History of the United States, from the discovery of the American continent

LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF
CALIFORNIA
SANTA CRUZ

SANTA CRUZ

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Gitt ot

Mr. Henry J.McFarlancJ

SANTA CRUZ

Painted ly M. Brown.

d by T. House.

ENGRAVED FOll BANCROFT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES,
FROM THE ORI&INAL PICTURE , PAINTED FOR JOHN ADAMS, IN 1786.

HISTORY

OF THB

UNITED STATES,

FROM THE

DISCOVERT OF THE AMERICAN CONTINENT.

BY

GEORGE BANCROFT.

VOL. VIE.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY.
1860.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by

GEORGE BANCROFT,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

THE

AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

BY

GEOKGE BANCKOFT.

VOL. H.

BOSTON:

LITTLE, BROWN & COMPANY
1860.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by

GEORGE BANCROFT,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.

E

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. June 17 — July, 1775.

Censure on Howe's attack on Bunker Hill, 25 — Sufferings of the British,
25 — Great loss of officers, 26 — Death of Abercrombie, 26 — Election of Ameri-
can major generals, 26 — Artemas Ward, 26 — Charles Lee, 26 — Opinion of
him in England, 26 — His character, 27 — His demand of indemnity, 28 — New
York proposes Schuyler, 28 — Montgomery's opinion, 29— Schuyler's charac-
ter, 29 — Choice of Israel Putnam, 29 — His previous career, 29 — His charac-
ter, 29 — Horatio Gates Adjutant General, 30— His rank, 30— His character, 30
— Incompetency of the general officers, 30 — Thomas Jefferson enters Congress,
30— Election of brigadiers, 30 — Seth Pomeroy chosen, 30 — His character, 30 —
He declines, 30 — Richard Montgomery chosen, 30 — His character, 31 —
Choice of David Wooster, 31— Of William Heath, 31— Of Joseph Spencer, 31
—Of John Thomas, 31— Of John Sullivan, 31— Of Nathaniel Greene, 31—
Washington's farewell to Congress, 31 — His departure from Philadelphia, 31
— His reception at New York, 32 — Reception of Governor Tryon, 33 — Ad-
dress of New York Congress to Washington, 33 — His answer, 34 — New York
plan of accommodation, 34 — Congress expects but one campaign, 34 — Its finan-
cial system, 35 — Increase of the army, 35 — Congress authorizes the invasion
of Canada, 35 — Causes of taking up arms, 36 — Measures advised by John
Adams, 37 — Franklin's message to Strahan, 37 — Second petition of congress to
the King, 37- — Union announced, 38 — Congress addresses the people of Great
Britain, 38 — Address to London, 39 — Appointment of Richard Penn as agent
for congress, 39 — The alternative proposed, 39.

CHAPTER XLIL

THE ARMY ROUND BOSTON. July, 1775.

Washington, Miffiin, Reed, Lee, Gates, at Cambridge, 40 — Popularity
of Washington, 41 — Trumbull's Message, 41— State of the army, 41— Wash-
ington visits the American posts, 41 — Their condition, 42 — Sufferings of the
inhabitants of Boston, 42 — Number of the British army, 42 — The American
lines. 43 — Stockbridge Indians, 43 — Numbers of the American army,

VOL. VIII. A*

6 CONTENTS.

Their appearance, 44 — The camp, 44 — Its deficiencies, 44 — Washington intro-
duces reforms, 45 — Lee tries to negotiate, 46 — Burgoyne's letter to Lee, 46—
Lee's clandestine letter to Burgoyne, 46 — Various skirmishes and expeditions,
47 — Declaration for taking up arms read to the colony, 47 — Town meetings in
Massachusetts, 47 — Election of house of representatives. 48 — Boston town
meeting held at Concord, 48 — Attack on Boston lighthouse, 48 — Organization
of government in Massaschusetts, 48 — Alarm of General Gage, 48 — He wishes
to transfer the army .to New York, 49 — Skirmish at the lighthouse, 49 —
Washington misjudges the New England people, 49 — Their benevolence and
zeal, 49 — Their exertions, 50.

CHAPTER XLIII.

CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVERT WAR. July, 29 August, 1775.

Inefficiency of the continental congress as an executive body, 51 — Wash-
ington's reports, 51 — His wants, 52 — Reports from Schuyler, 52 — The want of
discipline, 52 — Measures adopted by Congress, 52 — Congress gives authority
to employ troops, 52 — and recommendations to provide them, 53 — Franklin
proposes a confederacy, 53 — Its conditions, 53 — Its component members, 53 —
Its perpetuity, 53 — Two great principles of his plan, 54 — The proposition
reserved, 54 — Georgia joins the Union, 54 — Lord North's proposal referred to a
committee, 54 — Jamaica remembered, 54 — America and Ireland, 54 — Ameri-
cans complain to the Irish of Howe, 55 — British attempts to gain the aid of the
savages, 55 — Apathy of Congress, 55 — Indignation of John Adams, 56 — His
letters intercepted, 56 — Jefferson's paper in reply to Lord North's proposal,
56— Reasons for rejecting his proposal, 56 — Proposal for a truce, 57 — Post
Office established. 57 — Congressional system of finances, 57 — How it was
proposed to redeem the paper money, 58 — Contrast of the finances of Britain,
58 — Congress refuses to open the American ports, 58 — Congress adjourns, 59.

CHAPTER XLIY.

AMERICA AWAITS THE* KING'S DECISION. August — September, 1775.

Duties of Washington, 60 — His position, 60 — His want of money, powder,
arms, 61— Divisions of the array, 61 — Washington's measures to obtain a lit-
tle powder, 61 — Spirit of the country. 62 — The riflemen, 62 — Character of
Morgan, 62 — Zeal of his company, 63— Cresap and his company, 63 — Pennsyl-
vania riflemen, 64 — Alacrity of the new recruits, 64 — Influence of the riflemen on
European tactics, 65 — Linzee beaten off from Cape Ann, 65 — Artifices of Gage,
66 — His ill-treatment of American prisoners, 66 — Washington remonstrates, 66
— Foolish insolence of Gage, 66 — Washington and the people as the source of
power, 66 — Retaliation threatened, 67 — Stanhope breaks his parole, 67 — State
of the British troops in Boston, 67 — Timorousness of Gage, 67 — Boston more
closely invested, 67 — Washington rejects the plan of an expedition against

CONTENTS. 7

Nova Scotia, 68 — He directs an invasion of Canada from Ticonderoga, 68 —
And by way of the Kennebec, 68 — His policy with regard to coast defence, 68
— His difficulties and wants, 68 — His fortitude, 70.

CHAPTER XLY.

CONDITION OF THE CENTRAL PEOVINCES. July — October, 1775.

