Note 662 — Chapter III

It is to be remembered that these positive statements as to the spirit of independence latent in the colonies were written after the achievement of the fact. It is but fair to say that it has been objected against the positiveness of Chalmers's statements that he presents no specific evidence of their truth from written authorities. (See Sparks's Washington, vol. ii. Appendix x., and his Preface to the American edition of Chalmers.) Viscount Bury, in his Exodus of the Western Nations (i. 395, 412), repeats the opinion of Chalmers as positively, yet also without authorities. On the other side, as illustrating how general statements may be affirmed, as if not to be qualified or challenged, we read in Governor Hutchinson's volume of his History written during his exile in England this sentence (vol. iii. p. 69), as of date 1758: "An empire, separate or distinct from Britain, no man then alive expected or desired to see",—an assertion more rhetorical than true. In the debate in the Commons on the Boston Port Bill and the infraction of the charter of Massachusetts, Sir Richard Sutton said "that even in the most quiet times the disposition to oppose the laws of this country was strongly ingrafted in the Americans, and all their actions conveyed a spirit and wish for independence. If you ask an American who is his master, he will tell you he has none, nor any governor, but Jesus Christ" (Adolphus, ii. 108).