Chapter 1 - Page 2

was also through her that the first palpable
departure was made from those purifying principles which might serve as an
apology for even far more repulsive exteriors. By a singular combination
of circumstances and qualities, which is, however, no less true than
perplexing, the merchants of Newport were becoming, at the same time, both
slave-dealers and gentlemen.

Whatever might have been the moral condition of its proprietors at the
precise period of 1759, the island itself was never more enticing and
lovely. Its swelling crests were still crowned with the wood of
centuries; its little vales were then covered with the living verdure of
the north; and its unpretending but neat and comfortable villas lay
sheltered in groves, and embedded in flowers. The beauty and fertility of
the place gained for it a name which, probably, expressed far more than
was, at that early day, properly understood. The inhabitants of the
country styled their possessions the "Garden of America." Neither were
their guests, from the scorching plains of the south, reluctant to concede
so imposing a title to distinction. The appellation descended even to our
own time; nor was it entirely abandoned, until the traveller had the means
of contemplating the thousand broad and lovely vallies which, fifty years
ago, lay buried in the dense shadows of the forest.

The date we have just named was a period fraught with the deepest interest
to the British possessions on this Continent. A bloody and vindictive war,
which had been commenced in defeat and disgrace, was about to end in
triumph. France was deprived of the last of her possessions on the main,
while the immense region which lay between the bay of Hudson and the
territories of Spain submitted to the power of England. The colonists had
shared largely in contributing to the success of the mother country.
Losses and contumely, that had been incurred by the besotting prejudices
of European commanders were beginning to be forgotten in the pride of
success. The blunders of Braddock, the indolence of Loudon, and the
impotency of Abercrombie, were repaired by the vigour of Amherst, and the
genius of Wolfe. In every quarter of the globe the arms of Britain were
triumphant. The loyal provincials were among the loudest in their
exultations and rejoicings; wilfully shutting their eyes to the scanty
meed of applause that a powerful people ever reluctantly bestows on its
dependants, as though love of glory, like avarice, increases by its means
of indulgence.

The system of oppression and misrule, which hastened a separation that
sooner or later must have occurred, had not yet commenced. The mother
country, if not just, was still complaisant. Like all old and great
nations, she was