Moderation the wise policy for tho central provinces, 71 — System of Wil-
liam Franklin in New Jersey, 71 — Provincial congress of New Jersey, 71 —
Provides for defence, 72 — Lord Stirling, 72 — Pennsylvania, 72 — Willing and
its first convention, 72 — Reed and its second convention, 73 — Mistakes of
policy, 73 — The social influence of Philadelphia, 73 — Influence of the pro-
prietary governor, 74 — Dickinson misuses his power, 74 — Insincerity of the
assembly, 74 — It appoints a committee of safety, 75 — Firmness of Delaware
75 — Mackean, 75 — Unanimity of Maryland, 75 — Its conservative measures, 76
— It restores equality to the Catholic, 76 — Charles Carroll, 76 — Lukewarm-
ness of Dulany, 76 — Character of Samuel Chase, 76 — Spirit of the colony, 77,
— The proprietary, 77 — Prudence of Eden, the lieutenant-governor, 77 — Con-
vention at Annapolis, 78 — Its spirit and measures, 78 — It places Catholic and
Protestant on an equality, 78 — Rashness of Dunmore in Virginia, 78 — Mode-
ration of the assembly, 79 — Arrogance of Dunmore, 79 — Unanimit}^ of tho
assembly, 79 — Regal authority abdicated, 79 — Virginia convention at Rich-
mond, 80 — Its measures, 80 — Military rank of Patrick Henry, 80 — Richard
Bland. 80 — His retirement, 81 — George Mason elected to congress, 81 — He
declines, 81 — Election of Francis Lee, 81 — Choice of a committee of safety
81 — Edmund Pendleton, 82 — Virginia issues more paper money, 82 — Taxa-
tion suspended, 82 — Declaration of the convention, 82 — Spirit of Jefferson, 82.

CHAPTER XLVL

GEORGIA AND THE OAEOLINAS. July — October, 1775.

Governor of Georgia for conciliation, 83 — Provincial congress, 83 — Its
measures, 83— Movements of the people, 84— State of South Carolina, 84—
Advice of its governor, 84 — News of Bunker Hill battle reaches Charleston,
85— A session of the South Carolina legislature, 85— The patriots, 85— The
council, 85 — The condition of the interior, 85 — Herdsmen, Germans and others,
86 — Despised by the planters, 86 — Emissaries visit them, 86 — Hostilities and
a truce, 87 — Andrew Pickens, 87 — Many of the inhabitants royalists, 87 — •
Danger from the savages, 87 — Stuart, the Indian agent, 87 — Gage and the
savages, 87 — His order, 88 — Stuart obeys the order, 89 — What the deputy
agent thought of employing the Cherokees, 89 — Measures for defence of
Charleston, 89 — Proposal to arrest the governor, 89 — Defeated by Rawlins
Lowndes, 89 — Moultrie seizes Fort Johnson, 90 — Pinckney's courage, 90 —
Post taken at Haddrell's Point, 90 — Troops on James Island, 91 — Governor

O CONTENTS.

Martin's opinion, 91— Confidence of Lord William Campbell, 91 — Spirit of
North Carolina, 92— Robert Howe, 92— Martin retreats, 92— His boastful of-
fers, 93— The Highlanders in North Carolina, 93— Allan and Flora Mac-
donald, 94 — Concert of Macdonald with Martin, 94 — Spirit of the people on
Albemarle Sound, 95 — Ashe and Harnett barn Fort Johnson, 95 — Return of
Caswell, 95 — Congress of North Carolina, 96 — Johnston its president, 96 —
Martin's proclamation, 96 — The Regulators and Highlanders, 96 — The tempo-
rary popular government, 96 — Character of Caswell, 97 — Hooper proposes
Franklin's plan of a confederacy, 97 — Johnston proposes delay, 97 — The con-
vention addresses the inhabitants of the British empire, 98 — Ashe, 98 — Nash,
98 — Cornelius Harnett, 98 — Harnett chosen president of the provincial coun-
cil, 98

CHAPTER XLYIL

EFFECT OF BUNZEB HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. July 25 — August, 1775.

Satisfaction of the king, 99 — Uneasiness of Lord North, 99 — Burke mis-
judges, 99— Effect of news of Bunker Hill battle, 100— Opinion of Yergennes, 100
— Animation of the king, 100 — He will have twenty thousand men in America,
100 — Barrington's hesitation, 100 — Ministers supersede Gage, 100 — Hano-
verian troops taken into British pay, 101 — The senate of Hamburg befriend
the embarkation, 101 — The British secretary provokes France, 102 — Self-
possession of Vergennes, 102 — He desires to send an emissary to America, 102 —
Selection of De Bonvouloir, 103 — The message of Vergennes to the Americans,
103 — The emissary sails for America, 104 — Vergennes amazed at the folly of
the British ministers, 104 — American affairs a subject of attention in Russia,
104— The Empress Catharine the Second, 104 — Her character, 104 — Character
of her first minister, 105 — Alexis Orloff, 106— Potemkin, 106— Indifference
of Frederic of Prussia, 106 — Of the court of Moscow, 107 — Gunning's abrupt
proposal, 107 — Courteous answer of the empress, 107 — Gunning deceives him-
self and misleads his government, 107 — Want of decision in the American
congress, 108 — Georgia joins the confederacy, 108 — Vermont wishes to do so,
108 — Kentucky and its representative, 108 — Dickinson and John Adams, 109
— Jealousy of New England, 109— Gadsden defends New England, 109— Slow
movements of congress. 109 — Negroes allowed to serve in the army, 110
— Washington complains of neglect, 110 — Congress send a committee to the
camp, 110 — Gage embarks for England, 11 1 — Howe takes the command at Bos-
ton, 111 — Committee from congress hold a conference at Cambridge, 112 —
Friendship of Franklin and Washington, 112— Fate of Church, 112 — Mowat
burns Falmouth, 113 — Effect of this on Washington and others, 113 — Origin
of the American navy, 114 — Washington employs armed vessels, 114 — The
new legislature of Pennsylvania take the oath of allegiance to the king, 114 —
Remonstrance of the committee of Philadelphia, 114 — Congress uncertain, 115
— New Hampshire asks leave to organize a government, 115 — Answer de-
layed, 115.

CONTENTS. y

CHAPTER XLYIIL

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. August, 1775.

Historic candor and love of truth, 116 — History must not hide faults, 116
— Nor neglect the influence of principles, 117 — Unity of the material universe,
117 — And that of intelligence, 118 — Experience confirms intuitive reason, 117
—Duty of the historian to be unbiassed, 118 — "Why candor is possible, 118 —
Antagonism in society of unity and individuality, and their conciliation, 118 —
Antagonism of right and fact, and their conciliation, 119 — There is a reason for
every party, 119 — Impartiality with regard to men wins general sympathy,
120 — Impartiality with regard to states, 120 — Why British writers and others
find it difficult to regard America impartially, 121 — Haughtiness their danger,
121 — Why Americans can more easily be impartial, 121 — Republicans less
likely to speak ill of princes than men of rank, 122 — Americans discriminate
between the English people and a transient ministry, 122 — Question at issue, 122
— Antagonism between separated representative governments and unity of the
central power, 122 — Solution by James the Second, 123 — Conflict avoided from
1688 to 1763, 123 — Plan formed in the ministry of Bute, 123— Townshend
brings it forward, 123 — Plan modified by George Grenville's whiggism, 124 —
Grenville's theory finds no support, 124— Theory of William Pitt, 125— Coun-
ter theory of Rockingham, 125 — Rockingham's prevails, 125 — Antagonism be-
tween the absolute power of Parliament and the rights of the Americans, 125
— Question raised on Parliamentary reform. 125 — Townshend conforms to Rock,
ingham's theory, and in conformity to it taxes the Colonies. 126 — His pream-
ble, 126- Lord North defends the tax on tea, 126— Why he was not in the
right, 127 — The king and the East India Company, 127 — Advice of Hutchin-
son adopted, 127 — And exceeded, 127 — Massachusetts resists, 128 — The king
threatens blows, 128 — Blood shed, 128 — Taxation and representation insepara-
ble, 128 — Taxation and legislation inseparable, 128 — The Americans propose
a compromise, 128 — Richard Penn and the second petition to the king, 129.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OP CONGRESS.

