" By the provincial charter all
this was abolished. The new government had exclusively for its end
"the things about which the civil power is usually conversant; goods,
lands, honors, the liberties and peace of the outward man." The
influence of the clergy, at all times very great in New England, was
thus separated from the English government, and they were at once
identified in sympathy, hopes, and prospects, with the people of the
colony. As I shall have occasion hereafter to say, this influence was
essential to the success of the Revolution.
It is not likely that any form of government which Great Britain could
have established, especially if it excluded our people from its
control, could have maintained the union twenty-five years longer than
the relation actually existed. The future in some particulars was as
full of hope then to them as it is now to us. Many of their
anticipations were so sanguine that the reality has not been equal to
them. In 1763 an estimate was made that the population of New England
in 1835 would be 4,000,000. From this it is apparent that they had
already tasted prosperity and had come to understand the advantages of
our country, especially in the character of its population, over the
old countries of Europe.
The British Ministry did not discover the means by which the colonies
were to be retained, if retained at all.
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