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CHAPTER XXII

(I) IMPERIAL RECONSTRUCTION, 1763-5

AN Empire of vast extent had been won. Its acquisition brought

with it new problems of expenditure, of administration, and defence. Attempts to solve those problems provoked a constitutional struggle with the American colonies which ended in the loss of a great part of the Empire in the West. At first the sun shone in an almost unclouded sky. The expulsion of the French from Canada and of the Spaniards from Florida had at last almost wholly freed the Americans from the threat which had so long haunted them. They had taken their share in the effort to achieve their deliverance, but they were well aware that they owed it and the bright future which now seemed to open before them to the British fleet and the British army, and the minister whose name they celebrated in Pittsburg, the successor of Fort Duquesne. In an Address to the King the Assembly of Massachusetts Bay fully acknowledged this debt. The People, they declared, would show their gratitude by every possible testimony of duty and gratitude.1

Whilst the eloquence and idealism of Chatham had stimulated in the British race a sense of pride in their Empire, the necessity of remodelling the administrative machinery of the colonies in the direction of imperial co-ordination had for some time been apparent. The defects of the loose control of the colonies, arising out of the period of so-called "salutary neglect", were emphasised by the problems created by the issue of the Seven Years' War. The preparation of measures calculated to meet the new requirements of imperial administration was largely the work of one man, Lord Halifax. He was gifted with considerable imagination and ability. His interest in colonial affairs was intense, and he clearly perceived their ever-growing importance. From 1748 to 1765, except for a brief interval, he held positions in successive ministries which gave him the chief responsibility for the development of the overseas dependencies.

The most urgent of imperial problems was that of defence. That a combination among the American colonies for that purpose was necessary, was the view long held by every intelligent colonist. It was in this connection, when both French and British were preparing for the hostilities which broke out in 1755, that Lord Halifax made his first proposal for altering the imperial machinery. At the conference at Albany, 1754, called at his suggestion to confirm the

1 Hutchinson, T., Hist. Mass. Bay, III, 101.

2 See Kimball, G. S., Corresp. of Pitt with Colonial Governors, passim.

PLANS FOR DEFENCE

635

alliance with the Iroquois Indians, the Americans themselves formulated a plan of union by means of which they would be able to tax their whole body for the purpose of carrying on war. Nothing came of that proposal. But at the same time the subject was being considered by the Board of Trade. Halifax's immediate purpose was to stop the encroachment of the French upon territory claimed by the British. With this object in view, it was recommended that a royal military officer should be appointed, to be responsible both for colonial defence and the management of the Indians. His salary as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Commissary-General of the Indian Department was to be paid by the colonies, which were to remain responsible for the frontier forts and the usual presents to the Indians, each contributing a quota of the expense in proportion to its wealth and population.1 If this scheme had been adopted, the financial burden of the war in America would have been borne mainly by the colonies. But there was no time to put it into operation. War was imminent. One important part of this plan, however, was adopted. As an answer to the despatch of a large military force by France, General Braddock was sent to America in 1755 as Commander-in-Chief of all land forces, regular and colonial. The experiences of the war of 1744-8 had shown that this step was a strategic necessity in order to meet the more centralised military system of the French in Canada. From that time onwards there was always stationed in America an imperial military officer, whose authority extended over all the colonies. His presence put some check on local autonomy and was not seldom the cause of friction.2

Braddock was also instructed to inaugurate an important political reform. Hitherto, all relations with the Indians had been under the jurisdiction of the provincial officials. That system had not proved successful. From the earliest times fur-traders and land-speculators had cheated and imposed upon the natives. Time and again Indian chiefs were plied with rum, and, when rendered sufficiently drunk, were induced to sign away huge concessions of land, without knowing what they were doing. Goods were bartered at outrageous prices by traders using all the chicanery of false weights and other devices familiar to the petty swindler. No proper control was exercised over these Indian traders. Governors like Spotswood of Virginia or Burnet of New York might endeavour to establish a system of monopolies, trading-posts and licences; but for the most part, protected by the mountains and forests of the wilderness, the traders continued to defraud the Redskin without scruple and without restraint. Impartial observers declared again and again that it was