August, September, in Europe. — November in America.

Penn's zeal and celerity, 130— He is totally neglected, 130— The king will
not see him, 131 — Force to be employed. 131 — The king no dissembler, 131 —
insists in proclaiming the Americans rebels, 131 — His peace of mind, 131 —
Britain had nothing to gain by the strife, 131 — But the king not opposed, 132
— His irrevocable proclamation, 132 — Its bearing on Chatham, Rockingham,
and their friends, 133 — Amazement of Vergennes, 133 — Ministry mean that
Boston should be burnt, 134 — The French ambassador compares the king to
Charles the First, 134 — Vergennes sees the king has left himself no retreat,

10 CONTENTS.

134 — Reception of the proclamation in America, 134 — Opinion of the wife of
John Adams, 135 — Massachusetts institutes an admiralty court, 130 — Opin-
ion of James Warren, 136 — Joseph Hawley advises a national parliament of
two houses, 136 — Effect of the proclamation on Congress, 137 — New Hampshire
encouraged to establish a government, 137 — And South Carolina, 137 — The
legislature of Pennsylvania in alarm, 138 — Dickinson reports a set of in-
structions to the Pennsylvania delegates, 138 — Mischievous consequences of the
act, 139 — Concessions to the patriot party, 140 — Thomas Paine encouraged
by Franklin to write, 140 — General disinclination to separate from Great
Britain, 140— Zubly of Georgia falls off, 141 — Courage of John Adams, 141—
His advice, 141 — Progress of measures in the continental congress, 142 —
Appointment of a committee for foreign correspondence, 142 — Clear sighted-
ness of Jefferson, 143 — Delusion of Dickinson, 143.

CHAPTER L.

HOW GEOBGE THE THIED FAEED IN HIS BID FOB EIJSSIANS. September, Oc-

tober, 1775.

Exasperation of parties in England, 144 — Language of Wilkes, 144 — Forti-
tude of George the Third, 145 — One person sent to the tower, 145 — Loyal
addresses, 145 — But no enlistments, 145 — Wariness of Vergennes, 146 — •
Beaumarchais in London, 146 — Hastens to Paris, 146 — His memorial to the
king, 146 — Receives a new commission, 146 — Reasonings of Vergennes, 147 —
Henry the Fourth of France refuses foreign troops, 147 — The hereditary prince
of Hesse Cassel , offers a regiment, 147 — His meanness, 148 — Application to
Holland for the Scottish brigade, 148— Neutrality of Holland. 148 — Germany
a recruiting ground, 148— The King writes for troops to Catharine of Russia,
148 — The letter, 149 — Gunning is to ask for twenty thousand men, 149 — A
project of a treaty is prepared, 149 — Timely coolness of the empress, 150 —
Her excellent advice, 150 — Gunning put upon the defensive, 150 — The em-
press recommends unity and concession, 150 — Gunning applies for troops to
Panin, 151 — He is deceived by Panin's manner, 151 — A question of veracity
between the king and the empress, 151 — The empress refuses her troops, 152
— Gunning argues the case at large to Panin, 152 — He offers to take fifteen
thousand, 152 — The empress will not give him an audience, 153 — Debate in the
Russian council, 153 — Her policy and her honor implicated, 153 — The em-
press is both flattered and offended, 154 — Her sarcastic answer, 154 — Her let-
ter to the king not an autograph, 155 — Gunning comes down to ten thou-
sand men, 155 — Panin declines a further discussion, 155 — Curiosity of
Europe, 155 — False reports, 155 — Panin sets them at rest, 155 — Gunning
takes his leave of the empress, 156.

CONTENTS. 11

CHAPTER LI.

PAELIAMENT is AT ONE WITH THE KING. October — December, 1775.

Gibbon proposes to go and see the Russian camp, 157 — The king sur-
prised at the refusal and its manner, 157 — He maintains his fortitude, 157 —
War to be transferred to New York. 158 — Expedition against the southern colo-
nies, 158 — Barrington's caution, 158 — The king is the champion of parliament,
159 — The Duke of Grafton advises concessions and reconciliation, 159 — His
remonstrance unheeded, 1GO — Grafton's interview with the king, 160 — The
king's speech on the opening of the session of parliament, 160 — He calls the
Americans rebels, 160 — He makes a false issue, 161 — Speech of Adams in
the house of commons, 161 — Of Lyttelton, 161 — The house sustain the king,
161— Lord North wavering, 162— Speech of Fox, of Adair, 162— Of Elliot,
162— Of Rigby, 163— Shelburne on Franklin, 163— Address from the Universi-
ty of Oxford, 163 — Lord Stormont and the king of France, 163 — Stormont
and Vergennes, 164 — Speech of the Duke of Manchester, 164 — Grafton quits
office, 165 — Richard Penn's examination, 165 — Richmond's motion rejected,
165 — Changes in the ministry, 165 — Character of lord George Germain, 166 —
Burke brings forward a bill for composing troubles, 167 — Germain's reply, 167
—The ministers look for support to German princes, 167 — The ministry not
popular in England, 167 — Not the true representative of England, 168— The
Irish house of commons and America, 168 — Debate 168 — The ministry ob-
tain four thousand men from the Irish parliament. 169 — Lord North brings
forward a bill prohibiting American commerce, 169 — Commissioners to be ap-
pointed with powers to grant pardons. 170 — Atrocious speech of Mansfield,
170 — The bill adopted, 170 — The king prefers American independence to a
recognition of American principles, 171 — Position of the Rockingham party,
171— Opinion of Robertson, 171— Of Millar, 172— Of David Hume, 172— Of
Adam Smith, 173— Of Josiah Tucker, 174r-0f Soame Jenyns, 174— The au-
thor of American independence, 175.

CHAPTER LIL

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. August — November, 1775.

Carleton proclaims the Americans as traitors, 175 — Acquiescence of the
French nobility, 175 — Of the Canadian clergy, 176 — Instincts of the peasantry,
177 — Interposition of the bishop, 177 — Schuyler sends Brown into Canada,
177 — Seth Warner promoted, 177 — Schuyler hesitates about invading Canada,
178 — Brown returns and reports, 178 — Richard Montgomery, 178— His pre-
vious career, 178 — The Livingstons, 179 — Montgomery in the New York con-
vention, 179 — Accepts the office of brigadier, 179 — His advice, 180 — His part-
ing from his wife, 180— Washington urges on the invasion of Canada, 180—
Montgomery moves forward without Schuyler's orders, 181 — Schuyler em-

12 CONTENTS.

barks for St. John's, 181— Schuyler retreats, 181— His letter to congress, 182
— Montgomery invests St. John's, 182— Rashness of Ethan Allen, 183— He
attempts to surprise Montreal, 183 — Is defeated and taken prisoner, 184 —
He is put in irons and sent to England, 184 — Montgomery in want of good
officers, 184 — Macpherson, 184— Complaint of the New Englanders, 185— Of
the Yorkers, 185 — General insubordination, 185 — Carleton unable to relieve
St. John's. 186— His humanity, 186— The Americans capture the fort in
Chambly, 186— Gain of powder, 187 — Siege of St. John's, 187 — Vain attempts
to raise the siege, 187 — The place surrenders, 188 — Montgomery enters Mon-
treal, 188 — His political plans for Canada, 188 — He resolves to go down to
Quebec, 189.

CHAPTER LIII.

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. September — November, 1775.

