Test Bank for Supervision Concepts and Skill Building, 7th Edition: Certo
Test Bank for Supervision Concepts and Skill Building, 7th Edition: Certo
Test Bank for Supervision Concepts and Skill Building, 7th Edition: Certo
Test Bank for Supervision Concepts and Skill Building, 7th Edition: Certo
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4. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
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Multiple Choice Questions
[QUESTION]
1. A manager at the first level of management is known as a(n):
A. top executive.
B. middle manager.
C. assembly-line worker.
D. supervisor.
Answer: D
Page: 3
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
2. Which act states that a supervisor is “any individual having authority, in the interest of the
employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or
discipline other employees, or responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or
effectively to recommend such action, if in connection with the foregoing the exercise of such
authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent
judgment”?
A. The Wagner Act
B. The Taft-Hartley Act
C. The Norris–La Guardia Act
D. The Fair Labor Standards Act
Answer: B
Page: 3
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
3. Generally, supervisors focus on:
A. day-to-day problems and goals to be achieved in one year or less.
B. trying to get the entire organization to meet its goals.
C. long-range goals extending over several years.
5. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
2
D. themselves only and are not concerned with organizational goals.
Answer: A
Page: 4
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
4. Because supervisors deal directly with employees and have knowledge about an
organization’s customers, they emphasize a (n):
A. task orientation.
B. technique orientation.
C. people orientation.
D. outcome orientation.
Answer: C
Page: 5
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
5. According to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchical pattern of needs, the most basic needs of any
human being are:
A. safety needs.
B. physiological needs.
C. needs related to love and belonging.
D. esteem needs.
Answer: B
Page: 5
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
6. Which of the following includes an attitude of acceptance, a lack of racial biases, and
creativity?
A. Self-actualization
B. Physiological needs
C. Needs related to love and belonging
D. Esteem needs
Answer: B
Page: 5
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
7. The ability to see the relationship of the parts to the whole and to one another is known as:
A. technical skills.
B. human relations skills.
C. conceptual skills.
D. process skills.
6. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
3
Answer: C
Page: 6
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
8. Bundy has worked at the local shoe store for years. His ability to sell the most women's
shoes month after month is an example of:
A. ambitious skills.
B. conceptual skills.
C. motivational skills.
D. technical skills.
Answer: D
Page: 6
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
9. For a supervisor, conceptual skills would include:
A. recognizing how the work of various employees affects the performance of the department
as a whole.
B. the specialized knowledge and expertise used to carry out particular techniques or
procedures.
C. the ability to communicate with, motivate, and understand people.
D. the ability to analyze information and reach good decisions.
Answer: A
Page: 6
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
10. Efforts to carry out critical management-related duties, such as planning, setting
objectives for employees, and monitoring performance are:
A. team-related activities.
B. change-related activities.
C. people-related activities.
D. task-related activities.
Answer: D
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
11. People-related activities include all of the following except:
A. setting objectives for employees.
B. recognizing contributions.
C. developing employees’ skills.
D. providing support and encouragement.
7. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
4
Answer: A
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
12. Change-related activities include all of the following efforts to modify components of the
organization except:
A. monitoring the environment to detect a need for change.
B. empowering employees to solve problems.
C. encouraging others to think creatively.
D. proposing new tactics and strategies.
Answer: B
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
13. When supervisors and other managers need to assign tasks, explain job responsibilities,
task objectives, and performance expectations, they rely on which of the following set of
managerial skills?
A. Envisioning change
B. Taking risks for change
C. Clarifying roles
D. Monitoring operations
Answer: C
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
14. When supervisors and managers challenge people to question their assumptions about the
work and consider better ways of doing it, they rely on which set of managerial skills?
A. Encouraging innovative thinking
B. External monitoring
C. Empowering
D. Developing
Answer: A
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
15. One positive consequence of the changing diversity of the U.S. workforce for today's
supervisors is:
A. supervisors will be able to draw on a greater variety of talent and perspectives.
B. supervisors will be challenged with this new issue of diversity.
8. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
5
C. supervisors will be coaching more and more younger people, since this age group is
growing faster than all others.
D. supervisors will not have to consider increased complexities of more and more women and
minorities in the workforce, since these groups are decreasing in number.
Answer: A
Page: 9
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
16. One of the strategies of dealing with subtle discrimination is to:
A. ignore it and hope it goes away.
B. pay attention to negative stereotypes and question them.
C. segregate the employees, by having all employees with similar values work together.
D. try not to show respect to others.
Answer: B
Page: 9
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
17. Deciding on the department's goals and how to meet them is known as the management
function of:
A. planning.
B. leading.
C. organizing.
D. controlling.
Answer: A
Page: 10
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
18. Anne, the supervisor had to prepare a budget for her department, showing all future
expenditures. The process of preparing departmental budgets is an example of which type of
management function?
A. Planning
B. Leading
C. Organizing
D. Controlling
Answer: A
Page: 10
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
19. Rhonda is the supervisor of the parts department at a car dealership. Among her
responsibilities are: scheduling who is supposed to work; when her subordinates are to work;
9. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
6
who should do the ordering; and who should help her with counting the inventory. These
responsibilities are examples of what type of management function?
A. Leading
B. Controlling
C. Organizing
D. Planning
Answer: C
Page: 11
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
20. The activities involved in identifying, hiring, and developing the necessary number and
quality of employees are known as the management function of:
A. organizing.
B. staffing.
C. communicating.
D. leading.
Answer: B
Page: 11
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
21. Influencing employees to act or not to act in certain ways is part of the management
function called:
A. leading.
B. planning.
C. organizing.
D. controlling.
Answer: A
Page: 11
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
22. Organizing draws heavily on the supervisor’s:
A. conceptual skills.
B. good human relations skills.
C. technical skills.
D. decision-making skills.
Answer: A
Page: 11
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
23. Monitoring performance and making needed corrections is the management function of:
10. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
7
A. leading.
B. planning.
C. staffing.
D. controlling.
Answer: D
Page: 11
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
24. Evan was a supervisor in the accounting department. He noticed that his supplies
expenditures were much greater than his budget allowed for the month of July. He researched
the overrun and remembered that he had approved a large purchase of supplies to take
advantage of a volume discount. Evan was performing which management function?
A. Planning
B. Organizing
C. Controlling
D. Staffing
Answer: C
Page: 11
Difficulty: Hard
[QUESTION]
25. Higher-level managers usually spend most of their time on these two management
functions:
A. leading and controlling.
B. planning and organizing.
C. leading and organizing.
D. organizing and controlling.
Answer: B
Page: 12
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
26. Supervisors' responsibilities toward employees EXCLUDE
A. giving employees clear instructions.
B. looking for problems and trying to correct them before employees' performances
deteriorate further.
