USA > Pennsylvania > Luzerne County > Wilkes-Barre > A history of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, from its first beginnings to the present time; including chapters of newly-discovered, Vol. I > Part 101
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"Ask their aid in a constitutional manner, and they will give it to the utmost of their ability. They never yet refused it, when properly required. Your journals bear the recorded acknowledgments of the zeal with which they have contributed to the
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general necessities of the State. What madness is it that prompts you to attempt obtain- ing that by force which you may more certainly procure by requisition? They may be flattered into anything, but they are too much like yourselves to be driven. Have some indulgence for your own likeness; respect their sturdy English virtue ; retract your odious exertions of authority, and remember that the first step towards making theni con- tribute to your wants is to reconcile them to your government."
This Bill, which Colonel Barré opposed with so much vigor, was passed by both Houses of Parliament, and May 20, 1774, received the Roval assent. At the same time there was pending in the House of Commons a Bill for the better regulating of the government of the Province of Massachusetts. With respect to this ineasure Colonel Barré spoke as follows* :
"The question now before us is, whether we will choose to bring over the affections of all our Colonies by lenient measures, or to wage war with them. I shall content my- self with stating that when the Stamp Act was repealed it produced quiet and ease. Was it then in the contemplation of any sober, honest mind that any other tax would be laid 011 for at least a century ? [Colonel Barré then, with all his eloquence, blamed the late Charles Townshend for loading America with a tax, ] nor was he [Townshend] sufficiently cautious in choosing proper Commissioners for executing his trust. It was this which disgusted the inhabitants of Boston, and there has been nothing but riots ever since. You sent over troops in 1768, and in 1770 you were obliged to recall them. The people were fired at by the lawless soldiery, and seven or eight innocent persons were killed. They were carried about the town as victims of your revenge, to incite the compassion of the friends and relations of the deceased, and the next morning you were forced to order the troops out of town.
[Colonel Barré next condemned the behavior of Governor Hutchinson, as an ac- complice in the prevailing disturbances, and commended the behavior of Governor Tryon, who, knowing that he could land the tea only at the muzzles of his guns, prudently sent it back to England. Continuing, the Colonel said :] "All other Colonies have behaved with nearly the same degree of resistance, and yet you point all your revenge at Boston alone ; but I think you will soon have the rest of the Colonies on your back. I will tell the House a story that happened to us when we marched at Ticonderoga [see page 580, ante]. The inhabitants of that town looked upon the officers of the Corps as superior beings to themselves, and the youngest among the officers, I will answer for it, was highly treated and indulged by the fair sex to the utmost of our wishes ; even their wives and daughters were at our service. If the same degree of civility prevails, think you that it is possible the execution of this Bill can ever be observed by your army? I was of the profession myself, and I beg leave to tell the House that I am 110 deserter fromn it. I was forced out of it by means which a man of spirit could not submit to. I take this oppor- tunity to say again that I am no deserter from my profession !
"I think this Bill is, in every shape, to be condemned, for that law which shocks Equity is Reason's murderer ; and all the protection that you mean to give to the military whilst in the execution of their duty will serve but to make them odious. You are by this Bill at war with your Colonies. You may march your troops from North to South and meet no enemy ; but the people there will soon turn out-like the sullen Hollanders -a set of sturdy rebels. A perpetual exertion of your authority will soon ruin you ; therefore let me advise you to desist. Let us but look a little into our behavior. When we are insulted by France and Spain, we negotiate ; when we dispute with our Colonies, we prepare our ships and our troops to attack them. It has been the language of a noble Lord that when America is at our feet we will forgive them and tax them ; but let me recommend lenient measures. I see nothing in the present measure but inhumanity, in- justice and wickedness, and I fear that the hand of Heaven will fall down on this country with the same degree of vengeance."
In England, after the passage of the Boston Port Bill and the last- mentioned Act, as well as the intervening Acts, the general expectation was that not only Boston but Massachusetts would submit. But the time for submission was passed, and America was about to be severed from England forever. "The Boston Port Bill was received in America with honors not accorded even to the Stamp Act. It was cried through the streets as 'a barbarous, ernel, bloody and inhuman murder,' and was burnt by the common hangman on a scaffold forty-five feet high. The people of Boston gathered together in town-meeting at Faneuil Hall, and expresses were sent off with an appeal to all Americans throughout America. The responses from the neighborhood came like
* See "American Archives," Fourth Series, 1 : 86.