Arnold and the expedition against Quebec, 190 — His character, 190 —
Roger Enos, 190— Other officers. 191— -Washington and Lord Chatham, 191
— Washington's address to the Canadians, 191 — The party reach the Kenne-
bec, 191— Their manner of travelling, 192— The difficulty of their march, 192
—Their progress, 183— Enos deserts, 193 — They reach the portage, 194 — Their
sufferings, 194— Want of food, 194— They reach the Chaudiere, 195— The
parish of St. Mary, 195 — Arnold's coming known at Quebec, 196 — Arnold at
Point Levi, 196 — Quebec prepared to resist him, 196 — His party crosses the
river, 197 — His feeble condition, 197 — He is too weak to attack Quebec, 197 —
No hope unless from a rising of the townspeople, 198 — He retires to Point
aux Trembles, 198.

CHAPTER LIY.

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. November, December, 1775.

Carleton escapes to Quebec, 199 — Prescott and the flotilla captured. 199 —
Carleton orders off all the doubtful, 200— His means of defence, 200— Mont-
gomery's army, 200 — Congress neglects him, 201 — His junction with Arnold
201 — He appears before Quebec, 201 — He hopes to carry it by storm, 202 —
He summons Carleton to surrender the city, 202 — His batteries, 202 — Carle-
ton's resoluteness, 203 — Montgomery's desperate situation, 203 — He visits the
spot where Wolfe fell, 204 — Dissension among his men, 204 — Council of war
decide on attacking the lower town, 206 — Preparation for the assault, 208 — •
Plan of the attack, 206— Montgomery leads on his men, 206 — Roughness of
the path, 206 — They are separated, 206— Montgomery is stopped by a block-
house, 206 — Its garrison on the alert, 207 — Montgomery leads the attack, 207—
The death of himself and others, 208— Campbell orders a retreat, 208— Arnold
leads the attack on the Northeast, 208 — He is wounded, 209 — Morgan's com-
pany carry a barricade, 209 — Effect of the cold, 209 — Fighting in the street,
209 — The Americans retire to stone houses, 210 — Death of Hendricks, 210 —

CONTENTS. 13

A sally, 210 — The party surrender. 210 — Loss of the Americans, 210 — Mac-
pherson, 211 — Montgomery, 211 — His character, 211— Grief at his death, 211
— Eulogies on him in the British parliament, 212.

CHAPTEK LV.

THE BOYAL GOVEENOE OF VIEGINIA INVITES THE SEBVANTS AND SLAVES TO

EISE AGAINST THEiE MASTEES. November, December, 1775.

Temper of the central colonies, %L3 — New Jersey assembly addressed by
Dickinson, 214— By Jay, 214— By Wythe, 215— Intrigues of Tryon, 215— Firm
ness of the New York convention, 215 — John Morin, Scott and Macdougall,
215 — Mutual attraction of France and the colonies, 215 — Arthur Lee and
Dumas. 216 — De Bonvouloir arrives in Philadelphia, 216 — His interview with
the committee of congress, 216 — His report to the French minister, 217—
Its importance, 217 — Distress of the army for want of supplies, 217 — Few
enlist, 218 — The eagerness of the New England men for paltry gains. 218 —
The Connecticut troops leave in December, 218 — Washington complains, 219,
— Trumbull pleads for the deserters, 219— Militia called out, 219 — Lee still
corresponding with Burgoyne, 220 — He visits Newport, 220 — Dunmore
plunders Holt's printing office, 220 — Blockade of Hampton, 221 — Virginia re-
sists by force, 221 — George Nicholas fires the first gun, 221 — The British are
not able to land, 221— They renew the attack, 222 — And are driven off, 222 —
The Great Bridge, 222— Dunmore's foray, 222 — Orders a fort at Great Bridge,
223 — Dunmore proclaims martial law, 223 — Invites servants, negroes, and
others to rise against their masters, 223 — State of the negro population, 223
— Dunmore's extensive plans, 224 — Excitement in Virginia, 224 — Congress
invites Virginia to form a government, 224 — Wrath of Washington, 224 — Plea
of the Virginians, 225 — Why the slaves did not generally rise, 225 — Many
people join the British standard, 226— Norfolk left to the tories, 226— Patriots
resolve to take it, 226 — They approach the great bridge, 226 — Dunmore
sends a party to attack them, 227 — Desperate courage of Fordyce, 227 — The
British are repulsed with great loss, 227 — Humanity of the victors, 228 —
Consternation of the Scotch in Norfolk, 228 — Crowds .of people and runaway
negroes fly to the British ships, 228 — The Americans take possession of Nor-
folk, 228 — Dunmore receives arms for the negroes, 229 — Demands provisions
of the town, 229— Is refused, 229— Purposes vengeance, 229.

CHAPTEK LYI.

THE NEW TEA.E. 1776. January, 1776.

Bombardment of Norfolk, 230 — The town is burnt by Dunmore's order
230 — Progress of the flames, 231 — Dunmore alarmed at what he had done
231 — Insinuation against the people in the town, 232 — Washington's anger,
232— The American banner with stripes, 232 — Free negroes retained in the

VOL. VIII. B

14 CONTENTS.

continental service, 232— Committee of congress on the subject, 232— Decision
of congress, 233— Washington left without money, 233— His diligence, 234 —
His trials and secret thoughts, 234— His difficulties, 235— His opinion in favor
of independence, 235— Opinion of Greene, 235— Change in the popular mind,
236— Thomas Paine, 236 — He publishes Common Sense, 236— His argument
from Scripture against monarchy, 236— Majority of kings bad ones, 237—
Kings multiply civil wars, 237— Kings of no use, 237— The appeal to arms,
237 — The worth of the cause, 237 — Great Britain of no use as a, protector,
238— Britain not the parent country, 238— The connection of no advantage.
238— America should steer clear of European wars, 238— Plea for separation,
239— The territory too vast to remain dependent, 239— Independence neces-
sary for peace, 240 — And for prosperity, 240 — The proper time for it, 240—
France and Spain cannot aid British subjects, 241 — Independence a necessity,
241— A natural right, 241— Paine's pamphlet opportune, 242— Samuel Adams
and Wythe for confederation, 242— Opposition of the proprietary party, 242—
Wilson against independence, 242 — Samuel Adams counteracts him, 242 —
Cushing superseded by Gerry, 243— Zeal of Samuel Adams, 243 — He is sec-
onded by Franklin, 243 — Hesitancy of New Hampshire, 243— Of the council
of Massachusetts, 244 — Maryland convention against independence, 244 — In-
trigues of Lord Drummond, 244 — Commissioners expected, 244 — Franklin
brings up his plan of a confederation, 245 — Is outvoted, 246 — Testimony of
the Quakers, 245 — Votes of congress, 245 — New Jersey governor arrested)
245 — Georgia governor arrested, 246 — He escapes, 246 — Measures of the Vir-
ginia convention, 246 — Muhlenberg and his regiment, 246 — The restrictive
system, 247 — Virginia demands the opening of the ports, 247 — Progress to-
wards independence, 247 — It sprung from the people, 247 — Agency of the
people in all reforms, 248 — The criterion of common sense, 248 — Its decision.
249.

CHAPTER LYIL
BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. November, 1775 — February, 1776.

