its purpose--to America, and on the American by the rapid arming and
drilling of the local militias not yet avowedly against the Crown, but
obviously with the ultimate intention of resisting the royal authority
should it be pushed too far.

The next turning-point is the decision of the British Government early
in 1774 to revoke the Charter of Massachusetts. It is the chief event of
the period during which war is preparing, and it leads directly to all
that follows. For it raised a new controversy which could not be
resolved by the old legal arguments, good or bad. Hitherto the colonists
had relied upon their interpretation of existing charters, while the
Government contented itself with putting forward a different
interpretation. But the new action of that Government shifted the ground
of debate from the question of the interpretation of the charters to
that of the ultimate source of their authority. The Ministers said in
effect, "You pretend that this document concedes to you the right of
immunity from taxation. We deny it: but at any rate, it was a free gift
from the British Crown, and whatever rights you enjoy under it you enjoy
during His Majesty's pleasure. Since you insist on misinterpreting it,
we will withdraw it, as we are perfectly entitled to do, and we will
grant you a new charter about the terms of which no such doubts can
arise."

It was a very direct and very fundamental challenge, and it inevitably
produced two effects--the one immediate, the other somewhat deferred.
Its practical first-fruit was the Continental Congress. Its ultimate but
unmistakably logical consequence was the Declaration of Independence.

America was unified on the instant, for every colony felt the knife at
its throat. In September a Congress met, attended by the representatives
of eleven colonies. Peyton Randolph, presiding, struck the note of the
moment with a phrase: "I am not a Virginian, but an American." Under
Virginian leadership the Congress vigorously backed Massachusetts, and
in October a "Declaration of Colonial Right" had been issued by the
authority of all the colonies represented there.

The British Ministers seem to have been incomprehensibly blind to the
seriousness of the situation. Since they were pledged not to concede
what the colonists demanded, it was essential that they should at once
summon all the forces at their command to crush what was already an
incipient and most menacing rebellion. They did nothing