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snow-flakes. Connecticut, as her wont is, when moved by any vital occurrence, betook herself to prayer and humiliation-first, how- ever, ordering an inventory to be taken of her cannon and military stores. * From all parts contributions in money poured into Bos- ton, and resolutions were everywhere passed, declaring that no obedience was due the late Acts of Parliament ; that the right of imperial taxation did not exist. % * In the fulness of time a cordon of ships was drawn around Boston, and six regiments and a train of artillery were encamped on the Common-the only spot in the thirteen Colonies where the Gov- ernment could enforce an order."* May 19, 1774, nearly a thousand people assembled at Farmington, Connecticut, and a Liberty Pole, forty- five feet tall, was erected by the Sons of Liberty. Then the Boston Port Bill was read, "sentenced to the flames, and executed by the hands of the cominon hangman." The adoption of certain patriotic resolves followed, after which the assemblage dispersed.
The following linest from a popular song-entitled "A Favorite Air"-which went the rounds of the press in the Colonies during the exciting times of 1774, indicate the spirit with which at that time the Sons of Liberty, as well as all other American patriots, were animated.
"Freedom's charms alike engage Blooming youth and hoary age ; Time itself can ne'er destroy Freedom's pure and lasting joy. Love nor Friendship ever gave Half their blessings to the slave ;
None are happy but the free,
Bliss is born of Liberty, Which from fair America Tyrants strive to take away."
As previously mentioned (in the note on page 354) the First Con- tinental Congress was in session at Philadelphia in September and October, 1774, and one of its important transactions was the issuing of an "Address to the Inhabitants of Great Britain"-an appeal to their enlightened sympathies. It contained, among others, the following paragraphs :
"Our enemies charge us with sedition. In what does it consist? In our refusal to submit to unwarrantable acts of injustice and cruelty? If so, show us a period in your history in which you have not been equally seditious. We are accused of aiming at in- dependence. But how is this accusation supported ? By the allegations of your Ministers, not by our actions. Abused, insulted and contemned, what steps have we pursued to obtain redress? We have carried our dutiful petitions to the Throne. We have applied to your justice for relief. We have retrenched our luxury and withheld our trade. * * What has been the success of our endeavors? The clemency of our Sovereign is un- happily diverted ; our petitions are treated with indignity ; our prayers are answered by insults. * ** Even under these circumstances what measures have we taken that betray a desire for independence? Have we called in the aid of those foreign powers who are the rivals of your grandeur ? When your troops were few and defenseless did we take ad- vantage of their distress and expel them from our towns? Or have we permitted them to fortify, to receive new aid and to acquire additional strength ? * *
"If you have no regard to the connexion that has for ages subsisted between us ; if you have forgot the wounds we have received in fighting by your side for the extension of the Empire ; if our commerce is not an object below your consideration ; if justice and humanity have lost their influence on your hearts, still motives are not wanting to excite your indignation at the measures now pursued. Your wealth, your honor, your liberty, are at stake ! * * % A cloud hangs over your heads and ours ; ere this reaches you it may probably burst upon us. Let us, then-before the remembrance of former kindness is obliterated-once more repeat those appellations which are ever grateful in our ears. Let us entreat Heaven to avert our ruin, and the destruction that threatens our friends, bretliren and countrymen on the other side of the Atlantic !"
* E. G. Scott's "The Development of Constitutional Liberty," Chapter XI.
t See The Connecticut Courant, June 7, 1774.
