Beginning of the American War for Independence

The ministry of Lord North, which lasted from 1770 to 1782, is memorable in that it marks the beginning of that period of personal rule on the part of the king which ended in the independence of the American colonies. Whig rule, which had lasted half a century, was over; and, though Lord North was nominally head of the government, George III was actually prime minister and cabinet in one. He was the leader of the new Tory party, and he had against him all sections of the Whigs, united as never before in his reign. The administration of Lord North was a Tory administration.

George III was now personal head of a party, as well as king, and ready to inaugurate a definite policy toward America. Up to this time, no one seems to have had any fixed plan. Grenville and Townshend had done little else than make mistakes. At first even the cabinet of Lord North was undecided. By a majority of only one it voted, in March, 1770, to retain the tax on tea, but the news of events in America soon stiffened its determination. Quarrels between British soldiers and the colonists had ended in the Boston “massacre," March 5, 1770; the sending over of the tea ships had ended in rioting in South Carolina, the burning of the Gaspee in Rhode Island, and the throwing overboard of the tea chests in Boston harbor. The Boston "tea party," as it was called, roused the anger of the ministry, which was now determined to punish the insolence of the colonists. Boston harbor was declared closed, and the charter of Massachusetts was annulled. These acts were equivalent to a declaration of war.

LORD NORTH.

From the original by Dance, in the collection of the Hon. Georgians North.

The adoption of this policy, which made reconciliation impossible, was due to the king; but it was upheld by the nation, who, surfeited by the victories of the Seven Years' War, rejected compromise as humiliating. Yet compromise in all probability would have been successful ; for the colonists were loyal to the mother country, and at this time had expressed no desire to separate themselves from her. Active interference was a blunder; but when once it had been decided upon by the British government, it should have been carried out with thoroughness and despatch. Great Britain in 1775 was in no condition to carry on a war in a country three thousand miles away. The ministry of Lord North drove the colonists into open resistance, at a time when it possessed no definite plans for war, little ammunition, an inadequate force of soldiers and sailors, and only hired mercenaries like the Hessians as the chief part of its army.

In the spring of 1775 British troops in Massachusetts were defeated in the battles of Lexington and Concord by the minute men of that colony. These events roused great excitement in America, but need not have led to a war of independence, inasmuch as a majority of the colonists, representing the best men in America, still hoped for reconciliation and a redress of grievances. Pitt, with all the eloquence in his power, was urging the ministry to adopt a conciliatory policy, but in vain. Events both at home and abroad were working against a peaceful settlement of the difficulty. On July 4, 1776, the colonists, through their representatives assembled in the second Continental Congress at Philadelphia, declared that the colonies "were and of right ought to be free and independent states." The war begun at Lexington for redress of grievances ended in a struggle for separation from Great Britain.

Under George Washington as commander-in-chief, the war continued for a year without definite results for either side. Finally, at Saratoga, on October 17, 1777, Sir John Burgoyne, pushing down from Canada to cooperate with the British forces under Howe in Philadelphia, was compelled to surrender with his whole force. This momentous event was the turning-point in the war, and was due in part, at least, to the fact that Howe had received no instructions to meet Burgoyne. This fatal mistake is said to have been due to the neglect of the under-secretary of state, Lord George Germain, who failed to sign the despatches.

Intervention of France

The surrender at Saratoga gave the enemies of Great Britain an opportunity to take their revenge upon her. France, smarting under the defeats of the Seven Years' War and ready to take advantage of any favorable opportunity of renewing the struggle, sent Lafayette with troops to .aid Washington, and a fleet under D'Estaing to the West Indies in February, 1778. So menacing did the danger appear that Lord North declared he was ready to grant the colonies almost everything they wanted except independence. Parliament restored the Massachusetts charter and repealed the tax on tea. It appointed commissioners to go to America to promise amnesty to all and the suspension of all acts relating to America passed since 1763. The commissioners actually went farther, and promised that no more British troops should be sent to America, and that the colonies should have representation in the British parliament.

But it was too late. The colonial war had now become a part of the larger struggle between Great Britain and France, and the colonists stood by their ally. In 1779 Spain joined the coalition. In 1780 Russia, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden formed the Armed Neutrality League, for the purpose of defending the rights of neutrals, that is, of those not engaged in war on either side. They were determined to resist the contention of Great Britain that her ships had a right to seize an enemy's goods even when on a neutral vessel. This danger of war with half of Europe had a very sobering effect on the North ministry and the king. The Whig opposition was daily growing stronger, though opinion was divided as to what was the best course to pursue. Chatham had made his last great speech in parliament against the dismemberment of the empire; others were expressing a willingness to grant independence to the colonies. All controversy was cut short by the great victory of the French and Americans at Yorktown, October 19, 1781, where Cornwallis and his army surrendered.

The year 1781 was one of depression and despair in England. The people vented their wrath on Lord North and held him responsible for the corruption at headquarters and for the war in America. The general elections of 1780 had shown that public opinion was awakening, and the new parliament proved very difficult for the king to manage. On March 4, 1782, Conway brought forward his famous resolution against a further prosecution of the war in America, and on the 20th Lord North resigned. The new ministry, made up of both sections of the Whigs, was led by Rockingham of the old section, and after his death in July, by Shelburne, the ally and successor of Chatham. The period of the personal rule of King George was over and the independence of the colonies was now assured.

Treaty of Peace (1783)

So discouraging was the outlook for England when negotiations for peace began, that it seemed at first as if she would be stripped of many of her colonial possessions. But a victory by Rodney, in 1782, over De Grasse, off Guadaloupe in the West Indies, and a successful British defence of Gibraltar against the Spaniards in the same year, changed the situation, and England was in the main able to hold her own. By the treaty with the United States signed at Paris, in January, 1783, Great Britain acknowledged the independence of her chief American colonies; but she retained Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. She gave back Florida to Spain, who, possessing the Louisiana territory by cession from France in the treaty of 1763., now shut in the new republic on the south and west. Great Britain also returned St. Lucia and Tobago of the West Indies to France, and was compelled, most unwillingly, to consent to Spain's retention of Minorca and the cession to France of Senegal and the island of Goree in Africa. But for Rodney's victory, Great Britain would probably have lost all her West India colonies; as it was, she kept everything except Tobago. Her escape was a narrow one.