[179]
[Footnote 178: Kennedy, _Importance of gaining and preserving the
Friendship of the Indians_.]
[Footnote 179: On the Albany plan of union, _Franklin's Works_, I. 177.
Shirley thought it "a great strain upon the prerogative of the Crown,"
and was for requiring the colonies to raise money and men "without
farther consulting them upon any points whatever." _Shirley to Robinson,
24 Dec. 1754_.]
Even if some plan of union had been agreed upon, long delay must have
followed before its machinery could be set in motion; and meantime there
was need of immediate action. War-parties of Indians from Canada, set
on, it was thought, by the Governor, were already burning and murdering
among the border settlements of New York and New Hampshire. In the south
Dinwiddie grew more and more alarmed, "for the French are like so many
locusts; they are collected in bodies in a most surprising manner; their
number now on the Ohio is from twelve hundred to fifteen hundred." He
writes to Lord Granville that, in his opinion, they aim to conquer the
continent, and that "the obstinacy of this stubborn generation" exposes
the country "to the merciless rage of a rapacious enemy." What vexed him
even more than the apathy of the assemblies was the conduct of his
brother-governor, Glen of South Carolina, who, apparently piqued at the
conspicuous part Dinwiddie was acting, wrote to him in a "very
dictatorial style," found fault with his measures, jested at his
activity in writing letters, and even questioned the right of England to
lands on the Ohio; till he was moved at last to retort: "I cannot help
observing that your letters and arguments would have been more proper
from a French officer than from one of His Majesty's governors.
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