Washington and Coke exchanged messages and they would have been
congenial companions; for Coke, like Washington, was above all a
farmer and tried to improve agriculture. Never for a moment, he
said, had time hung heavy on his hands in the country. He began
on his estate the culture of the potato, and for some time the
best he could hear of it from his stolid tenantry was that it
would not poison the pigs. Coke would have fought the levy of a
penny of unjust taxation and he understood Washington. The
American gentleman and the English gentleman had a common
outlook.
Now had come, however, the hour for political separation. By
reluctant but inevitable steps America made up its mind to
declare for independence. At first continued loyalty to the King
was urged on the plea that he was in the hands of evil-minded
ministers, inspired by diabolical rage, or in those of an
"infernal villain" such as the soldier, General Gage, a second
Pharaoh; though it must be admitted that even then the King was
"the tyrant of Great Britain." After Bunker Hill spasmodic
declarations of independence were made here and there by local
bodies. When Congress organized an army, invaded Canada, and
besieged Boston, it was hard to protest loyalty to a King whose
forces were those of an enemy.
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