C. speaking up for employees' interests to top management.
D. being inaccessible to subordinates.
Answer: D
Page: 13
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
11. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
8
27. The practice of imposing penalties for failing to adequately carry out responsibilities and
giving rewards for meeting responsibilities is referred to as:
A. planning.
B. accountability.
C. subtle discrimination.
D. reliability.
Answer: B
Page: 14
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
28. Most supervisors started out working in the department they now supervise because of
their superior _____, which are very important to first-level managers.
A. conceptual skills
B. intellectual abilities
C. human relations skills
D. technical skills
Answer: D
Page: 14
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
29. Congratulations, you have been promoted to a supervisory position, for the first time ever.
You will start the new position in six months. You go to your local community college and
enroll in a supervision class. You are
A. trying to make an effort to learn as much as possible about the company, the department,
and the job.
B. reducing any anxiety and trying to prepare for the job.
C. trying to get as much information about your future employees as possible.
D. just doing it for personal growth and have no intention of applying what you learn in the
class to your new job.
Answer: B
Page: 14
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
30. A new supervisor's most reliable source of getting to know his/her new employees is
probably the:
A. boss.
B. performance appraisals of the new employees.
C. personnel department.
D. employees themselves.
Answer: D
Page: 15
12. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
9
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
31. Pam was promoted to supervise the biology lab at State University. Dave, who had the
most seniority, felt he should have been given the promotion and he made sure Pam knew
how he felt. Pam would leave Dave in charge of the lab during her lunch hours and whenever
she had to be out of the lab, because he was an excellent and reliable worker. She also trained
Dave to perform some of her supervisory duties. In two months, Dave became the evening
biology lab supervisor. The approach Pam used was:
A. to help the employee meet or exceed his goals.
B. useless, since Dave would have been promoted anyway.
C. a good delegative example, where Pam was able to make her job easier, since she was not
responsible for what Dave did.
D. was not beneficial to the university, since the lab lost an excellent worker during the
daytime.
Answer: A
Page: 15
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
32. All of the following are suggestions for making the transition smooth for a new supervisor
EXCEPT:
A. setting limits on the supervisor's behavior.
B. being a rescuer.
C. figuring out how to measure success.
D. communicating with everyone.
Answer: B
Page: 16
Difficulty: Hard
[QUESTION]
33. This characteristic of successful supervisors that involves not only making contact with
employees every day but also listening to what they have to say is known as:
A. being fair.
B. being a good communicator.
C. being an interesting person.
D. being positive.
Answer: B
Page: 17
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
34. Assigning work to employees refers to which characteristic of a successful supervisor?
A. Ability to delegate
13. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
10
B. Ability to be fair
C. Ability to be loyal
D. Ability to be a good leader
Answer: A
Page: 17
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
35. Henry was an engineer for an aerospace company. He had excellent technical skills, and
he thoroughly enjoyed his job. Due to his superior technical ability, he was offered a
promotion to supervisor. He refused the promotion, because a successful supervisor must:
A. play office politics.
B. be able to delegate.
C. be a good communicator.
D. want the job.
Answer: D
Page: 17
Difficulty: Medium
True/False Questions
[QUESTION]
36. Employees reporting to the supervisor are not managers.
Answer: True
Page: 3
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
37. For the top executives of an organization, managing is mainly about making sure that the
employees in a particular department are performing their jobs.
Answer: False
Page: 3
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
38. Applying scientific knowledge to the study of production is not feasible to maximize
efficiency.
Answer: False
Page: 4
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
14. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
11
39. The management function of planning involves setting goals for an organization, and
developing an overall strategy for achieving the goals.
Answer: True
Page: 5
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
40. Assigning tasks to specific members of the organization is an important aspect of control
management.
Answer: False
Page: 5
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
41. Organizing primarily includes overseeing the various tasks that are being completed and
ensuring that they are done in the expected manner.
Answer: False
Page: 5
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
42. Based upon Maslow’s findings, supervisors must help workers to satisfy their personal
needs while being productive in organizations.
Answer: True
Page: 5
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
43. Technical skills are the specialized knowledge and expertise used to carry out particular
techniques or procedures.
Answer: True
Page: 6
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
44. A person with strong conceptual skills has the ability to inspire employees, to defuse
conflicts, and get along with co-workers.
Answer: False
Page: 6
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
45. A mechanic’s ability to bring an automobile engine back to life relies on decision-making
skills.
15. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
12
Answer: False
Page: 6
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
46. Supervisors rely more on technical skills than do higher-level managers because
employees who have a problem doing their jobs go to the supervisor and expect help.
Answer: True
Page: 6-7
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
47. Efforts to manage people, such as by providing support and encouragement, recognizing
contributions, developing employees’ skills, and empowering employees to solve problems
are important task-related activities.
Answer: True
Page: 7
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
48. Short-term planning includes checking on the progress and quality of the work, and
evaluating individual and unit performance.
Answer: False
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
49. Recognizing skills of successful managers includes providing coaching and advice,
providing opportunities for skill development, and helping people learn how to improve their
skills.
Answer: False
Page: 7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
50. Supervisors who continually develop their skills in each area are the ones most likely to
stick to their roles in the organization.
Answer: False
Page: 8
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
51. Subtle discrimination puts women and minorities at a disadvantage.
Answer: True
16. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
13
Page: 9
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
52. To reduce discrimination, supervisors can provide equal advice and coaching to diverse
groups of employees, helping them get along in the organization.
Answer: True
Page: 9
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
53. Although settings and degrees of responsibility may differ, supervisors and other
managers carry out the same types of functions.
Answer: True
Page: 10
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
54. The five functions of management are: (1) planning, (2) organizing, (3) staffing, (4)
leading, and (5) controlling.
Answer: True
Page: 10
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
55. The responsibility to determine departmental goals in sync with that of the organization
lies with top managers.
Answer: False
Page: 10
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
56. At the supervisory level, organizing usually involves scheduling projects or assigning
duties to employees.
Answer: True
Page: 11
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
57. A supervisor’s performance is usually judged on the basis of the results that the employee
has achieved as an individual.
Answer: False
Page: 11
Difficulty: Medium
17. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
14
[QUESTION]
58. Joe, the supervisor was interviewing two applicants to fill a job vacancy in his department.
Joe is performing the leading management function in this example.
Answer: False
Page: 11
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
59. All of the management functions are done in order.
Answer: True
Page: 12
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
60. The process of organizing comes before planning and after staffing.
Answer: False
Page: 12
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
61. As a supervisor, you must give higher-level managers timely and accurate information for
planning, though this is not part of your responsibility to top management.