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At the same time the Congress ordered that there be prepared a loyal address to the King, assuring him that by abolishing the system of laws and regulations (duly enumerated) of which the Colonies com- plained, the jealousies they had caused would be removed, and harmony would be restored. "We ask but for peace, liberty and safety !" they declared .*
A newly-elected British Parliament convened November 30, 1774, but no serious measure relating to America was taken up until January, 1775, after the Christmas recess. Among other matters then brought before the House of Commons were the aforementioned addresses of the Continental Congress to George III and his subjects in Great Britain. The Ministers had a large majority in the Parliament, and even apart from party interest the genuine feeling of botlı Houses ran strongly against the Americans. The Earl of Chatham (Pitt), however, having returned to active politics after his long illness, had completely identified himself with the American cause, and he advocated with all his elo- quence measures of conciliation. He moved in the House of Lords an address to the King praying that he would, as soon as possible, "in order to open the way towards a happy settlement of the dangerous troubles in America," withdraw the British troops stationed in Boston. Continu- ing, he said :
"When your Lordships have perused the papers transmitted us from America ; when you consider the dignity, the firmness and the wisdom with which the Americans have acted, you cannot but respect their cause. History, my Lords, has been my favorite study, and in the celebrated writings of antiquity have I often admired the patriotism of Greece and Rome ; but, my Lords, I must declare and avow that, in the master States of the world, I know not the people nor the Senate who, in such a complication of difficult circumstances, can stand in preference to the delegates of America assembled in General Congress at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your Lordships that all attempts to im- pose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over such a mighty Continental nation, must be vaiu, must be futile. * * * I repeat it, my Lords, we shall one day be forced to undo these violent acts of oppression. They must be repealed-you will repeal them ! I pledge myself for it, that in the end you will repeal them. I stake my reputation on it ! I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not repealed ! Avoid, then, this humiliating, disgraceful necessity. With a dignity becoming your exalted sit- uation, make the first advance to concord, to peace and to happiness !"
February 6, 1775, in the debate in the House of Commons on an Address to be presented to the King-more fully referred to on page 557, ante-Edmund Burke made an earnest speech against the Address. Solicitor General Wedderburn (see page 545) replied to Burke, speaking largely of the goodness of Great Britain to America. He thought it highly necessary to enforce the laws, and complained much of the dis- positions of the Americans being encouraged by those persons in Eng- land who avowed their cause. In response to the Solicitor General Colonel Barré "allowed that the Americans might be encouraged by their confidence in having friends at home, when they recollected that a few years ago the voice of the gentleman [Wedderburn] who spoke last was made hoarse in condemning the measures of Great Britain to- wards America." Barré then highly enlogized Colonels Howe, Bur- goyne and Clinton, who were to be promoted in rank and assigned to military duty in America. He lamented that England would lose their services when the course of events must call for it-for, if England in- curred a civil war, a foreign war was inevitable. He insisted that 110 honor could be gained in America. He avowed a fear that England would not vanquish the Americans, and urged that it was the duty of the
* See page 557, ante.
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English to cherish the Americans. He reproached the spirit of the Administration, which, in all foreign transactions, readily sacrificed the honor of the nation, but in dealings with the people of the nation-when the people's good ought to be the first object-pride and dignity were their only principles. He said he felt himself connected with America more than any man in the House, and added, in conclusion : "You are this night to decide whether you are to make war on your Colonies."
October 26, 1775, the King delivered a speech from the throne to both Houses of Parliament. Subsequently, in the Commons, a motion was inade that an Address be presented to the King, thanking him for his speech and assuring him "that we [the Commons] have long lamented the condition of our unhappy fellow-subjects in America, seduced from their allegiance by the grossest misrepresentations and the most wicked and insidious pretenses, *
* and we hope and trust that we shall, by the blessing of God, put such strength and force into His Majesty's hands as may soon defeat and suppress this rebellion." One of the first to speak against this motion was John Wilkes-whose speech is given, in part, on pages 558 and 559, ante. Colonel Barré spoke later in the same day .* He entered minutely into the particulars and consequences of the Summer campaign (Lexington, Concord and Boston), and drew a conclusion that if an ariny of 22,000 of the British forces, with 20,000 Provincials, twenty-two sail of the line and inore than as many frigates, were three years in subduing Canada, what little prospect could there be for 10,000 men to effect the conquest of all America.
