of separate
existence, and controversies which might have passed into open
hostility. The period between peace and the adoption of the
Constitution was hardly more desirable than the previous condition of
war. The currency was disordered and without value, the revenue
systems of the different States were various and injurious to
legitimate commerce, while the want of uniform laws upon subjects
altogether national, was everywhere observed. A general government,
adequate to the necessities of the nation, was not established until
the inadequacy of the State governments had been felt in peace and
war; but war more than peace created bonds of sympathy, and inspired
confidence among the States.

The Revolution opened in Massachusetts. This province having been
marked by the British Government, was not at all reluctant to take a
prominent position in the controversies from 1765 to 1775. Therefore
the attack was properly directed here, and here with equal propriety
the first forcible resistance was made to British aggression.

The difficulties with Massachusetts were a century old. The colony
charter had been annulled--her territory on the Merrimack and the
Narragansett had been transferred to neighboring colonies, and the men
whom she had elected to preside in her House of Representatives had
been repeatedly rejected.

There had been from the first an ardent desire in the colony to
establish a free Christian commonwealth, and on the part of England to
maintain, if not extend, the power of the British Parliament. In May,
1774, as the representative of the latter purpose, General Gage arrived
in Boston, and was soon followed by considerable bodies of troops. In
August of the same year measures were taken for a Provincial Congress,
to concert and execute an effectual plan for counteracting the system
of despotism which had been introduced. The Congress instructed the
general officers "effectually to oppose and resist" all attempts to
execute the obnoxious acts of the British Parliament; and by a singular
coincidence on the same day, February 9, 1775, the Parliament pledged
the lives and property of the Commons to the support of those laws.
On the side of the Americans, the courts were declared unconstitutional
and their officers traitors--and the practice of the military art was
earnestly recommended.

By the 1st of September, 1774, the issue was fairly presented. The
claim on one side was the supremacy of the Bri