Answer: False
Page: 13
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
62. Supervisors' responsibilities include building employee morale and carrying employee
concerns to the relevant managers.
Answer: True
Page: 13
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
63. Cooperating with co-workers in other departments is one of the responsibilities a
supervisor has.
Answer: True
Page: 13
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
64. Since most supervisors started out working in the department they now supervise, figuring
out how to make as many changes as possible is one of their most challenging tasks.
18. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
15
Answer: False
Page: 14
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
65. A company can hire a recent college graduate as a supervisor, if that person demonstrates
leadership potential or a specialized skill that will help in the position.
Answer: True
Page: 14
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
66. The most important issue facing a new supervisor is that one or more employees who may
have been candidates for the new position may now be jealous of the new supervisor.
Answer: True
Page: 15
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
67. A new supervisor should make changes quickly and without consulting with any of the
employees.
Answer: False
Page: 16
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
68. Managers and co-workers prefer working with someone with a positive attitude.
Answer: True
Page: 17
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
69. As a supervisor, you give clear instructions, and listen to what your employees have to
say. You definitely have the characteristic of being a good communicator.
Answer: True
Page: 17
Difficulty: Easy
[QUESTION]
70. People who enjoy the challenge of making plans and inspiring others to achieve goals are
more likely to be poor supervisors.
Answer: False
Page: 17
Difficulty: Easy
19. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
16
Essay Questions
[QUESTION]
71. Define a "supervisor" and give an example of one, making sure to show how your
example matches your definition of a supervisor.
Answer: A supervisor is a manager at the first level of management, which means the
employees reporting to the supervisor are not managers. Students can give all kinds of
examples here.
Page: 3
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
72. List and define the four skills required of all managers at all levels. (Do not confuse these
four skills with the five functions of management.)
Answer: Technical - specialized knowledge and expertise; human relations - working
effectively with other people; conceptual – ability to see the parts to the whole; decision-
making - the ability to analyze information and reach good decisions.
Page: 6
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
73. Of the four skills required of all managers, which is the most important to supervisors and
explain why.
Answer: Supervisors rely more on technical skills than do higher-level managers because
employees who have a problem doing their jobs go to the supervisor and expect help. Also,
top managers tend to rely more on decision-making skills simply because they tend to make
more complex decisions.
Page: 6-7
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
74. Considering all the trends surrounding the diversity of the U.S. work force, what effects
do these trends have on the supervisor? List two of them, and describe them.
Answer: (1) More female employees, (2) employees of a race other than white, (3) more
experience, and (4) a greater variety of talent and perspectives.
Page: 8-9
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
75. List or draw the five management functions and explain or show how the concept of
"quality" relates to these functions.
20. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
17
Answer: Planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling, or Figure 1.3 is acceptable.
All of these activities should be directed toward enabling employees to deliver a high quality
good or service.
Page: 10
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
76. Explain why the five functions of management can be considered an "endless, circular
process".
Answer: Because you start with planning, go through the other four steps and start again at the
planning stage.
Page: 12
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
77. List the three work groups that supervisors have responsibilities toward and explain what
these responsibilities are for each work group.
Answer: Managers - giving timely and accurate information for planning; employees - giving
clear instructions and treating them fairly; co-workers - cooperating with them.
Page: 13
Difficulty: Hard
[QUESTION]
78. What kind of a background do you think a supervisor should have to help him/her be
successful?
Answer: Among the answers can be: good technical skills, good work habits, leadership
qualities, seniority, and a college education.
Page: 14
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
79. Think back to a supervisor that you thought was a poor supervisor. List some of his/her
characteristics. List the characteristics of a good supervisor.
Answer: The list for the first part of the question may vary, but for the second part the
answers can be: positive attitude, fair, loyal, good communicator, able to delegate, wanted the
job.
Page: 17-18
Difficulty: Medium
[QUESTION]
80. Do you think you would make a good supervisor and why or why not?
Answer: This is very subjective. But grading can be based on if their answer is honest, logical,
and relates to the characteristics of a successful supervisor.
Page: 16-18
21. Chapter 1 Modern Supervision: Concepts and Skills
18
Difficulty: Medium
23. What the loss of the Indians was in this battle, as in most others,
the white men were never able to find out. Except at the scene of
the first firing and ambuscade, Indian corpses were not visible. The
first purpose of the redskins, as soon as the opening fury of battle
slackened, was to conceal their loss. To run out from cover, even in
the face of the fire, and draw away the corpses of their friends, was
their usual habit, and to this they were thoroughly trained. Exposure
in such work was more cheerfully borne than in regular combat,
though usually the dead body was reached by cautious approach,
and with as much concealment as possible in the undergrowth. A
noose at the end of a rope was skilfully thrown over the head of the
corpse, and the end of the rope carried back into cover. As skilfully
as a band of medical students or resurrectionists can put a hook
under the chin of a corpse and hoist it up from under the coffin-lid
half sawed off, the savages in ambush would draw the body of their
fallen comrade out of sight, to be quickly concealed or buried. Indian
fighters often told stories of dead men apparently turning into
snakes and gliding out of sight. Owing to this habit of the Indians, it
was very difficult to arrive at the exact execution done by the white
man’s fire. As most of the Schenectady men were trained Indian
fighters, the loss of the savages was probably great.
This was a sad day for Schenectady. One third of the white force
engaged were dead or wounded. Twenty corpses—twelve of them
Schenectady fathers, sons, or brothers, and eight Connecticut men—
were laid on the floor of a barn, near the church, which is still
standing. The sorrowing wives, mothers, and sisters came to identify
the scalped and maimed dear ones. Thirteen or fourteen men were
missing, while the number of wounded was never accurately known.
In the Green Street burying-ground, east of the “Old Queen’s Fort,”
the long funeral procession followed the corpses, while Domine Van
Santvoord committed dust to dust.
Many are the touching traditions of sorrow connected with this
“Beukendal massacre.” So it, indeed, appeared to the people of
Schenectady, because of so many of their prominent men thus
suddenly slain. To them it was in some sense a repetition of the
awful night of Feb. 8, 1690. Yet, instead of its being a massacre, it
24. was a stand-up, hand-to-hand fight in Indian fashion, and a typical
border-battle. In the superb and storied edifice of “The First
Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of Schenectady, in the county of
Albany,”—so called in the old charter given by King George II., and
so rich in the graphic symbols of “the church in the Netherlands
under the Cross,” as well as of local history,—a tablet epitomizing the
history of the church in its five edifices was set in its niche after the
two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the church, celebrated
June 21, 1880. It is “in pitiful remembrance of the martyrs who
perished in the massacres of February 9th, 1690, and July 18th,
1748.” From the rear church window one may still look, in 1891, on
the barn on the floor of which the bodies were brought and laid for
identification on the day when the sturdy Dutch-American Albert Van
Slyck signed his letter to “Coll. William Johnson at Albany,” “your
Sorrowfull and Revengfull friend on those Barbarous Enemys, and
am at all Times on your Command.”