The king cannot carry on the war with British troops, 250 — He asks of
Holland the Scottish brigade, 250 — Its origin, 251 — Arguments for the loan}
251— States general divided, 251— Opinion of Van der Capellen, 251— The
connection with England an injury to Holland, 251 — The republic of Holland
should not war on the free, 252 — Unwillingness to offend England, 252 —
Form of the refusal of the brigade, 253— State of Germany, 253— War made a
profitable trade, 253 — Offers of adventurers, 253— Scruples of the king about
kidnapping, 254 — He contracts for German recruits, 254 — In violation of the
law of the empire, 254 — His success, 254 — His recruiting stations, 255— He re-
solves to apply to Brunswick and Hesse Cassel, 255 — Unnecessary anxiety, 255
— Eagerness of the Prince of Waldeck, 256 — Faucittgoes to Brunswick, 256 — •
Character of Duke Charles, 256— Prince Ferdinand, 256— His character, 256
— He approves the British proposal, 257 — The reigning duke concurs, 257—

CONTENTS. 15

Chaffering on the price of troops, 258— Price of every one killed, 258— Tariff
for the wounded, 258 — Pay and subsidy, 258— Von Riedesel, 258 — Numbers
furnished by Brunswick, 258 — Future life of Ferdinand, 259 — Faucitt at Cas-
sel, 259— The Hessians a nation of soldiers, 260— The landgrave, Frederic
the Second. 260— His character. 260— Life at Cassel, 261— Schlieffen, 261—
He promises great number of troops, 261 — The landgrave affects zeal for the
cause of princes, 261 — He drives a hard bargain, 262 — The settlement of the
subsidy, 262 — Small reduction in the Hessian taxes, 262 — The landgrave
gains on the killed and wounded, 263 — Gain on the pay of the Hessians, 263
—Gain on the sick, 263— On the clothing, 263— The high price stimulates the
landgrave, 264 — Discontent of his subjects, 254 — Of the troops, 264 — Gain in
the signing the treaty, 264— Character of the troops, 264— Of the officers, 265
— The landgrave gets his troops ready in time, 265 — Delay of England in pro-
viding transports, 265 — Transports badly fitted up, 266 — Frauds of con-
tractors, 266 — Personal zeal of the hereditary prince, 266 — His meanness,
266— His English, 266— The Prince of Waldeck fulfils his engagement, 267—
Prince of Anhalt Zerbest too crazy to be dealt with, 267 — Overture of the
elector of Bavaria, 268 — Debated in the commons on the treaties, 268 — Speech
of C umberland in the house of lords, 269 — Number of Hessians sent to Amer-
ica, 270 — Indignation of Frederic of Prussia, 270 — Germany the parent of
freedom, 271.

CHAPTER LVIII.

BEITAIN BEATS UP FOE EECKuiTS ix AMEEiCA. January — February, 1776.

Highlanders in the Mohawk Valley, 272 — Schuyler marches against Sir
John Johnson, 272 — The capitulation, 273— Schuyler refuses the command in
Canada, 273— Exposed position of New York, 273 — Queen's County, 274 —
West Chester, 274— Policy of the statesmen of New York, 274— Clamor of
Isaac Sears, 275 — He rifles the printing house of Rivington, 275 — The riot re-
sented, 275 — Representations of Sears to Lee, 275 — Disarming of the tories on
Long Island undertaken by congress, 276 — Lee asks of Washington to be sent
on the same business, 277 — Washington consents, 277 — Lee in Connecticut,
277 — Persuades Trumbull to call out two regiments, 278 — New York offended
by the interference, 278 — Lee makes a jest of it, 278 — The matter referred to
congress, 279 — Committee of congress meet committee of New York, 279 —
Arrival of Clinton and Lee, 279 — Many inhabitants leave the city, 279 — Hos-
tilities delayed, 279 — New York fortified, 280 — Lee shouts for independence
280 — General confidence in his military abilities, 280 — He begs money of New
York, 281 — The city reviled, 281 — Lee appointed to the southern command.
282— His arbitrary conduct in New York, 282— Lee at Phildelphia, 282— The
British expedition against the Carolinas, 282 — Anger of Dunmore, 283 — Mar-
tin organizes an insurrection in North Carolina, 283 — Meeting of Highlanders
and others at Cross Creek, 284 — An immediate rising resolved upon, 284 —
Hacdonald marches for Wilmington, 284 — Camp of Moore at Rockfish, 285—

16 CONTENTS.

Message between the two chiefs, 285 — Advance of Caswell, 285 — Macdonald
marches to intercept Caswell, 286 — Movements of Caswell, 286 — Lillington
takes post near Moore's Creek, 287 — Caswell joins Lillington, 287 — Caswell's
force, 287— Attacks of the loyalists, 288— Their discomfiture, 289— Their loss,
289— Spirit and confidence of North Carolina, 289— Highlanders and regu-
lators disarmed, 290 — Martin's promises and the result, 290.

CHAPTER LIX.
BOSTON DELIVEEED. February, March, 1776.

Destitute condition of Washington, 291 — He calls out militia, 291 — He
proposes an attack on the British, 292 — Occupations of the besieged army, 292
— Dorchester Heights, 292 — Washington prepares to occupy them, 292 — Rufus
Putnam, the engineer, 293 — Boston cannonaded, 293 — Skill of the commander-
in-chief, 293— The party intrench, 294— Washington on the heights of Dor-
chester, 294— Aspect of Boston, 295 — Of the country round about, 295— Ex-
peditions of the ministry, 295 — Consternation of the British in Boston at day-
break, 296— Howe's report, 296 — Contrast of the Americans and the British,
296 — Howe proposes an attack, 297 — Lord Percy commands the detachment,
297->-Spirit of Washington and the Americans, 297 — No attack made, 297 —
Howe's council of war advises to evacuate Boston, 298 — Despair of the loyal-
ists and refugees, 298 — The prospect before them, 298 — Disgrace to British
arms, 299 — Howe forced to hasten his departure, 299 — His false pretences, 300
— Ministry unprepared for his retreat, 300 — Joseph Brant, the Mohawk, and
Germain, 301 — The ministers demand unconditional submission, 301 — Con-
ciliation in the house of lords, 301 — Influence of the king, 301 — Washing-
ton occupies Nook Hill, 302 — Precipitate retreat of the British, 302 — Joy of
the citizens of Boston, 302 — The American troops enter Boston, 302 — The
supplies left behind, 302 — Washington orders troops to New York, 303 — Con-
dition of Boston, 303 — Its welcome to Washington, 303 — He attends the
Thursday lecture, 304 — Address to him by the Massachusetts legislature, 304
— Congress vote him a commemorative medal, 304 — Affection of New England
for him, 304 — The middling class and the aristocracy, 305 — Character of New
England, 305— Their institutions, 306— Scene round Bunker Hill, 306— Pros-
perity of Boston, 307.

CHAPTER LX.

THE FIHST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. February — April. 1776.

