ne piece of music was performed, to
the satisfaction of a very large assembly; and in the evening there were
beautiful illuminations, and a great variety of fire works in many parts
of the town.... We hear there has also been great rejoicings on the late
success of the British arms in most of the neighboring towns,
particularly at Charlestown, Salem, and Marblehead, where were
illuminations, bonfires, and other demonstrations of joy." Old
newspapers, letters, and pamphlets show that "demonstrations of joy"
were far from being confined to New-England towns. They extended over
the whole of the thirteen colonies, every man in which was proud of
belonging to a nation which had achieved such great things in a war that
had opened most gloomily, as do most English and American contests. The
conquest of Canada had removed a weight from the colonial mind that had
preyed upon it for generations; and though not one man in a hundred, it
is probable, thought of the vast consequences that were to follow from
the victories of Wolfe and Amherst, it is certain that those victories
had greatly exalted the American heart; and now that they were followed
by the conquest of Cuba, made at the expense of a great nation with
which England was at peace when Quebec and Montreal had passed into her
possession, it is not strange that our ancestors should have become more
impressed than ever with the honor of belonging to the British empire.
They were not only loyal, but they were loyal to a point that resembled
fanaticism. It has been said of them that they were "as loyal to their
prince and as proud of their country as the people of Kent or
Yorkshire,"--and these words do not exaggerate what was the general
sentiment of the colonists in 1762. England was still "home" to them,
though more than a hundred and fifty years had gone by since the first
permanent English colony was founded in America; and to the feeling that
belonged to the inhabitants of England the colonists added that
reverence which is created for the holders of power by remoteness from
their presence and want of familiarity. Such was the condition of
America a century ago, but soon to be changed through conduct on the
part of George III., conduct that amounted to a crime, and for which no
defence can be made but that of insanity,--a defence but too well
founded in this instance. The sense of the colonists, therefore, was
well expressed by Governor Bernard, when, on the 23d of Septembe