and dangers from their infancy. ... [One] of the company held a barrel stave perpendicularly in his hands with one edge close to his side, while one of his comrades, . . . at the distance of upwards of sixty yards and without any kind of a rest, . . . shot several bullets through it.... The spectators appearing to be amazed... were told that there . . . was not one who could not plug nineteen bullets out of twenty, as they termed it, within an inch of the head of à tenpenny nail. . . . At night a great fire was kindled . . . where the company... [gave] a perfect exhibition of a war-dance, and all the manœuvres of Indians, holding council, going to war, circumventing their enemies by . . . ambuscades, scalping, &c. . . . This morn

ing they will set out on their way for Cambridge.14

The Evacuation of Boston.

...

The colonists besieged Bos

ton almost a year, when one morning came to the Congress in Philadelphia the following news:

...

March 17.This morning the British army in Boston, under General Howe... fled from before the army of the United Colonies, and took refuge on board their ships. . . The joy of our friends in Boston, on seeing the victorious and gallant troops of their country enter the town almost at the heels of their barbarous oppressors, was inexpressibly great.145

FIRST STUDY ON 7.

1. What did General Gage think of the colonists, and what did he call the Revolution? 2. Why did he except Samuel Adams from his offers of pardon? 3. In which directions did the colonists hinder the British from getting out of Boston? (See map for 3, 4, 5.) 4. In which direction could they get out? 5. What harm could the Americans do the British by holding the heights of Charlestown? 8. What disadvantages had the colonists at Bunker Hill? 9. What disadvantages had the regulars? 10. Why should their officers want the colonists to wait until the British came so near? 11. Which party beat at Bunker Hill? 12. How did the British show courage? 13. How did the colonists show it?

SECOND STUDY ON 7.

(See also the List of Events from April 1, 1775, to April 1, 1776, and Reference Map for the Revolution.) 1. How does the British or Tory account of the battles differ from the colonial account? 2. What good did the battle of Bunker Hill do us, and why should it be remembered with such pride? 3. What in Washington's life had prepared him to be a good commander-in-chief for the continental army? 4. Why were such men as came up in Colonel Cresap's command, particularly dangerous to the British? 5. Where had they learned to fight and shoot? 6. Take Outline Map No. 3, and mark with blue the places where colonial victories took place during this first year; mark with red the British victories. (See for this, the List of Events from April 19, 1775, to March 17, 1776, and Reference Map.) 7. What was the centre of the war during this year? 8. What generals commanded on either side?

Supplementary Reading. Webster at Bunker Hill, S. G. Goodrich, [Peter Parley] in Library American Literature, V. 295, or in Recollections of a Life-time. The Nomination of the Commander-in-Chief, by John Adams, in Library American Literature, III. 190, or in Works, Vol. I. Letters of Abigail Adams to her Husband, in Old South Leaflets.

8. THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE.

O ye that love mankind; ye that dare oppose, not only tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth; every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted around the globe. Asia and Africa have long expelled her. Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O receive the fugitive! and prepare in time an asylum for mankind. - THOMAS PAINE, in " Common Sense," a famous pamphlet of 1776.146

Independence in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. In the very next month after the battle of Lexington, the citizens of Mecklenburg County in North Carolina, had met at their county court-house, and resolved:

Whereas, . . . the American colonies are declared to be in a state of actual rebellion, we conceive that all laws. . . derived from the

authority of the King and Parliament are . . . for the present wholly suspended . . . and, . . .

As all former laws are now suspended in this province, and the Congress has not yet provided others, we judge it necessary. . . to form certain rules . . . for the internal government of this county, until laws shall be provided for us by the Congress.147

The meeting then went on to elect county officers and make county laws.

Independence in the Continental Congress. John Adams tells us that when he and his companions first reached Pennsylvania, on their way to the Continental Congress, they were met... by. several of the most active Sons of Liberty in Philadelphia [who] . . . represented to us that . . . we were all suspected of having independence in view.

...

...

Now, said they, you must not utter the word independence, . . . either in Congress or in any private conversation; if you do, you are undone...

Although this advice dwelt on my mind, I had not... prudence. . . enough always to observe it. . . . It soon became rumored about the city that John Adams was for independence. The Quakers and proprietary gentlemen. represented me as the worst of men. But every ship . . . brought us fresh proof of the truth of my prophecies, and one after another became convinced of the necessity of independence. . . .

The Declaration. At last so many were convinced of this necessity that in June of 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia moved that we should declare ourselves independent of Great Britain. A committee was appointed to write such