It is not my object to describe the history of the Puritans, after they had made a firm settlement in the primeval forests, down to the Revolutionary War, but only to glance at the institutions they created or adopted, which have extended more or less over all parts of North America, and laid the foundation for a magnificent empire.

At the close of the Seven Years’ War, in 1763, which ended in the conquest of Canada from the French by the combined forces of England and her American subjects, the population of the Colonies—­in New England and the Middle and Southern sections—­was not far from two millions.  Success in war and some development in wealth naturally engendered self-confidence.  I apprehend that the secret and unavowed consciousness of power, creating the desire to be a nation rather than a mere colony dependent on Great Britain,—­or, if colonies, yet free and untrammelled by the home government,—­had as much to do with the struggle for independence as the discussion of rights, at least among the leaders of the people, both clerical and lay.  The feeling that they were not represented in Parliament was not of much account, for more than three quarters of the English at home had no representation at all.  To be represented in Parliament was utterly impracticable, and everybody knew it.  But when arbitrary measures were adopted by the English government, in defiance of charters, the popular orators made a good point in magnifying the injustice of “taxation without representation.”

The Colonies had been marvellously prospered, and if not rich they were powerful, and were spreading toward the indefinite and unexplored West.  The Seven Years’ War had developed their military capacity.  It was New England troops which had taken Louisburg.  The charm of British invincibility had been broken by Braddock’s defeat.  The Americans had learned self-reliance in their wars with the Indians, and had nearly exterminated them along the coast without British aid.  The Colonists three thousand miles away from England had begun to feel their importance, and to realize the difficulty of their conquest by any forces that England could command.  The self-exaggeration common to all new countries was universal.  Few as the people were, compared with the population of the mother country, their imagination was boundless.  They felt, if they did not clearly foresee, their inevitable future.  The North American continent was theirs by actual settlement and long habits of self-government, and they were determined to keep it.  Why should they be dependent on a country that crippled their commerce, that stifled their manufactures, that regulated their fisheries, that appointed their governors, and regarded them with selfish ends,—­as a people to be taxed in order that English merchants and manufacturers should be enriched?  They did not feel weak or dependent; what new settlers in the Western wilds ever felt that they could not take care of their farms and their flocks and everything which they owned?