Clinton, accompanied by his satellite, Dr. Colden, and some other
members of his council, arrived in Albany, July 20. The next day,
after those necessary ceremonies to which the Indians are as great
bond-slaves as their civilized brethren, the council fairly opened. A
great palaver ensued, and talk flowed unceasingly for hour after
hour, until many ears needed rest even more than the few busy
tongues. The governor wound up his long address by referring to
the battle of Beukendal, so recent and so near by.
After three days of smoke and thought, a wordy warrior from
Onondaga replied for the Confederacy in prolix detail. The day was
closed with a dance by the young braves, and the king’s health was
drunk in five barrels of beer.
On the following day the River Indians spoke, expressing
gratitude for favours past, and asserting that if they had been
present when news of the Schenectady battle reached Albany, they
would have cheerfully joined in pursuit, even to the gate of Crown
Point.
By this time it was no longer possible to suppress the news of
peace in Europe, and the poor savages who had been goaded into
digging up the hatchet and neglecting their hunting, and who were
25. thirsting for revenge, were now left in the lurch, and told to go
quietly home. Nevertheless, most of the colonists were satisfied with
the result of the council, and Johnson’s popularity increased. The
Iroquois were pleased when they found that both Shirley and Clinton
were about to send back all the French prisoners to Canada, and to
ask for the return of both the white, red, and black captives, who
had been carried away from their homes south of the St. Lawrence.
Lieutenant Stoddard and Captain Anthony Van Schaick went to
Canada, and into the Indian country; but their success was not
gratifying. Only twenty-four prisoners accompanied Lieutenant
Stoddard when he left Canada, June 28, 1750. The white boys and
girls who had nearly or wholly forgotten their old home and kin, and
had been adopted into the tribes, declined, or were forced to
decline, going back. Occasionally white women had abjured their
religion, and in other cases the red squaws threatened sure death to
the adopted captives should they try to return, even at the French
governor’s orders. With the Indians, however, exchange was more
easy, though the savages were unable to understand the delays of
diplomacy between Clinton and Gallissonière; and to pacify them,
Johnson was often at his wits’ end. However, by his personal
influence, by visits of condolence, by social participation in their
games and feasts, by persistent patience, public eloquence, private
persuasion, and the frequent use of money and other material gifts,
he won fresh laurels of success. In spite of the diplomacy of La
Gallissonière, the ceaselessly active Jesuit priests, French cunning
and strategy on the one hand, and English and Dutch weakness and
villany on the other, he held the whole Iroquois Confederacy loyal to
the British Crown. The greatness of Johnson is nobly shown in thus
foiling the French and all their resources.
This year, amid manifold commercial, military, and domestic
cares, he entertained the famous Swedish botanist, naturalist, and
traveller, Peter Kalm, with whose name the evergreen plant Kalmia is
associated. He had come at the suggestion of Linnæus to investigate
the botany and natural history of North America. He arrived at Fort
Johnson with a letter from Dr. Colden, who was as fond of physical
science as he was of his Toryism. After dispensing courtly hospitality,
26. Johnson furnished him with a guide to Oswego and Niagara, and a
letter to the commandant at the former place. Kalm’s “Voyage to
North America” was translated and published in London in 1777, and
the map accompanying it is of great interest. After him was named
that family of evergreens in which is found the American laurel,
Kalmia latifolia, which has been proposed as the national flower of
the United States.
27. CHAPTER VII.
AT THE ANCIENT PLACE OF TREATIES.
The Old French War, or the War of the Austrian Succession, was
foolishly begun in Germany, and foolishly ended in Europe, Asia, and
America. The peace which came without honour settled nothing as
regarded the questions at issue in America. In reality this treaty
guaranteed another American war. Louisburg was again handed over
to the French in exchange for Madras. All prisoners in the three
continents were to be released without ransom, and a return of all
conquered territory and property was agreed to. The balance of
power now rested level on its fulcrum, ready for some fly’s weight to
tilt it and cause the scale-pans to bounce.
In what part of the world first? With unspeakable disgust the raw
troops and scarred veterans, and the people generally of the
colonies, received the news. Not a few thought it was time to think
of not only fighting their own battles, but of making their own
treaties. The continental or American spirit, already a spark, was
fanned almost to a flame.
Meanwhile, in home politics, New York was steadily advancing in
the pathway that was to merge into the highway of national
independence. To a New England writer, accustomed to the
unbridled laudation of his own State and ancestry as those who led
the Teutonic-American colonies in the struggle for liberty, the doings
in the New York Assembly may seem “teapot-tempest politics.” To
those less prejudiced, it is a noble chapter in the story of freedom,
when they see an ultra-Tory British governor fast relegated to a
position of impotence, though backed by the able Tory, Cadwallader
28. Colden, while the people’s will is manifested in persistent limitation
of the royal prerogative.
This was the state of affairs in May, 1750, when, on the death of
Philip Livingston, Col. William Johnson was appointed to a seat in the
governor’s Executive Council. The Livingstones were sturdy men of
Scottish descent, descended from a Presbyterian minister who had
been banished for non-conformity. Like so many of the founders of
America, the Pilgrim Fathers and most of the chief settlers of
Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Virginia,
the Carolinas, and Georgia, he reinforced his democratic ideas by
some years’ residence in the Dutch Republic, living gladly under the
red, white, and blue flag of the United States of Holland. The
Livingstones in America married into families of Dutch descent, and
thereby were still further imbued with Republican ideas. Robert and
Philip had been secretaries of Indian affairs, and had thus gained
great favour and influence over the Iroquois. Of their descendants,
one was a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and others
were officers in the Revolutionary army, while others are even yet
adorning the annals of freedom, progress, and order.
Clinton was, no doubt, very glad to have, in place of a
Livingstone, one who was so loyally devoted to the Crown, and so
good a personal friend as Johnson near him, Johnson, however, was
not sworn in and seated until 1751.
The state of affairs was growing worse and worse, and Clinton
the foolish had attempted to stay the tide of democracy by having
no Assembly called for two years. When, however, it met on Sept. 4,
1750, Johnson’s bills for six hundred and eighty-six pounds, for
provisions sent to Oswego, were cheerfully paid; but the vote was so
made that the governor’s claims were, as he thought, invaded.