Colonel Barré then stated that he had received a letter from Major Caldwell, who was settled on a large estate in Canada, who assured him that the Canadians were not by any means to be driven into the war. As to himself (Barré), he stood there a humble individual, brought into Parliament, t with reluctance on his own part, by the hand of friendship ; that His Majesty thought proper to call him into his service, but when the matter of General Warrants was discussed in the House (see pages 532 and 538), and his conscience directed him to oppose the measure- which he modestly did by a silent vote-a young officer was purposely put over his head, as an intimation that his services were no further necessary. He retired, without repining, on a scanty pittance, as he would have done to the inost inortifying state, without a murinur. His Majesty again thought proper to call him into his service, and made him one of the joint Vice Treasurers of Ireland ; which office he held but a short time, owing to a change of both men and measures. Since that time he had retired with the name, indeed, of Colonel, yet, in truth, simply but Mr., Barré. He desired the noble Lord before him to say if he had ever solicited the smiles of Government. In touching on the War Office arrangements in America he said that, though he had lost one eye in America, he had still one military eye left which did not deceive him. "The Americans liave been called cowards," said he. As to being cowards, they were certainly the greatest to his knowledge, for "the 47th Regiment of Foot-which behaved so gallantly at Bunker Hill (an engagement that smacked more of defeat than victory), and
* See "American Archives," Fourth Series, VI : 39.
+ At that time, as well as for more than a year previously, and for a number of years subsequently, Barré and John Dunning sat in the House as the representatives of Calne, a small town in Wiltshire, some sixteen miles from Bath.
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which was the very corps that broke the whole French column and threw them into such disorder at the siege of Quebec"-was, in 1759-'60, "three parts composed of these cowards."
Barré declared that he would not say much of himself in a military capacity, to give weiglit to this account ; yet it could not but be flatter- ing to him to reflect that the dead Wolfe and the living Amherst had honored him with their esteem. He animadverted with great severity on Lord North for having said some time previously that, if Parliament would give him the men and the money he had asked for, he would im- mediately pilot tlicin safely through the American storil. He then ridiculed the absurdity of General Gage's signing the flowery answer to General Washington's clear and manly letter, affirming that Gage's letter was not the composition of the commander-in-chief, but that lie had been compelled to father it by superior powers. Gage was a good officer, but a plain man. Concerning himself and his friends, Barré observed that they were held up as the leaders of faction ; that the con- versation of Ministers with each other was which of them (Barré and his friends) should be sent to the Tower first. Oppose the King they could not wish to do, he asserted, for their ancestry seated his family on the throne ; but, to carry their point against the present unfeeling Adminis- tration, he (Barré) would readily go to the block. He then concluded with a recommendation to Prime Minister North to embrace the present, the only moment tolerated by Heaven, for an accommodation with the Americans.
In reply to Colonel Barré Solicitor General Wedderburn (previously mentioned) made a fiery speech. He said, among other things :
* * "Relinquish America ! What is it but to desire a giant to shrink spontane- ously into a dwarf ? Relinquish America and you also relinquish the West Indies, and confine yourself to that narrow insular situation which once made you hardly discernible on the face of the globe. My heart swells with indignation at the idea. Relinquish America ! Forbid it, ye spirits of Edward and Henry, whom Englishinen once held in veneration and burned to imitate ! Forbid it, thon spirit of Wolfe, who, if thou hast any consciousness of thy country's wrongs, blushest to see a companion [Barré] of thy victor- ies so tamely give up thy conquest ! *
* * Establish first your superiority, and then talk of negotiation. Did Rome, when Hannibal marched triumphantly up to her walls, sue for peace ? She had more wisdom and spirit. She knew the moment was not favor- able, and would not listen to any propositions till the tide of fortune changed. Why should we not follow so bright an example ? * * Had my advice been taken (gentle- men insinuate that it is taken too much), the House must do ine the justice to own that a much inore powerful force than General Gage had would have been sent to America."
