The Americans were, of course, greatly elated by this success. Colonel Moutrie, who defended the fort, was highly complimented for his bravery; the garrison were much applauded; and a sergeant received a present of a sword from the people of Charleston for his gallant conduct on the occasion. The safety of the fort and town, however, depended on the army of general Lee, for, had he not protected it from the first, the fort on Sullivan Island would have been easily reduced, and the town exposed to bombardment.
OLD SOUTH CHURCH, BOSTON.
In Virginia, lord Dunmore made a last endeavour to rouse the loyal portion of the population. His plan had something impracticable in it. He sent out a Mr. Connelly, a native of Pennsylvania, to excite the people of the interior and of the back settlements to arms. They were to engage several Indian tribes to join them, and Connelly, collecting a body of men at Pittsburgh, was to burst into Virginia, with his miscellaneous host and his Indian allies, and, descending the Potomac to Alexandria, was then to be met by lord Dunmore and such forces as he could muster. But Connelly was recognised, seized in the back settlements, and conveyed to Philadelphia in irons, where his papers were examined, revealing the whole plan, and completely putting an end to lord Dunmore's operations. Connelly was treated with much severity by the Americans.
But whilst these conflicts were taking place, the revolution was marching on at full speed, and had reached its acmé—the Declaration of Independence. The continental congress, on the 15th of May, passed a resolution that it was necessary for such of the States as had not framed for themselves such constitutions as were required by the altered circumstances of the country, to forthwith frame such as should be conducive to their safety and welfare. This was published in all the newspapers, accompanied by a statement that, as the king of England, in concurrence with his parliament, had excluded the people of those colonies from his protection, it became indispensable to abolish the constitution established by that power, and frame one for themselves. Here was a plain declaration; there was no longer any mistake. Congress had voted for independence, and it was curious to see the immediate effect of this, in causing a number of double-dealing patriots to throw off their dissimulation, and put in their eager claims for the first promulgation of this idea. John Jay, of New York, zealously claimed it for himself; and the friends of Dr. Franklin claimed it as boldly for him, notwithstanding his continual protestations in England, to the last moment of his stay there, that he desired nothing of the kind. His own private letters, however, already quoted, justify the claims of his friends, which at once establish his duplicity and his patriotism.
There was no man in the colonies, nevertheless, who contributed so much to bring the open declaration of independence to a crisis as Thomas Paine, the celebrated author of "The Rights of Man" and of "The Age of Reason."
Paine was originally a quaker and staymaker at Thetford, in Norfolk. He renounced his quakerism and his staymaking, became an exciseman, and then an usher in a school, reverting again to the gauging of ale firkins. In 1772 he wrote a pamphlet on the mischiefs arising from the inadequate payment of the excise officers, laying them open to bribes, &c. This pamphlet having been sent to Franklin, induced him to recommend the poor author to emigrate to America. Paine adopted the advice, and settled at Philadelphia in 1774. He there devoted himself to poetical literature, wrote for the papers and journals, finally edited the "Philadelphia Magazine," and, imbibing all the ardour of revolution, wrote, in January of the present year, a pamphlet called "Common Sense."
This pamphlet was the spark which was all that was needed to fire the train of independence. It at once seized on the imagination of the public, cast all other writers into the shade, and flew, in thousands and tens of thousands of copies, over all the colonies. It ridiculed the idea of a small island, three thousand miles off, ruling that immense continent, and threatening, by its insolent assumption, the expanding energies of three millions of men, more vigorous, virtuous, and free, than those who sought to enslave them. During the winter and spring this lucid and admirably reasoned pamphlet was read and discussed everywhere, and by all classes, bringing the conviction that immediate independence was necessary. The common fire blazed up in the congress, and the thing was done. As for Paine, poor as the country was, the congress of Pennsylvania voted him three hundred pounds; the university of that province conferred on him the degree of Master of Arts; he was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society, founded by Franklin, and afterwards clerk of the committee of foreign affairs. In a word, he became the great oracle on subjects of government and constitutions, and contrived, both by personal exertions and through the press, to urge on the utter separation of the colonies from the mother country. We shall hereafter