John Adams and Gerry in congress, 308 — Character of John Adams, 308 —
His vanity, 309 — His envy, 309 — His courage, 310 — His religious creed, 210 —
His thrift, 310— His anger, 311— His love of liberty, 311— His conduct, 312—
Changes in congress, 312 — Chase for independence, 313 — Wilson's failure, 313 —
Debate on opening the ports, 313 — George Wythe takes the lead. 314 — His

CONTENTS. 17

character, 314— His resolution is received for consideration, 314 — Joseph Reed
takes the oath of allegiance, 315 — Franklin does not, 315 — Congress disatisfied
with the eulogy on Montgomery, 315 — System of short enlistments, 315 — Wash-
ington's urgency for a change, 316— Opinions in congress, 316 — The debate, 317
—New England democratic, 317 — Division of the country into military depart-
ments, 317 — Washington applauds Mercer, 317 — Andrew Lewis, 317 — Further
issues of paper money, 318 — Committee on ways and means, 318 — Drummond's
intrigues, 318 — Silas Deane's character, 318 — Appointed commercial commis-
sioner to France, 319 — Debate on instructions for the commissioners to Cana-
da. 319— The British prohibition of American commerce, 319 — Privateers au
thorized, 320 — The committee for a preamble, 320 — Wythe's amendment is
successful, 320 — Opening the ports again considered, 320 — Prohibition of the
slave trade, 321 — Effect of it on the white race, 321 — Its effect on the negro
race in America, 321 — First proposal of colonization of negroes, 321 — Samuel
Hopkins writes against slavery, 322 — Virginia humane towards the negro,
322 — The colonies open their commerce to the world, 323 — The committee of
Philadelphia propose a convention, 323 — Opposition, 323 — The call suspend-
ed, 324— Dickinson nattered by the tories, 324— Robert Morris, 325— Con-
duct of Reed, 225 — The representative body in Pennsylvania enlarged, 326 —
Measures of the assembly, 326 — It renews its instructions against independ-
ence, 326 — Morris impatient for the British commissioners, 327 — Anxiety of
Duane, 327 — Commissioners scorned by Samuel Adams, 327 — Livingston and
Laurens, 328.

CHAPTER LXI.

TTTKGOT AND vEEGEXNES. March, April, 1776.

Louis the Sixteenth and the Americans, 329 — His confused ideas, 329—
Policy of Vergennes, 329 — Sartine, St. Germain, 330 — Maurepas, Malesherbe,
Turgot, 330 — Report of Bonvouloir, 330 — Considerations of Vergennes, 331 —
France should wish a continuation of the civil war, 331 — Causes of apprehension,
331 — Why Britain may make war on France and Spain, 331 — Hatred of France
by England, 332 — May be the basis of a coalition ministry, 332 — Professing
to prefer peace, Yergennes points towards war, 333 — Effect of continuance of
the war upon the Americans, 334 — They should receive secret aid, 334 — War
to be prepared for, 335— Turgot's plans of reform 335 — The king takes his
written opinion on American affairs, 335 — He foretells a revolution in the re-
lations of Europe and America, 336— The interest of France, 336— Probability
of American independence, 337 — Its effects on free trade, 337 — Its effect on
colonies of France and Spain, 337 — Independence of all colonies best for each
mother country, 338 — Especially for Spain, 338 — Americans not to be aided
by gifts of money, 339 — Spain not prepared for war, 339 — Nor France in her
finances, 340 — Turgot against making France a party to the war, 340—
Chastellux quoted, 341— Turgot the real protector of the throne and the aris-

VOL. VIII. B*

18 CONTENTS.

tocracy, 341— Intrigues of Turgot's enemies, 341— Sartine agrees with
Vergennes, 341 — Grimaldi's promises to share the expense of aiding America,
342 — France and Spain each contribute a million livres, 343 — Beaumarchais,
343 — Vergennes explains his conduct, 343 — Beaumarchais makes promises
to Arthur Lee, 343.

CHAPTER LXII.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE OAKOLINAS AND EHODE ISLAND. February — May, 1776.

South Carolina convention approves of the proceedings of congress. 345 —
Arrival of Gadsden, 345 — Flag of the navy, 346 — Gadsden for independence,
346 — Opinion divided, 346 — Gadsden exercises command, 346 — Moultrie or-
dered to Sullivan's Island, 346 — New issue of paper money, 347 — Hesitation
about instituting government, 347 — The prohibitory act received, 347 — There-
upon government established, 347 — A single executive, 347 — Very unequal
representation, 347 — Other provisions, 348 — John Rutledge president, 348 —
His speech, 348 — Ceremonial of inaugurating the government, 348 — The leg-
islature address the president, 349 — Condition of the inhabitants, 349 — Cour-
age of the planters, 350 — Resolution of the assembly, 350 — Speech of Rutledge
to them, 350 — His advice, 351 — His justification of the new constitution, 351 —
North Carolina, 352 — It votes an explicit sanction of independence, 352 South
Carolina courts declare the king to have abdicated, 353 — Nature of true recon-
cilement, 353— Great abilities of Rutledge, 353 — Arrival of Armstrong 354 —
Virginia, 354 — Lee's opinion, 354 — Eden's letters intercepted, 354 — Eden left
free on his parole, 354 — The new elections in Pennsylvania, 355 — Result in
Philadelphia. 355— Causes of it, 355— Fortitude of Rhode Island, 355— She
makes herself an independent republic. 356 — Washington at New York, 356 —
British forces to be concentrated there, 356 — The expedition against the
southern colonies, 356 — Great delays, 357 — Clinton's instructions, 357 —
Cornwallis arrives in Cape Fear River, 357— Resolution taken to go against
Charleston, 357— Sullivan's Island to be occupied, 358— Burning of Hooper's
house, 358— Robert Howe's plantation ravaged, 358— Howe and Harnett
proscribed, 358.

CHAPTER LXIII.

THE WAY TO EESTORE PEACE. May, 1776.

British ministers know not the science of government, 359 — Britain at
variance with herself, 359 — Sandwich for absolute authority, 360 — Concil-
iation not designed. 360 — Instructions to the British commisskmers, 360 — De-
sign against Connecticut and Rhode Island, 360 — Unconditional submission re-
quired, 361— Lord Howe, 361— Friends of liberty desponding, 361— Tax on
newspapers, 361 — Fox, his character, 361 — Richard Price, 361 — Honored by
the city of London, 352 — He cries for reform of parliament, 362 — Chastellux
on representative government, 362 — Opinions of Voltaire, Malesherbes, 362 —

CONTENTS. 19

Turgot, 362— Turgot dismissed from office, 363— De Clugny, 363— Effect of
Turgot's dismissal, 363 — Prophecy of Leibnitz, 364 — Corruption of Europe
364 — The age worships humanity, 364 — Refuses to look beyond the sense,
364— Conservatism, 365— The pride of unbelief, 365— Hume's philosophy, 366
— Scepticism uncreative, 366 — To be rejected, 366 — John Adams moves that
the people institute governments, 36V — He carries his motion, 367 — He re-
ports a preamble, 367 — A blow at proprietary governments, 368 — And a
complete independence, 368 — Debate upon it, 368 — The Pennsylvania dele-
gates decline to vote on the subject, 369 — The preamble adopted, 369 — It in-
volves independence, 369 — John Adams on government, 370 — Supports the
veto power, 370 — Difference between ancient and modern republics, 370 —
Principle of representation, 370 — Necessity of two branches in the legislature,
371 — Imperfect notion of a continental constitution, 371 — Education of the
people, 372.

CHAPTER LXIY.

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE EIGHTS OF MAN. May, June, 1776.

House of Burgesses in Virginia dissolve themselves, 373 — The Virginia
convention, 373 — Influence of convention, 373 — Other elements of population,
374 — Extent of claim of territory, 374 — Origin of Virginia institutions, 375 —
Politics of Virginia, 375— The Lees, 375— The family of Gary 375— Unan-
imity, 375 — Instructions of Buckingham county, 376 — Advice of the county
of Augusta, 376 — Petition from Transylvania, 376 — From "Watauga and
Holstein, 376 — Character of the convention, 377 — The conservative Pendleton
chosen president, 377 — The convention in committee of the whole, 378 —
Resolution for independence reported, 378 — And adopted, 378 — How it was
received, 378 — A committee on a declaration of rights, 378 — George Mason
upon it, 379 — Independence a necessity, 379 — His sincerity, 379 — He proposes
religious toleration, 380 — James Madison, 380 — He proposes equal religious
freedom instead of toleration, 380 — Virginia declaration of the rights of man,
381— End of government, 381— Of distinction of powers, 382— Of suffrage, 382
— Equal right to the free exercise of religion, 383 — Virginia founds her system
on immutable truth, 383.

