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.
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