280

THE PEACE OF 1747.

[1747.

Cuba, Louisburg, and Nova Scotia cost New-England between 5000 and 6000 young men ; and from 1722 to 1749, Massachusetts and New-Hampshire did not increase in population, when, in a time of peace, the inhabitants would probably have been doubled. These were some of the results of the collisions with the French; and others were not less lamentable. The colonies were left deeply in debt, with a currency long greatly depreciated, and, worst of all, in some degree demoralized by the contaminating influence of war.

CHAPTER XXXIV. 1747-1756.

A Period of Peace and Prosperity.-The Custom-house Officer of New-London suspected of Pilfering from the Cargo of a Spanish Vessel in store.-A Charge of Participating in the Act made against Governor Wolcott.-Mr. Fitch elected Governor.-The French strengthen and extend their Posts and Fortresses on the North and West.-Their Intentions.The Ohio Company.-Fort Du Quesne built by the French.Washington's first Military Expedition.-Its Ill-success.-The Union of all the Colonies contemplated.-Meeting of Commissioners at Albany.-Connecticut alone withholds her Assent to a Plan proposed.-No System adopted.--General Braddock arrives from England as Commander-in-chief.— Three Expeditions prepared and sent against Forts Du Quesne, Frontignac, and Crown Point-Colonel Monckton obtains Possession of Nova Scotia.-Braddock's Defeat and Death.--Battle of Lake George, and Defeat and Death of General Dieskau.--Governor Shirley unsuccessful against Fort Frontignac.

PEACE prevailed from 1747 until 1755, and the colony enjoyed many of the blessings which it usu

ally confers upon a Christian land. The people betook themselves, without fear or hinderance, to the cultivation of their farms, the clearing of new fields, the settlement of new towns, navigation, fishing, and the few arts which they were able to pursue with advantage; the whole population thronged to public worship, without the necessity of carrying their muskets; the children might go to school without the fear of Indians behind every bush; and their homes were no more saddened by the sighs of mothers made widows by some recent battle. War often causes events which have an evident influence on important interests; and these are usually enlarged upon by historians, partly because they are easily perceived, and partly because they are over. rated. But peace has often as really laid the foundation to changes quite as important, and more generally beneficial, as well as less appreciated. We are not able to state with precision the influences which the peace of 1747 brought into exercise. As usual, the causes were not local, nor confined to a few agents, as in ordinary wars: but they operated in every settlement, and exerted their influence by every family table and fireside. We have, therefore, to pass over, without particular notice, several tranquil years: for it is war which gives History employment for her pen; and she passes by those who are at rest from its ravages, as the physician enters only habitations which are visited by disease.

A Spanish ship, which entered New-London in distress in the year 1753, discharged and stored her cargo under the care of the collector of that port. The supercargo complained, when he began

282 ORIGIN OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. [1754.

to reload it a few months afterward, that part of it was not produced; and refused to retain what he had received until the whole should be delivered up, saying, at the same time, that he would be at no charges for it. The Assembly appear to have been unable to ascertain the facts in the case: but they desired and authorized Governor Wolcott to make search, and see that full justice was done him, cording to the laws of trade, nature, and nations." Nothing, however, was produced or restored; and so much blame was cast upon the governor, whether with or without reason, that, at the election which very soon came on, Mr. Thomas Fitch was chosen in his place.

66

ac

It is well worthy of attention and remembrance, that a governor of Connecticut was removed from his office by the spontaneous votes of the freemen, merely because he was suspected of having connived at an act of this kind, when the nation to which the foreigner belonged, then, and for half a century afterward, imprisoned strangers landing in their colonies even from shipwreck, and confiscated all the property they could seize. It is our duty to be impartial; and, while we should not apologize for any man clearly blameworthy, we are bound to approve and admire the superiority of those principles which led the freemen of Connecticut thus to condemn the conduct of which they suspected their chief ruler.

About the year 1741, in the present town of Columbia, Dr. Eleazar Wheelock began the education of Samson Occum, a pious young Indian of the Mohegan tribe, who afterward was a distinguished minister of the Gospel for many years.

Dr. Wheelock's school was the beginning of Dartmouth College, in 1770.

We now approach the melancholy period of the last French War, which was brought about by the encroachments of that nation upon the territory expressly confirmed to Great Britain by the Treaty of Utrecht. In Acadia and Nova Scotia they were now erecting forts and establishing posts, though in previous treaties they had renounced their claims to them. They occupied Crown Point (now far within New-York), and were preparing to come down to Ticonderoga; while in the west they were building a line of forts from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. A plan like this might well alarm the colonies, who had had so much experience of the bad faith, subtlety, and cruelty of the rulers of Canada. The danger of delay was redoubled by the skill with which those artful men usually enlisted ignorant savages in their service, by the combined powers of blind superstition, falsehoood, and hopes of plunder. If the colonies had sometimes barely escaped, by the kind interposition of God alone, from the deadly plots which had been laid for them along the limited northern frontier, what scenes of fire and bloodshed had they soon to expect, when they should be surrounded by the broad semicircle which the enemy were drawing on the land side, and the French fleets and privateers along the coast!

The French laid claim to the great valley of the Mississippi, including all the country whose waters naturally flow into that mighty stream: that is, as far east as the Alleghany Mountains, compre. hending everything west of them, in regions entire.

284 WASHINGTON IN THE FRENCH WAR. [1755.

ly unknown. But a rich association of English noblemen, and merchants, and Virginia planters had recently begun to occupy a part of the banks of the beautiful Ohio; and they were soon aware of the erection of three forts on the upper portion of the line marked out by the French: on the south shore of Lake Erie, on a branch of the Ohio, and at the confluence of the Ohio and Wabash. Of course they were anxious to put an immediate stop to operations like these. The Pennsylvanians viewed the Ohio company with jealousy, and several nations of Indians had their feelings excited on different considerations. Some of the Ohio company had several of their traders taken by the savages; and the fort they had begun to build at the mouth of the Monongahela was seized by 1000 Frenchmen, and converted into a French fortress, after most of their men had been killed. Our great Washington here began his military life, as a youth, as little anticipating as his countrymen what a noble career was destined for him by Divine Providence. Guided by pure and disinterested principles, which had been assiduously instilled into him by a superior mother, he was probably, at this early period, excited by nobler motives than those which lead most soldiers to the field. In the wild and perilous scenes which he sought with no selfish hopes, he was doubtless able to bear with noble equanimity the reverse which soon sent him back, bound by a promise not to serve against the French in a year. De Villiers, commander of Fort Du Quesne (now Pittsburg), had brought 900 French and many Indians against him, and forced him to a capitulation.