1 O'Callaghan, E. B., N.Y. Col. Docs. vi, 903; Alvord, C. W., Mississippi Valley in British Politics, 1, 117.

2 Carter, C. E., Great Britain and the Illinois Country, pp. 17-20, 49–72.

* See Osgood, H. L., American Colonies in the Eighteenth Century, IV, 299 seqq.

such abuses, and such abuses only, that occasioned the terrible Indian wars and outrages on the frontiers.1 The protection of the natives had long exercised the Home Government. It was, besides, important from a military point of view to secure the friendship and alliance of the Indians, who were already regarding with dismay the advance of the Pale-faces into their territory in the Mississippi Valley. Braddock was, therefore, instructed to appoint officers to control all political transactions with the natives. The jurisdiction of these superintendents of Indian affairs was divided between northern and southern districts, with a boundary line south of the Ohio River. Charge of the northern district was given to Sir William Johnson, a man of great ability, skill and experience in dealing with the Indians. The best known superintendent in the south was John Stuart. Both these agents gradually extended their power over political relations with the Indians so as to include control of purchases of land and the fur trade.

As soon as peace was signed, one of the first duties of the Government was to reduce the establishment of the Army and Navy to a peace footing, whilst providing adequate protection for the greatly extended Empire. The large issue of the Seven Years' War had been the expansion of the British race in the British Empire. But the war had originated in America, and most directly it had been waged in the interests of the American colonies. Though the Americans as a whole had done their share of fighting, the experience of the war had shown how impossible it still was to rely upon the several colonies to combine in a scheme for their own defence. It was naturally expected that the Americans should contribute handsomely towards its successful conduct both in money and in man power. But as the contributory scheme suggested in 1754 had not been adopted, it became necessary to fall back on the old method, which had so often before proved unsatisfactory, of sending requisitions for troops to the separate colonies. The response to such requisitions had varied in proportion to the goodwill or self-interest of the respective provinces. Virginians and Pennsylvanians were acutely interested in the dispute with France over the forks of the Ohio; the Northerners were not. The Southerners, on the other hand, objected to sending their troops into Canada. But neither Virginia nor Pennsylvania, in which colony Quakers, opposed to all warfare, predominated, contributed the quota expected from them. A quarrel between the governor and the Legislature had the same result in Maryland. The situation improved when, under Pitt, grants of money were regularly made by Parliament towards the military expenses of the colonies. But even so, only Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York came near to supplying the desired quotas. With a population numbering no

1 See Cal. St. Pap. Col. 1714-15, no. 521, etc.; 1716, no. 146, etc.

THE CONSPIRACY OF PONTIAC

637

more than one-third of the total, they provided about seven-tenths of all colonial troops.1