However, for good reasons, and fearing the loss of trade, he
submitted. Could Johnson’s invaluable services have been
acknowledged without also making recognition of Clinton’s
pretensions, the Assembly would have been more liberal. The
remarks and strictures of the biographer and eulogist of Johnson
about the Dutch traders of Albany, and “the love of gain so
characteristic of that nation” (sic) seem strange when the same love
29. of gain was, and is, equally characteristic of Englishman, Yankee,
Scotsman, Huguenot, and Quaker. No one will justify the members
of the New York Colonial Assembly in all their acts, especially those
which were clearly contemptible; but we cannot see that Johnson,
Clinton, or the English loved either lucre or liquor any less than the
Albany Dutchmen. Indeed, it was the well-founded suspicion that
Clinton was using his office largely to recoup his broken fortunes
that made the representatives resist him at every point. Johnson,
however, finding that the Assembly and the governor could never be
reconciled, and that his first bill of two thousand pounds would be
likely, under existing circumstances, to remain unpaid, resigned his
office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs. To his Iroquois friends he
announced this step by sending wampum belts to all the chief
fortified towns of the Confederacy.
Neither war nor peace had settled the question of the boundary
lines between the French and English possessions in America. The
French claimed the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys by right of prior
discovery by La Salle and others. The English based their ownership
on occupation by the Iroquois or their vassals, and because the Five
Nations were allies of Great Britain. Both parties now began anew to
occupy the land. The race was westward through the Ohio Valley to
the Mississippi. The starting-points were from tidewater Virginia and
from Montreal. Not on parallel lines, but toward the apex of a
triangle, and straight toward collision, the movement began. The
Ohio Company was formed with a grant of six hundred thousand
acres by the English Government, chiefly to speculators in Virginia.
George Washington was one of the first to be smitten with the fever
of speculation, and to the end of his days he made investments in
the Western lands as eagerly as many do now in Western farm
mortgages.
La Gallissonière instructed Celoron de Bienville, one of the four
famous brothers of a remarkable family, to occupy definitely the
Ohio Valley in the name of Louis XIV., King of France. Like a sower
going forth to sow, Bienville went in a canoe with a sack full of
leaden plates, depositing one in the soil at the mouth of every
important tributary, so as to publish to the world that from the
30. source of the Ohio to its mouth, the country watered by it belonged
to France. Up to 1891 several of these plates have been dug up,—
coming thus to resurrection like faint memories of vanished dreams.
While thus the lines of empire were once more drawn between
Celt and Teuton, the same masters again held the key to the
situation,—the Iroquois. To win these over to French alliance or
vassalage, all the arts of peace were now to be employed by the
ablest intellects employing the strongest forces of religion,
education, diplomacy, cunning, and material gifts. France with her
compact military and religious system in America was a unity.
Soldier, priest, and semi-feudal tenant were parts of one machine
moved by one head. With the unity of a phalanx and the constrictive
power of a dragon, she expected to crush to atoms, or at least coop
up between mountains and sea, the English colonies. The
heterogeneous collection of people from north continental and
insular Europe, of many languages and forms of religion, dwelling
between the Merrimac and the Everglades, were held together only
by the one tie of allegiance to the British Crown.
Francis Picquet, priest, soldier, and statesman, saw the necessity
of securing the loyalty of the Six Nations; and receiving the French
Governor’s assent, established himself at La Presentation, on the St.
Lawrence River, between Oswego and Montreal, a fort and a chapel.
Ostensibly his mission was the conversion of the Iroquois. No more
strategic point could have been selected. Whether for peace, war,
trade, voyaging, or education and general influence, the site was
supremely appropriate. When Johnson heard of the man called,
according to which side of the border his name was spoken, “Apostle
of the Iroquois” or “Jesuit of the West,” he was alarmed, especially
when he learned that this lively hornet, Joncaire, was busy in
fomenting trouble among the tribes in the valleys of the Ohio and
Mississippi. Before long, this Jean Cœur had succeeded in reviving
between the Iroquois and western tribes and the Catawbas an old
feud. Very soon Clinton received word from Gov. James Glenn, of
South Carolina, that the Senecas were on the war-path and
murdering the Catawbas. In this action the Senecas were repeating
one of the numerous southern raids to which their grandfathers had
31. been addicted, and one of which Col. John Washington, ancestor of
George, assisted to repel. At Johnson’s suggestion, Clinton now
invited all the tribes composing the Confederacy or in alliance with
the Iroquois to meet at the ancient place of treaties,—the ground on
which now stands the new Capitol at Albany,—while Clinton himself
called upon the governors of all the colonies to form a plan of union
for uniting the tribes and resisting French aggression. On the 28th of
June, 1751, the tribes met in Albany, again to renew the covenant
first confirmed by Arendt Van Curler. There were present delegates
from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and South Carolina, and Indians
from the Great Lakes, besides six Catawba chiefs and
representatives of the Six Nations.
The first point made by the Iroquois was that Colonel Johnson
should be reappointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs. They
begged leave to try to influence him by sending a string of wampum
to him at Mount Johnson. They despatched a swift footman to his
house. A man is a finer animal than a horse, and, in the long run,
swifter and more enduring. They chose two human soles rather than
four horse’s hoofs for their messenger. Johnson met the wampum-
bearer at Schenectady; but when at Albany, despite the eloquence of
Clinton and the Indians, he firmly declined serving again while his
salary depended upon the Assembly. He now took the oath of office
and his seat in the governor’s Council. He retained this dignity while
he lived.
The great council formally opened on the 6th of July, 1751.
Besides the usual eloquence there was much singing, with
ceremonial dances and enjoyment of that aboriginal custom and
product,—the pipe and tobacco. The sucking and actual whiffing of
the calumet, the metaphorical burying of the hatchet and planting of
the tree of peace, signified that war was over between the Southern
and Northern Indians. The confederates living above the not yet
made Mason’s and Dixon’s line clasped hands across the bloody
chasm with the Southerners, and peace again reigned from Pilgrim
Land to the Salzburger Germans in Ogelthorpe’s country. The “late
unpleasantness” was past. After the usual drinking of fire-water and
32. distribution of presents, the council adjourned, and the Indians went
home.
While the Pennsylvania traders were establishing posts on the
Ohio, under British authority, the French were also busy. Early in
September, from a French deserter, Johnson learned the startling
news that a great fleet of canoes manned by twelve hundred
Frenchmen and two hundred Adirondack Indians, had passed
Oswego, bound for the Ohio. News also arrived by a Cayuga chief
that at Cadaracqui a large French man-of-war was being built for the
reduction of Oswego. This fort was then in command of Lieutenant
Lindsay, founder of the Scottish settlement at Cherry Valley.
