"Everywhere, however, was found an intermixture of creeds, and consequently the need of toleration had been experienced. Laxity of morals and of conduct was alleged against the communities of the Anglican Church. In the middle of the eighteenth century a low tone of religious sentiment was general. The revival of fervor, which was incited then by the Wesleys, was widely spread by Whitefield in America, and Methodism was making itself felt throughout the country. The Baptists were spreading in different colonies and were acquiring influence by their earnest simplicity. They favored liberty in all forms and became warm partisans of the revolutionary movement." [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL When the third attack was made, and the Americans' ammunition was exhausted with the first volley, a desperate hand-to-hand struggle followed. General Warren was fighting heroically when a British officer recognized him, seized a musket from a private and shot him dead.] CHAPTER IV. THE REVOLUTION--THE WAR IN NEW ENGLAND. Clauses of the Revolution--The Stamp Act--The Boston Tea Party--England's Unbearable Measures--The First Continental Congress--The Boston Massacre--Lexington and Concord--The Second Continental Congress--Battle of Bunker Hill--Assumption of Command by Washington--British Evacuation of Boston--Disastrous Invasion of Canada. CAUSES OF THE REVOLUTION. England was never guilty of greater folly than in the treatment of her American colonies after the close of the French and Indian War. As has been said, she was oppressed by burdensome taxation and began seeking excuse for shifting a large portion of it upon the shoulders of her prosperous subjects across the sea, who had always been ready to vote money and give their sons to help in the wars which were almost solely for the benefit of the mother country. It has been shown that the intercolonial conflicts were of no advantage to the colonies which were dragged into them and suffered greatly therefrom. Since the surrounding territory would soon be necessary for the expansion of the Americans, they had much to gain by the defeat of the French and their expulsion from America; but they had done their full share, and it was unjust to demand further sacrifices from them. PASSAGE OF THE STAMP ACT. Hardly had peace been declared, when, in 1764, the British government asserted that it had the _right_ to tax her colonies. The latter paid little attention to the declaration, but were rudely awakened in 1765 by the passage of the Stamp Act, which was to go into effect in November of that year. It decreed that thenceforward no newspapers or pamphlets could be printed, no marriage-certificate given, and no documents used in lawsuits, unless stamps were attached, and these could be bought only from British agents.