hey evaded his call for supplies. In
December they voted twenty thousand pounds, hampered with conditions
which were sure to be refused, since Morris, the new governor, who had
lately succeeded Hamilton, was under the same restrictions as his
predecessor. They told him, however, that in the present case they felt
themselves bound by no Act of Parliament, and added: "We hope the
Governor, notwithstanding any penal bond he may have entered into, will
on reflection think himself at liberty and find it consistent with his
safety and honor to give his assent to this bill." Morris, who had taken
the highest legal advice on the subject in England, declined to
compromise himself, saying: "Consider, gentlemen, in what light you will
appear to His Majesty while, instead of contributing towards your own
defence, you are entering into an ill-timed controversy concerning the
validity of royal instructions which may be delayed to a more convenient
time without the least injury to the rights of the people."[169] They
would not yield, and told him "that they had rather the French should
conquer them than give up their privileges."[170] "Truly," remarks
Dinwiddie, "I think they have given their senses a long holiday."

[Footnote 168: _Pennsylvania Archives_, II. 235. _Colonial Records of
Pa._, VI. 22-26. _Works of Franklin,_ III. 265.]

[Footnote 169: _Colonial Records of Pa._, VI. 215.]

[Footnote 170: _Morris to Penn, 1 Jan. 1755._]

New York was not much behind her sisters in contentious stubbornness. In
answer to the Governor's appeal, the Assembly replied: "It appears that
the French have built a fort at a place called French Creek, at a
considerable distance from the River Ohio, which may, but does not by
any evidence or information appear to us to be an invasion of any of His
Majesty's colonies."[171] So blind were they as yet to "manifest
destiny!" Afterwards, however, on learning the defeat of Washington,
they gave five thousand pounds to aid Virginia.[172] Maryland, after
long delay, gave six thousand. New Jersey felt herself safe behind the
other colonies, and would give nothing. New England, on the other hand,
and especially Massachusetts, had suffered so much from French
war-parties that they were always ready to fight. Shirley, the governor
of Massachusetts, had returned from his bootless errand to settle the
boundary question at Paris. His leanings were strongly monarchical; yet
he believed in the New Englanders, and w