A few months later (February 20, 1776) a motion made by Charles James Fox, relative to the ill success of the British army in America, was under discussion in the House of Commons. Colonel Barré was particularly severe on several of the statements inade by Solicitor General Wedderburn. He charged the latter and the other Ministers with the loss of America. With mnuch emphasis he exclaimed : "Give 11s back our Colonies! You have lost America ! It is your ignorance, blunders, cowardice, which have lost America!" He said he had heard the noble Lord George Germain (mentioned on page 568, ante), the Secretary of State for the Colonies, recently called "the Pitt of the day." This lie ridiculed. Then, referring to affairs in America, he asserted that the British troops, from an aversion to the service, had misbehaved at the battle of Bunker Hill. He condemned the Ministers in the strongest terins, and told them that their shiftings and evasions would not protect them, though they should be changed every day and inade to shift places at the pleasure, and sometimes, too, for the sport, of their secret directors.
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Colonel Barré further observed that the late appointment of a new Secretary of State was a proof that some weak and perhaps foul proceed- ings had happened, which made such an arrangement necessary ; but, though changes might happen every day, he was well convinced mneas- ures never would, till the whole fabric of despotism fell at once and buried in its ruins the architects, with all those employed under them. He begged to assure them, once more, that America would never submit to be taxed, though half of Germany were to be transported over the Atlantic to effect it. General Burgoyne thereupon arose, and with warinth contradicted Colonel Barre in the flattest manner. He allowed that the British troops gave way a little at one time at the battle of Bunker Hill, because they were flanked by a fire out of the houses at Charlestown ; but they soon rallied and advanced, and no men on earth ever behaved with more spirit and firmness till they forced the enemy out of their entrenchments.
January 15, 1776, a treaty was signed at Cassel between George III and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel relative to the hiring by the latter to the former of troops (the "Hessians") to be used in America. Some six weeks later this subject was being considered in the House of Commons, when Colonel Barré reminded Lord Barrington-the Secretary for War -of the assurance he had given on a former occasion that no foreign troops were meant to be employed in America. Turning then to Lord North Barré indulged in some severe strictures on him and his col- leagues. He told them, in no uncertain words, that they were not fit to conduct the affairs of a great nation, either in peace or war. He at- tacked the treaties and those who advised them, and pointed out the great danger of introducing such a number of foreigners into the king- dom. Later in the debate Paymaster General Rigby expressed his astonishment at what had fallen from Colonel Barré-who had con- demned the war as impolitic, ruinous and unjust-when he recollected that that very gentleman had both spoken and voted "for the Boston Port Bill, which was the great, leading and fundamental basis of the present civil war."
Early in March, 1776, the Secretary for War moved in the House of Commons for a grant of upwards of £845,000 "for defraying the extra- ordinary expenses of the British land forces in America between March 9, 1775, and January 31, 1776." In discussing this motion Colonel Barré declared that the annals of the country did not furnish another instance in which a nominal body of 11,000 troops-never amounting, at any time within the period mentioned, to above 8,500-had cost the nation so much money. The Lexington-Bunker Hill campaign was ludicrously compared with the glorious campaigns of the Duke of Marl- borough, and then Barré concluded by eulogizing, in the highest terms, the late Gen. Richard Montgomery, an account of whose death (Decem- ber 31, 1775) at the attempt of the Americans to take Quebec, had reached London only a few days before. Following Barré Edmund Burke and Charles James Fox vied with each other in eulogies of Montgomery.
In the Autumn of 1776 France and Spain were arming and equip- ping large additions to their regular military and naval forces, and in England there were many apprehensions of danger from these two nations. October 31, 1776 (the same day that John Wilkes delivered
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the speech quoted, in part, on page 561, ante), Colonel Barré spoke in the House of Commons with respect to the situation of the affairs of Great Britain-which he described as "awful, alarming and tremendous." He spoke these words, he said, with fear and trembling ; but the country seemed to be near the crisis of her fate. He then entered into a discus- sion of the state of the nation's naval establishment, and declared that it was by no means a match for the united forces of France and Spain. He recommended to the Ministry to make up matters with America. "We had," he asserted, "in the last war 12,000 seamen from America, who would now, should France attack England, be fighting against us." He said further that all the useful part of the British navy was on the coast of America-in fact, that matters were so bad at home that un- avoidable ruin hovered over their devoted country. "Recall, therefore," said he, "your fleets and armies from America, and leave the brave Colonists to the enjoyment of their liberty." This closing sentence created loud laughter among the occupants of the Ministerial benches.
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