The one was a
field for expansion, and the other was mutual help. Their first
necessity was to rid themselves of the French, who, by shutting them
between the Alleghanies and the sea, would cramp them into perpetual
littleness. With France on their backs, growing while they had no room
to grow, they must remain in helpless wardship, dependent on England,
whose aid they would always need; but with the West open before them,
their future was their own. King and Parliament would respect perforce
the will of a people spread from the ocean to the Mississippi, and
united in action as in aims. But in the middle of the last century the
vision of the ordinary colonist rarely reached so far. The immediate
victory over a governor, however slight the point at issue, was more
precious in his eyes than the remote though decisive advantage which he
saw but dimly.
The governors, representing the central power, saw the situation from
the national point of view. Several of them, notably Dinwiddie and
Shirley, were filled with wrath at the proceedings of the French; and
the former was exasperated beyond measure at the supineness of the
provinces. He had spared no effort to rouse them, and had failed. His
instincts were on the side of authority; but, under the circumstances,
it is hardly to be imputed to him as a very deep offence against human
liberty that he advised the compelling of the colonies to raise men and
money for their own defence, and proposed, in view of their "intolerable
obstinacy and disobedience to his Majesty's commands," that Parliament
should tax them half-a-crown a head.
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