empted to be enforced by a stratagem. On the
evening of December 16th, the tea, in the three tea-ships, then in
Boston harbor, was thrown overboard, by fifty men disguised as Indians.
Parliament, instead of using legal means, hastened to find revenge. On
March 31, 1774, it was enacted that Boston port should be closed.

The final act which brought on the Revolution was the firing upon the
seventy minute men, who were standing still at Lexington, by the English
soldiers under Major Pitcairn, on April 19, 1775, sixteen of the
patriots fell dead or wounded. The first gun of the Revolution fired the
entire country, and in a few days Boston was besieged by the militia
twenty thousand strong. Events passed rapidly, wrongs upon wrongs were
perpetrated, until, finally, on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of
Independence was published to the world. By this act all hope of
reconciliation was at an end. Whatever concessions might be made by
England, her own acts had caused an impassable gulf.

America had done all within her power to avert the impending storm. Her
petitions had been spurned from the foot of the English throne. Even the
illustrious Dr. Franklin, venerable in years, was forced to listen to a
vile diatribe against him delivered by the coarse and brutal Wedderburn,
while members of the Privy Council who were present, with the single
exception of lord North, "lost all dignity and all self-respect. They
laughed aloud at each sarcastic sally of Wedderburn. 'The indecency of
their behaviour,' in the words of Shelburne, 'exceeded, as is agreed on
all hands, that of any committee of elections;' and Fox, in a speech
which he made as late as 1803, reminded the House how on that memorable
occasion 'all men tossed up their hats and clapped their hands in
boundless delight at Mr. Wedderburn's speech.'"[143]

George III., his ministers and his parliament hurled the country
headlong into war, and that against the judgment of her wisest men, and
her best interests. To say the least the war was not popular in England.
The wisest statesmen in both Houses of Parliament plead for
reconciliation, but their efforts fell on callous ears. The ruling class
was seized with the one idea of humbling America. They preferred to
listen to such men as Major James Grant,--the same who allowed his men,
(as has been already narrated) to be scandalously slaughtered before
Fort du Quesne, and had made himself offensive in South Carolina under
Colonel Mo