Johnson was in New York attending to his duties as a member of
the Council, when the harassing news was received. In addition to
the anxiety this caused him, he was selected by Clinton to do what
proved to be a disagreeable task to himself, and in the eyes of the
people’s representative a repulsive one. Indeed it seemed to them to
be doing the governor’s dirty work. When the House sent to the
Council an act for paying several demands upon the colony, it
pleased Clinton and the Council to demand vouchers, and Johnson
was sent to the Assembly to request them. The offended and angry
representatives of the people declared that the demand was
extraordinary and unprecedented, and declined to consider the
request until the first of May. The Council, angry in turn, sent
Johnson back with a bill of their own originating,—in clear violation
of right precedent and propriety, “applying the sum of five hundred
pounds for the management of Indian affairs and for repairing the
garrison at Oswego.”
As might be expected, this bill was not allowed even a second
reading, but a motion was at once passed “that it was the great
essential and undoubted right of the representatives of the people of
this colony to begin all bills from raising and disbursing of money,”
and that the bill of the Council should be rejected. In an address to
the governor it was intimated that the one thousand pounds recently
voted for entertaining the Indians at the council at Albany had been
used for other purposes than the public good. After four days of
foolish resistance, the governor, knowing he was unable to make
33. headway when so clearly in the wrong, passed all the bills. Then,
gratifying a personal spite at the expense of the public, he dissolved
the Assembly.
All this was what those who think the story of American liberty
was fought out chiefly in New England would call the “teapot-
tempest politics of the New York Assembly.” Yet here was the great
principle upon which republican government is founded, and for
which Holland revolted against Spain, and the American colonies
against England; “our great example,” as Franklin declared, being
the Dutch republic.
The Dutch had, centuries before, beyond the dikes of Holland,
developed and fought for the doctrine of “no taxation without
consent;” and Clinton, Colden, and their coadjutors were clearly in
the wrong. Further, the representatives were right in hinting that
Clinton and his flatterers were too anxious to improve their own
fortunes, and to make the people pay for their needless junketings
enjoyed in the name of public service. Those who read the local
history of the Hudson and Mohawk Valleys know how burdensome to
the people was the silly and costly pageantry of royal governors on
their travels.
Johnson, probably with his eyes needfully opened, on reaching
his home after the dissolution of the Assembly, found the outlook for
the ultimate occupation of the mid-continent by the English rather
gloomy. The French held the frontier of New York on its three
strategic lines,—Crown Point, La Presentation, and Niagara. They
were now planning to plant a mission, which should mean a fort and
a church, at Onondaga Lake, near which had perhaps been—if we so
interpret the inscription on the Pompey stone—a Spanish settlement
once destroyed by the Senecas. Even if the stone, inscribed with the
symbols and chronology of Christendom, were that of a captive, it is
a mournful but interesting relic.
When Johnson heard the news, the Jesuits had already
succeeded in winning the consent of the chiefs even at this ancient
hearth of the Iroquois Confederacy. Such a move must be
checkmated at once. Despite the raw and inclement weather of late
autumn, and his desire for rest and reading, Johnson determined on
34. a journey with its attendant exposure. He set out at once for
Onondaga. Summoning the chief men, he asked them, as a proof of
their many professions of friendship, to give and deed to him the
land and water around Onondaga Lake, to the extent of two miles in
every direction from the shores, for which he promised a handsome
present. Unable to resist their friend, the sachems signed the deed
made out by Johnson, who handed over money amounting to three
hundred and fifty pounds, and left for home. Writing to Governor
Clinton, he offered the land to the Government of New York at the
price he had paid. Thus were the designs of the French again foiled.
With the country at peace, and himself released from the
responsibility of Indian affairs, Johnson began to indulge himself
more and more in literary pursuits, the development of the Mohawk
Valley, the moral and intellectual improvement of the Indians, and
the social advantage of the white settlers. He had already a pretty
large collection of books from London in his mansion, but he sent an
order, August 20, 1752, to a London stationer for the “Gentlemen’s
Magazine,” the “Monthly Review,” the latest pamphlets, and “the
newspapers regularly, and stitched up.” He persuaded many of the
Mohawks to send their children to the school at Stockbridge, Mass.,
founded by John Sergeant in 1741, and served after his death by
America’s greatest intellect, Jonathan Edwards. His uncle, the
admiral, had already given seven hundred pounds to the support of
this school. Johnson’s correspondence was with the Hon. Joseph
Dwight, once Speaker of the Massachusetts House of
Representatives, who had married Mr. Sergeant’s widow, and was
deeply interested in Indian education.
In 1753 Rev. Gideon Hawley, who had taught the children of the
Mohawks, Oneidas, and Tuscaroras at Stockbridge, was sent from
Boston to establish a mission school on the Susquehanna River, west
of Albany. Visiting Mount Johnson, the young missionary was
received by the host in person at the gate. He spent a night enjoying
the hospitality, and left with Johnson’s hearty godspeed. Hawley was
able to pursue his work quietly until the breaking out of the war in
1756. After serving as chaplain to Col. Richard Gridley’s regiment, he
35. spent from 1757 to 1807, nearly a half-century of his long and useful
life, among the Indians at Mashpee, Mass.
Johnson was also in warm sympathy with the efforts of Dr.
Eleazar Wheelock, who since 1743, when he began with Samson
Occum, a Mohegan Indian, had been steadily instructing Indian
youths at Lebanon, Conn. “Moor’s Indian Charity School,” as then
called, was set upon a good financial basis when in 1776 Occum and
Rev. Nathaniel Whitten crossed the ocean, and in England obtained
an endowment of ten thousand pounds; William Legge, Earl of
Dartmouth, being president of the Board of Trustees. At this school,
among the twenty or more Indian boys, Joseph Brant, sent by
Johnson, was educated under Dr. Wheelock. Later the Wheelock
school was transferred to Hanover, N. H., and named after Lord
Dartmouth. On the college seal only, the Indian lads are still seen
coming up to this school instead of attending Hampton in Virginia, or
Carlisle in Pennsylvania. However, ancient history and tradition, after
long abeyance, were revived when, in 1887, a full-blooded Sioux
Indian, Dr. Charles Alexander Eastman, was graduated from
Dartmouth’s classic halls.