CHAPTER LXY.

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE. May, June, 1776.

Washington for independence, 384 — Simultaneous acts in Virginia and in
congress, 384 — Maryland still hopes a reunion with Britain, 385 — Her new
instructions, 385 — The popular party in Pennsylvania hold the proprietary
government dissolved, 385 — Sermon of George Duffield, 385 — Meeting of
people in Court-house yard, 385 — John Bayard, 385 — Votes of the meeting
386 — A conference of committees, 386 — Incapacity of the proprietary govern-
ment, 386 — Dickinson keeps aloof, 386 — Conflict of parties in Philadelphia
387 — Union, the constitution, 387 — Petition against revolution, and another

20 CONTENTS.

for it, 388 — Uneasiness of the assembly, 388 — Report of new instructions, 388
— How Dickinson understood them, 389 — Eichard Henry Lee moves inde-
pendence, 389 — He is seconded by John Adams, 389 — The Pennsylvania
assembly adopt the new instructions, 390 — Great debate in Congress, 390 —
The opponents, 390— Remarks of Edward Rutledge, 390— All New England,
Virginia, and Georgia, for independence, 391 — How Joseph of Austria rea-
soned about the war, 391 — The empress, 392 — The vote on independence post-
poned, 392 — Committee of five to prepare the declaration, 393 — Committee to
digest a confederation, 392 — Important position of Dickinson on the com-
mittee, 398 — Committee for treaties, 393.

GHAPTEK LXYI.

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRiE. The Twenty-eighth of June, 1776.

Charleston menaced, 394 — Approach of the enemy, 394 — Activity of Rut-
ledge, 394 — Defences, 395 — Invading squadron and army, 395 — Clinton's
proclamation, 395 — He lands on Long Island, 396 — Arrival of Lee, 396 — He
proposes to abandon Sullivan's Island, 397 — Rutledge forbids it, 397 —
Moultrie, 397— The squadron passes the bar, 397— Charleston fortified, 398—
North Carolina regiments, 398 — Orders of Lee, 398 — Armstrong at Haddrell's
Point, 399 — Parker forms his plan. 399 — Clinton discovers there is no ford
between Long and Sullivan's Island, 399 — His inactivity, 399 — Muhlenberg's
regiment, 400 — Lee doubts Moultrie' s ability, 400 — Arrival of the Experiment,
400— Tonyn's letter, 400 — Confidence of Parker and the fleet, 401— Lempriere
and Moultrie, 401 — Morning of the twenty eighth, 401 — Moultrie's prepara-
tion for defence, 402— Garrison of his fort, 402— The fort, 402— Other posts
403— Signal for attack, 403— Watchfulness of Charleston, 403— Beginning of
the action, 404 — Moultrie fires slowly, 404 — Sends for powder, 405 — Clin-
ton's movements, 405 — He is repelled, 405 — Attempt against Haddrell's
Point, 406— Its ill success, 406— Jasper and the flagstaff, 406— State of the
garrison, 407— Macdaniel, 407— Effect of the fire on the Bristol, 407— Fate of
Morris, 408 — Parker expects Clinton's co-operation, 408 — Pause in the fire
from the fort, 408 — Its cause, 408 — Lee's neglect, 409 — Message from Rutledge,
409— Muhlenberg ordered to the island, 409 — Lee visits the fort, 409— Firing
continues at night, 410 — The fleet retire, 410 — Loss of the Americans, 410 —
The Acteon, 410 — Loss on the Bristol, 411— The Experiment, 411— Total
British loss, 411 — The army embark for New York, 412 — Consequences of the
action, 412 — Joy in Charleston, 412 — Lee reviews the garrison, 413 — Presen-
tation of banners, 413 — Susanna Elliott, 413 — Rutledge visits the garrison,
413 — The naming of Fort Moultrie, 414.

CHAPTEE LXVIL

THE RETEEAT FEOM CANADA. January — June, 1776.
Effect of Montgomery's death, 415 — The Americans round Quebec, 415 —
Messages of Wooster. 416 — Feeling in the colonies, 416 — March of citizens,

CONTENTS. 21

416 — Insurmountable obstacles, 417 — The Canadian clergy, 417 — The no-
bility, 417 — Wants of the American army, 41V — Relative difficulties of trans-
portation, 418 — Mission to the Oneidas, 418 — Wooster as commander, 419 —
Wooster before Quebec, 420 — His batteries, 420 — Incompleteness of the regi-
ments, 420 — Canadians become hostile, 421 — Congress sends larger detach-
ments from Washington's army, 421 — Washington's small force, 421 — He
detaches some of his best regiments, 422 — His own condition, 422 — Want of
hard money, 423 — A general wanted for Canada, 423 — Schuyler, Putnam,
Thomas, 423 — Commissioners to Canada, 423 — John Carroll, 423 — Arrival
of Thomas, 424 — State of the Siege, 424 — Council of war advises retreat,
424 — Arrival of British reinforcements, 424 — Americans attacked and beaten,
424 — Retreat to Sorel, 425 — More ships arrive at Quebec, 425 — Bedell at the
Cedars, 425 — The commissioners from congress advise the evacuation of
Canada, 426— Other views of congress, 426— Its inability, 427— Attack of
Forster on the Cedars, 427— Cowardice of Bedell, 427, of Butterfield, 427—
Sherburne taken, 427 — Arnold's movement for relief. 428 — Thomas taken
sick, 428 — Confusion in the army, 428 — Helpless zeal of congress, 428 —
Riedesel at Quebec, 429 — Death of Thomas, 429 — Sullivan as commander, 429
— Attempt on Three Rivers, 429 — Gallantry of Wayne, 430 — Expedition un-
successful, 430 — Loss of the Americans, 431 — Sullivan retreats, 431 — Arnold
joins him, 432— Halt at Isleaux Noix, 432— Appointment of Gates to the
northern command, 432 — Removal of the troops to Crown Point, 433 — Their
sufferings, 433.

CHAPTEE LXYIII.

THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED COLONIES DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. June,

July, 1776.

Independence not sudden, 434 — Virginia forms her constitution, 434 — No
attempt at social reforms, 435 — Parallelism of the British and the Virginia
constitution, 435 — Veto power, 435 — Braxton's scheme, 435 — The privy
council, 436 — Distribution of power, 436 — Territorial claim, 436 — Jeffer-
son's preamble, 436 — Government organized, 437 — Connecticut for inde-
pendence, 437 — Delaware's instructions, 438 — New Hampshire, 438 — Massa-
chusetts, 438— Safety of New England, 438— Position of New York, 438—
Its firmness, 439 — Its votes, 439 — The people consulted, 439 — Unanimity,
440 — Danger of the province, 440 — Weakness of Washington's army, 440 —
Hamilton's artillery company, 440 — Imperfect measures of congress, 441 —
Conspiracy against Washington, 441 — His trust in providence, 442 — New
Jersey convention, 442 — Witherspoon, 442 — Arrest of William Franklin,
442 — New Jersey for independence. 443 — Forms a new constitution, 443 —
Pennsylvania conference, 443 — The proprietary government dies out, 444 —
Reform demanded, 444 — New men, 444 — Reed joins the army, 444 — Pro-
ceedings of the conference, 445 — Convention summoned, 445 — All tax payers
allowed to vote, 445 — Germans enfranchised, 445 — Religious test, 446 — Fly-

22 CONTENTS.

ing camp ordered, 446 — Conference concurs in independence, 446 — Unanim-
ity of Maryland. 446 — Activity of Chase, 447 — County meetings, 447 — Its
convention votes for independence, 447 — Orders a constituent convention, 447.