2

It seemed evident, then, that the defence of the colonies must depend upon the energy and initiative of the mother country, and that for this purpose a standing army must be kept in America. It was decided, therefore, to maintain twenty battalions (10,000 men) in that service. The mother country was to pay the whole expense of this establishment for the first year. After that, it was understood, the cost of the army was to be paid, in part at least, by the colonies it was intended to protect, "as is reasonable" was the comment of Edmund Burke. Such a step was regarded by Benjamin Franklin also at this time as reasonable and, indeed, desirable. He saw in the possible establishment by Parliament of "some revenue arising out of the American trade to be applied towards supporting troops" in America a source of protection from foreign enemies and internal disorder "without the expense and trouble of a militia".3 The proposed establishment had indeed been denounced by Burke and the Opposition as excessive and unnecessary. But they were silenced by Pitt, and the measure passed the House of Commons in March 1763. It was, in truth, a small Enough force for guarding an Empire which now extended from the Bahamas to Tobago, and from Pensacola to Quebec, apart altogether from the task of garrisoning the chain of forts which stretched along a line of 3000 miles from the St Lawrence to the Mississippi. The distribution of troops on the continent had been entrusted to General Amherst, who had been appointed to the American command by Pitt. He had divided them among the frontier forts, of which the most western centres were Niagara, Detroit, commanding the passage from Lake Erie to Lake Huron, and Pittsburg. Detachments from these centres garrisoned the smaller forts. Michillimackinac (Macinac) commanded communications between Lakes Huron and Michigan. Fort St Joseph, near the foot of the latter lake, Fort Ouatanon, on the Wabash River, and Fort Miami, on the Maumee, were links in the chain between the southern points of Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. Thence, along the southern shore of Lake Erie to Niagara, the line was held by the Forts Sandusky, Le Bœuf and Presqu'ile. On the line from Pennsylvania to the Ohio stood Forts Cumberland, Bedford, Ligonier and Pitt, whilst northwards to Niagara Fort Venango linked Forts Pitt and Presqu'ile. This arrangement proved very expensive on account of the cost of transporting supplies through the wilderness. But Amherst defended his dispositions on the ground that these scattered and advanced posts would encourage settlers to occupy the frontier in their vicinity and so act as a barrier against the French and Spaniards. The need for maintaining a regular army in America was amply

1 Cf. Beer, G. L., Brit. Col. Policy, p. 68.
2 Annual Register, 1763, p. 21.

3 Franklin, B., Works, IV, 89.

demonstrated in this very year, 1763. After the fall of Montreal, the Indians had appeared to acquiesce in the handing over of the French posts on the Great Lakes and at the back of Canada, and even in the transference of the whole country, which they regarded as their own, to another white nation without their being consulted. But the smouldering fires of discontent lit by this grievance were fanned by the French traders and agents who lived amongst them, and at length burst out into flames. Under the leadership of an Ottawa chief named Pontiac, a confederation of all the Indian tribes from Michigan to Mobile was formed, on a grander and more successful scale than that which had desolated Carolina in 1715. The Six Nations, indeed, under the influence of Sir William Johnson, for the most part remained loyal. But the Senecas joined the confederacy. Pontiac planned a simultaneous attack upon the whole line of forts in the hope of driving the British into the sea. Nor was the design without some prospect of success. For those distant forts, isolated in the frontier-wildernesses, were now garrisoned by the wretched remnants of a motley regiment, who were left, as had so often been the case with colonial garrisons, short of clothes, provisions, arms and pay. On 10 May the Indians under Pontiac suddenly attacked Fort Detroit. It was gallantly defended by Captain Gladwyn. But before the middle of June all the other posts above mentioned, except those between Pennsylvania and the Ohio, had been captured and their garrisons massacred. All those settlers who escaped torture and death fled in panic. Their farms were laid waste. Only the few thinly garrisoned forts from Niagara to Pittsburg and Detroit, tenaciously blockaded, saved Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia from devastation. After some delay, Amherst organised a relieving column to march under the command of Colonel Bouquet along the line of these forts. Being in great straits for want of regular troops, he applied to Pennsylvania for help. The Quaker province refused to provide a man. Nor would the refugee settlers themselves take arms to defend the forts or face the Indians. Of the 500 regular troops who set out under Bouquet, no fewer than sixty were Highlanders who ought to have been in hospital. Too weak to march, they were carried in waggons to reinforce the garrisons on the way. It was with this force, augmented by a few backwoodsmen, that Bouquet, after a long march, fought a desperate battle with the Indians near a stream called Bushey's Run, some twenty miles from Fort Ligonier. The heroic endurance and disciplined steadiness of his troops, combined with a stratagem inspired by his experience of Indian warfare, at last enabled him, after twenty-four hours of critical fighting, to put the enemy to flight (6 August 1763).

Amherst, after again appealing to the Americans to call up local

1 See Parkman, F., Conspiracy of Pontiac.

2 Fortescue, J. W., Hist. of the British Army, ш, 13.

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