaping oppression; and, after the new settlements were made, the conduct of the home government was not such as to diminish the sense of wrong. It was less than thirty years after the landing at Plymouth when the first of the “Navigation Acts” marked the beginning of a policy designed to encourage British at the expense of colonial commerce (§ 43), and in 1672 this unwise course of action was carried still further. A law was passed which imposed the same duties on trade between one colony and another as on trade between America and foreign countries; and to enforce this law, custom-houses were established along the border lines between the different colonies. This naturally led to a constant and a growing friction between the royal governors who had to collect the revenue, and the colonists who had to pay it. The seventy-five years immediately before the Seven Years’ War are full of instances of the unfriendly relations between the people and the agents of the home government[57] (§94).

      George III.

      118. Influence of the Seven Years’ War.—These unfriendly relations were happily interrupted by the war which resulted in the fall of Quebec and the transfer of Canada from the French to the English. The fact that the Americans were united with the English in a common cause against a common enemy drew them nearer and nearer together. In the prosecution of the war the colonists bore a prominent and honorable part, and at its close they everywhere shared in the general rejoicing. In this spirit old Fort Duquesne was given the name Pittsburg, in honor of the great statesman who had accomplished so much for the continent; and the legislature of Massachusetts voted for Westminster Abbey an elaborate monument to Lord Howe, who had fallen at Ticonderoga. It is certain that a new spirit of loyalty and devotion to the mother country had sprung up, when in 1760, one year after the fall of Quebec, George III., then a young man of twenty-two, ascended the throne. He had a great opportunity to conciliate the colonists and to increase their growing affection; but he defiantly took the opposite course.

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