Various other attempts were made by Johnson, especially during
the last decade of his life, to interest the British authorities in Church
and State in the spiritual improvement of the Indians. The evidences
of his good intentions and generous purposes are seen in his
correspondence. Interesting as they are, however, they bore little
fruit, owing to the outbreak of the Revolution which divided both the
red and the white tribes. The baronet built a church for the
Canajoharie Indians, and supported religious teachers for a while at
his own expense. In 1767, being a man above his sect, he would
have had the Indian school, which grew into Dartmouth College,
removed, and established in the Mohawk Valley. Sectarian influence
and ecclesiastical jealousies at Albany prevented his plan from being
carried out. The Valley was thus without a college, until Union,
founded and endowed almost entirely by the Dutchmen of
Schenectady, was established in 1786, free from sectarian control, as
its name implies. Under Eliphalet Nott’s presidency of sixty-two
years, its fame became national, and within its walls have been
36. educated some of the most useful members of the aboriginal race
called, by accident, Indians.
Admiral Warren died in Dublin, July 29, 1752, of fever; and
Johnson received the news shortly before setting out to attend the
Executive Council in New York, which met in October.
Fortunately for the Commonwealth, Governor Clinton had taken
other advice than that so liberally furnished in the past by the
particular member so obnoxious to the Assembly; and his opening
message was commendably brief, being merely a salutation, which
was as briefly and courteously returned. Now that the Tory firebrand
was “out of politics” for a while, peace once more reigned. An era of
good feeling set in, and harmony was the rule until Clinton’s
administration ended. A new Board of Indian Commissioners was
chosen, by a compromise between the governor and his little
parliament. Plans for paying the colonial debt, for strengthening the
frontier, and for establishing a college were all carried out.
Oswego was the watch-house on the frontier. In the early spring
of 1753 the advance guard of a French army left Montreal to take
possession of the Ohio Valley. Descried alike by Iroquois hunters at
the rapids of the St. Lawrence and by the officers at Oswego, the
news was communicated to Johnson by foot-runners with wampum
and by horseback-riders with letters. Thirty canoes with five hundred
Indians under Marin were leading the six thousand Frenchmen
determined to hold the domain from Ontario to the Gulf of Mexico.
Whether troubled the more by the encroachments of the warlike
French, or by the English land-speculators and enterprising farmers
who were now clearing forests and settling on their old hunting-
grounds, the Indians could scarcely tell. Dissatisfied at having lost
officially their friend Johnson, disliking the commissioners, seeing
what they considered as their property, the Ohio, invaded by the
French, while the New York Government seemed to be inert or
asleep, they sent a delegation to lay their complaints before the
governor and Council in New York. There they roundly abused the
whole government, and threatened to break the covenant chain. As
matter of fact, the trouble concerning land patents arose out of
transactions settled before Clinton’s time, which could not at once be
37. remedied in curt Indian fashion. All legal land alienations in New
York were, after the custom originating in Holland, and thence
borrowed by the American colonists and made a national procedure
in all the United States, duly registered; and into these examination
must be made. Both house and governor, however, agreed in
choosing Johnson as the man for the critical hour, and requested
him to meet the tribes at the ancient council-fire at Onondaga.
Johnson, hearing that the Iroquois had broken faith and again
attacked the Catawbas in the Carolinas, hastened matters by
summoning one tribe, the Mohawks, to meet him at his own home.
Again the stone house by the Mohawk became the seat of an
Indian council, and was enveloped in clouds of tobacco smoke.
Johnson, compelling them to drink the cup mingled with upbraiding
and kindness, while bountifully filling their stomachs from his larder,
sent them away in good humour, and most of them burning with
loyalty. Besides thus manifesting his singular power over the
Mohawk savages, he met the representatives of the United
Confederacy at Onondaga, September 9. The result of the
ceremonies, the eloquence, the smoke, and the eating was that the
confederates, though sorely puzzled to know what to do between
the French and the English, promised loyalty to the brethren of
Corlaer. They would, however, say nothing satisfactory concerning
the Catawbas, some of whose scalps, and living members reserved
for torture, even then adorned their villages.
Governor Clinton had grown weary of the constant battle which
he was, probably with the stolid ignorance of many men of his time
and class, fighting against the increasing power of popular liberty.
He saw it was vain to resist the spirit which the Dutch, Scots, and
French Huguenots had brought into New York with them, or
inherited from their sires, and he longed for a rest and a sinecure
post in England. He liked neither the New York people nor the
climate. When therefore his successor, Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived
on Sunday, October 7, Clinton hailed the day as one of the happiest
of his life. He shortly after sailed for home, to spend the remainder
of his years in a post for which he was better fitted,—the
governorship of Greenwich Hospital. He died in 1761, fourteen years
38. before the breaking out of the war which his own actions had
strongly tended to precipitate. His son, Sir Henry, led the British
regulars and mercenaries who were bluffed in North Carolina, driven
off at Fort Moultrie, and finally won victory at Long Island. He failed
to relieve Burgoyne, fought the drawn battle at Monmouth, captured
Charleston, dickered with Arnold, left Cornwallis in the lurch, and
returning baffled to England, shed much ink in defending himself
against his critics. Another family of Clintons shed high lustre on the
American name and the Empire State. One added another river
parallel to the Mohawk, flowing past Johnson’s old home, and joining
the waters of the Great Lakes to those of the Hudson and the
Atlantic, making the city of New York the metropolis of the
continent.
Sir Danvers Osborne’s career in America was a short tragedy in
three acts. It lasted five days. He came to be ground as powder
between the upper millstone of royal prerogative and the nether disk
of popular rights. He came from an aristocratic and monarchical
country, whose government believed that it was the source of power
to the people, to colonists whose fathers had been educated mostly
under a republic, where it was taught that the people were, under
God, the originators of power. Charged with instructions much more
stringent than those given to his predecessor, he was confronted in
the town-hall by the city corporation, whose spokesman’s opening
sentence was that “they would not brook any infringement of their
liberties, civil or religious.” On meeting his Council for the first time,
he was informed that any attempt to enforce the strict orders given
him and to insist upon an indefinite support, would be permanently
resisted. That night the unfortunate servant of the king took his own
life. He committed suicide by hanging himself on his own garden
wall.
De Lancey, the chief-justice, was now called to the difficult post
of governor, and to the personally delicate task of serving King
George and his former associates, whom he had so diligently
prodded against Clinton, Colden, and Johnson. This was especially
difficult, when the Assembly found, in the instructions to Sir Danvers
Osborne, how diligently the late governor and his advisers had
39. slandered and misrepresented them to the British Government. The
good results of a change in the executive were, however, at once
visible, and the Assembly promptly voted money for the defence of
the frontier, for the governor’s salary, for his arrears of pay as chief-
justice, for Indian presents, for his voyage to Albany, and indeed, for
everything reasonable. They added a complaint against Clinton, and
a defence of their conduct to the Crown and Lords of Trade, which
De Lancey sent to London.
