have usurped powers,' shall be
dissolved."]

[Footnote 3: Lord Mahon's History of England, Vol. VI., Chap. liii., pp.
137, 138.

Lord Mahon adds: "At the beginning of the troubles, as I have already
shown, and for a long time afterwards, the vast majority of the
Americans had no wish nor thought of separation from the mother country.
Their object was substantially, and with some new safeguards for their
rights, to revert to the same state in which they had been before the
Administration of George Grenville. But the further the conflict
proceeded, the less and less easy of attainment did that object seem.
How hard, after what had passed, to restore harmonious action between
the powers now at strife, for the people to trust the Governors
appointed by the King, and for the King to trust the Assembly elected by
the people. Even where the actual wrong might have departed, it would
still leave its fatal legacy, rancour and suspicion, behind. Under the
influence of these feelings a great number of persons in all the
colonies were gradually turning their minds to the idea of final
separation from the parent State. Still, in all these colonies, except
only in New England, there were many lingering regrets, many deep-rooted
doubts and misgivings. John Adams writes as follows: 'My dear friend
Gates, all our misfortunes arise from a single source--the reluctance of
the Southern colonies to republican government' (March, 1776, American
Archives, Vol. V., p. 472). Here are the words of another popular
leader: 'Notwithstanding the Act of Parliament for seizing our property,
there is a strange reluctance in the minds of many to cut the knot which
ties us to Great Britain'" (Letter of Reed to Washington, March 3rd,
1776).--_Ib._, pp. 139, 140.]

[Footnote 4: Dr. Ramsay's History of the United States, Vol. II., Chap.
xi., pp. 121, 122.]

[Footnote 5: "The impression on the House that night, while Lord North
was speaking, and after he sat down, is well described by the pen of a
contemporary--no other, in all probability, than Burke: 'A dull,
melancholy silence for some time succeeded to this speech. It had been
heard with profound attention, but without a single mark of approbation
to any part, from any description of men, or any particular man in the
House. Astonishment, dejection, and fear overclouded the whole assembly.
Although the Minister had declared that the sentiments he expressed that
day had been those which he always ent