imately associated with the birth of the nation, the Continental
Congress met, Washington was made Commander-in-Chief of the American
army in 1775, and the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July
4, 1776, and read to the people assembled in the street. It is now a
museum of Revolutionary and historical relics._]

[Sidenote: Measures leading to independence.]

The prejudices in favour of a connexion with England, and of the
English constitution, gradually, but rapidly yielded to republican
principles, and a desire for independence. New strength was every day
added to the opinions, that a cordial reconciliation with Great
Britain had become impossible; that mutual confidence could never be
restored; that reciprocal jealousy, suspicion, and hate, would take
the place of that affection, which could alone render such a connexion
happy and beneficial; that even the commercial dependence of America
upon Britain, was greatly injurious to the former, and that
incalculable benefits must be derived from opening to themselves the
markets of the world; that to be governed by a distant nation or
sovereign, unacquainted with, and unmindful of their interests, would,
even if reinstated in their former situation, be an evil too great to
be voluntarily borne. But victory alone could restore them to that
situation--and victory would give them independence. The hazard was
the same; and since the risk of every thing was unavoidable, the most
valuable object ought, in common justice, and common prudence, to be
the reward of success. With such horror, too, did they view the
present war, as to suppose it could not possibly receive the support
of a free people. The alacrity therefore with which the English nation
entered into it, was ascribed to a secret and dangerous influence,
which was, with rapid progress, undermining the liberties and the
morals of the Mother Country; and which, it was feared, would cross
the Atlantic, and infect the principles of the colonists likewise,
should the ancient connexion be restored. The intercourse of America
with the world, and her own experience, had not then been sufficient
to teach her the important truth, that the many, as often as the few,
can abuse power, and trample on the weak, without perceiving that they
are tyrants; that they too, not unfrequently, close their eyes against
the light; and shut their ears against the plainest evidence, and the
most conclusive reasoning.

It was also urged,