The clouds of war which had gathered in the Ohio Valley now
broke, and M. Contrecœur occupied Fort Du Quesne. George
Washington began his career on the soil of the State of
Pennsylvania, in which his longest marches, deepest humiliations,
fiercest battles, and most lasting civil triumphs were won; and on
the 4th of July, 1754, honourably surrendered Fort Necessity. The
French drum-beat was now heard from Quebec to Louisiana. The
English were banished behind the Alleghanies, and their flag from
the Ohio Valley.
It was now vitally necessary that the colonies should form a
closer union for defence against French aggression and the inroads
of hostile savages. The Iroquois tribes had been able to unite
themselves in a stable form of federalism. Why could not the
thirteen colonies become confederate, and act with unity of
purpose? Besides so great an example on the soil before them, there
was the New England Confederation of 1643, which had been made
chiefly by men trained in a federal republic. Both the Plymouth men
and many of the leaders of New England had lived in the United
States of Holland, and under the red, white, and blue flag. There
they had seen in actual operation what strength is derived from
union. Concordia res parvæ crescunt (“By concord little things
become grand”), was the motto of the Union of Utrecht, familiar to
all; but in New York the republican motto Een-dracht maakt Macht
(“Union makes strength”) needed no translation, for its language
was the daily speech of a majority of the people.
It seemed now, at least, eminently proper that the Congress of
Colonies should be in the state settled first by people from a
republic, and at Albany, the ancient place of treaties, and at the spot
40. in English America where red and white delegates from the north,
east, west, and south can even now assemble without climbing or
tunnelling the Appalachian chain of mountains.
By direction of the Lords of Trade, the governments of all the
colonies were invited to meet at Albany, so that a solemn treaty
could be at one time made with all the Indian tribes, by all the
colonies, in the name of the king.
For treaty-making with the Iroquois, the most powerful of all the
Indian tribes, there was only one place,—Albany. Dinwiddie, of
Virginia, vainly wanted it at Winchester, Va., while Shirley, of
Massachusetts, jealous of New York, and a genuine politician, wished
to keep himself before the voters, and to come after the elections
were over. His party was more than his province or the country. As
the Indians had already, according to orders from England, been
notified, the New York Assembly declined to postpone time or place.
In Albany the streets were cleaned and repaired by order of the
City Council, and the delegates were given a public dinner at the
municipal expense. The Congress met in the City Hall on the 19th of
June, 1754, twenty-five delegates from nine colonies being present;
and whether in personal or in representative dignity formed the most
august assembly which up to this time had ever been held in the
Western World. The colonies were named in the minutes according
to their situation from north to south. All were represented, except
New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Georgia.
The business proper began when Johnson read a paper, which
was the official report of the Board of Commissioners on Indian
Affairs, in which the political situation was exposed. In it propositions
were made to build forts in the Onondaga and Seneca countries,
with a missionary in each place; to forbid the sale of rum, and to
expel and keep the Frenchmen out of the Indian castles. The
speech, prepared as the voice of the Congress, was delivered June
28 to the Indians who were present, and who had to be urged by
the governor to attend. After various conferences and much speech-
making on either side, including an address by Abraham, a scorching
philippic by King Hendrick,—both Mohawk sachems and brothers,—
and the distribution of gifts, the Indians went home apparently
41. satisfied. To the edification of delegates from some of the colonies,
where Indians were deemed incapable of understanding truth and
honour, they found that Governor De Lancey and Colonel Johnson
treated them as honest men who understood the nature of
covenants. Whereas the laws of Joshua and Moses had been
elsewhere applied only too freely to Indian politics by the elect of
Jehovah, the New York authorities really believed that the Ten
Commandments and the Golden Rule had a place in Indian politics.
Other questions of vital interest to the colonies were discussed.
On the fifth day of the session of the Congress, while waiting for the
Indians to assemble, a motion was made and carried unanimously
that “a union of all the colonies” was absolutely necessary for their
security and defence. A committee of six was appointed to prepare
plans of union, and from the ninth day until the end of the session
this important matter was under debate. On the 9th of July the
Congress voted “That there be a union of his Majesty’s several
governments on the continent, so that their councils, treasure, and
strength may be employed in due proportion against their common
enemy.” On the 10th of July the plan was adopted, and ordered to
be sent to London for the royal consideration.
How far this Albany plan of union, which looked to a Great
Council of forty-eight members meeting at Philadelphia under a
President-general, resembled or foreshadowed the National
Constitution of 1787, we need not here discuss. Certain it is, that
though the exact plan proposed was rejected, both by the colonies
and by Great Britain, the spirit of the movement lived on. Between
the year 1754 and that of 1776 was only the space of the life of a
young man. Between the “Congress”—the word in this sense was a
new coinage, dating from the meeting of colonial delegates in
Albany, after the burning of Schenectady in 1690—in the State
House at Albany and the one in Carpenter’s Hall in Philadelphia, the
time was even less. Certain it is that the assembly of representatives
of the colonies at Albany in 1690 was the first occasion of the
popular use of the word “Congress” as now used, and usually
written with a capital, while that in 1748 made it a word of general
acceptance in the English language. Before that time and meeting it
42. had other significations not so august; but while these have fallen
away, the other and chief signification in English remains. Further,
from this time forth the “Continental”—that is, the American as
distinct from the British, the independent as discriminated from the
transatlantic—idea grew. In common speech, the continental man
was he who was more and more interested in what all the colonies
did in union, and less in what the king’s ministers were pleased to
dictate. More and more after the Albany Congress Wycliffe’s idea
prevailed,—that even King George’s “dominion was founded in
grace” and not on prerogative. More and more the legend on the
coins, “Georgius Rex Dei Gratia,” faded into the nature of a fairy tale,
while the idea grew that the governments derive their authority from
the consent of the governed. To those wedded to the idea that
religion can live only when buttressed by politics, that a church owes
its life to the state, this increase of democratic doctrines was horrible
heresy, portending frightful immorality and floods of vice. A State
without a King, a Church without politically appointed rulers and the
support of public taxation, a coin without the divine name stamped
on it, were, in the eyes of the servants of monarchy, as so many
expressions of atheism. Not so thought the one member of the
Albany Congress who lived to sign the Declaration of Independence
and the National Constitution of 1787,—Benjamin Franklin, who
incarnated the state founded politically by Penn; nor the Quaker,
Stephen Hopkins, of Rhode Island, who lived to put his sign-manual
to Jefferson’s immortal document, July 4, 1776.