OHAPTBE LXIX.

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. The first and second of July, 1776.

Prayer of John Adams, 448 — He sees all the danger, 448 — His courage,
449 — Meeting of members of congress, 449 — Their longevity, 449 — All are
instructed, 449 — Washington's return of his army, 450 — Letters from Lee,
451— News from Maryland, 451— The order of the day, 451— Speech of John
Adams, 451 — Dickinson's position, 452 — His speech, 452 — Opposes resolution
of independence, 453 — America ought first to consult France, 453 — To form
governments, 454 — To confederate, 454 — To provide for internal peace, 455 —
To settle claims to western territory, 455 — To fix boundaries of colonies, 456
— Wilson opposes Dickinson, 456 — Other speakers, 457 — Vote in committee,
457 — Vote in congress deferred, 457 — News of Howe's arrival, 458 — Wash-
ington's equanimity, 458 — Reed's despondency, 458 — Enthusiasm of congress,
458 — John Adams, 458 — Vote on the second of July, 459 — Excitement of
John Adams, 459 — His meditations, 459 — His triumphant joy, 460 — The end
worth the means, 461.

CHAPTER LXX.

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. July 2 — 4, 1776.

Reason for declaring independence to be set forth, 462 — Jeiferson desig-
nated to draft the paper, 462 — His sympathetic nature. 462 — His character,
463 — An idealist, 464— His mastery of details, 464 — Always prepared, 464 —
No orator, 464 — Free from envy, 464 — Intimacy between John Adams and
Jefferson, 464 — Jefferson no visionary, 465 — The draft altogether his own,
465 — The criticisms of congress, 465 — Clause on the slave trade and slave
insurrections, 465 — The passage stricken out, 466 — Slave trade branded as a
piracy, 466 — Pendleton regretted the omission, 467 — The declaration, 467 —
The principles, 467 — The facts, 468— Abuse of the prerogative, 467— Usur-
pation of powers of legislation, 469 — Acts of hostility, 470 — Petitions re-
jected, 471 — Appeal to the people of Britain unheeded, 471 — Solemn declara-
tion, 472— The character of its bill of rights, 472— Its theory in politics, 472
— It is written for all humanity, 472 — Its effect on the nations, 473 — Its re-
conciliation of right and fact, 474 — It made no war on all kings, 473 — It re-
nounced George the Third as a tyrant, 474 — No wish to revolutionize Eng-
land, 474 — The republic a godsend, 474 — Why America is not proselytizing,
474— The declaration formed a government, 476— War no more a civil war,
475— Domestic relations unchanged, 475 — Formation of a union, 475 — Decla-
ration not signed on the fourth, 475 — Why the fourth of July is the great
anniversary, 475.

THE

AMERICAN REVOLUTION.

EPOCH THIKD.

AMERICA DECLARES ITSELF INDEPENDENT.

AMERICA DECLARES ITSELF
INDEPENDENT.

CHAPTER XLI.

THE CONTINENTAL CONGEESS IN MLDSUMMEK, 1775.

JUNE 17 — JULY, 1775.

IDLE refugees in Boston, and even candid British CHAP.
officers, condemned Howe's attack on the New Eng- ^L
land lines as a needless exposure of his troops to car- 1775.
nage. By landing at the Charlestown isthmus, they 17.
said, he should have cooped the rebels within the
peninsula ; or by aid of a musket proof gunboat he
should have dislodged the party near the Mystic;
and, even at the last, by concentrating his force at the
rail fence, he might have taken Prescott in the rear.
During the evening and night after the battle, the air
trembled with the groans of the wounded, as they
were borne over the Charles and through the streets
of Boston to hospitals, where they were to waste
away from the summer heat and the scarcity of

YOL. VIII. 3

26 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, proper food. The fifth regiment suffered most ; the
— 'J-x eighteenth and the fifty ninth, which had long been
ljime verv weak, were utterly ruined ; and, to the end of
17. the war, the courage of the insurgents in this battle
of the people, and their skill as marksmen, never wore
out of mind. The loss of officers was observed to be
disproportionately great ; and the gloom in the quar-
ters of the British was deepened by the reflection,
that they had fought not against an enemy, but
against their fellow-subjects and kindred ; not for the
promotion of civil or religious freedom, but for the
supremacy of one part of the empire over another.
Those who, like Abercrombie, died of their wounds,
wanted consolation in their last hour, for they had no
hope that posterity would mark their graves or
cherish their memory.

On the day of the battle, the continental congress
elected its four major generals. Of these, the first,
from deference to Massachusetts, was Arternas Ward.
Notwithstanding his ill health, he answered : " I al-
ways have been, and am still ready to devote my life
in attempting to deliver my native country."

The American people with ingenuous confidence as-
sumed that Charles Lee, — the son of an English officer,
trained up from boyhood for the army, — was, as he rep-
resented himself, well versed in the science of war, fa-
miliar with active service in America, Portugal, Poland,
and Turkey, and altogether a soldier of consummate
ability, who had joined their cause from the purest im-
pulses of a generous nature. In England he was better
understood. " From what I know of him," wrote Sir
Joseph Yorke, then British minister at the Hague, " he
is the worst present which could be made to any army."

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 27

He left the standard of his king, because he saw " no CHAP.

XT T

chance of being provided for at home," and, as an > — ^
adventurer, sought "employment in any part of the 1775.
world." Venerating England all the while, and hold- 17.
ing it " wretchedness itself not to be able to herd with
the class of men to which he had been accustomed
from his infancy," he was continually craving intimate
relations with British general officers and his old asso-
ciates: He looked upon the Americans as unworthy
of independence, which he never meant they should
achieve, and he would have willingly become con-
spicuous as the instrument to lead them back to their
allegiance ; but he pursued no consistent plan ; and
whatever purpose for evil or for good rose in his
mind, the eddies of his whims were sure to disturb
its course. No position was too high for his conceit ;
yet he could not steadily pursue intrigues to supplant
his superiors. He wrote with vivacity and some-
times with epigrammatic terseness, but never with
warmth, for he had no fixed principles, and he loved
neither man nor woman. He was subject to "spleen
and gloomy moods;" excitable almost to madness;
but without depth or persistency; in his passions,
alike violent and versatile. He passed for a brave
man, but he wanted presence of mind, and in sudden
danger he quailed. His mobility, though sometimes
mistaken for activity, only disguised his inefficiency.
He was poor in council ; prodigal of censure ; down-
cast in disaster ; after success, claiming honor not his
own ; fit only to cavil and perplex. He professed to
be a freethinker, after the type of his century ; but
he had only learned of scoffers to deny " the Grod of
the Jews," curse the clergy, and hate orthodox dis-

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

senters. His numerous eccentricities

.

exaggerations nor caricatures of any thing American,

CHAP, senters. His numerous eccentricities were neither

XLI.

Vune an<^ m ^eir excess disclosed a morbid mind. Having
17. no fellow feeling with the common people, he wanted
capacity to array a nation in arms ; and he would
have preferred a country of slaves under a lenient
master, to a democratic government. His sordid
soul had no passion so strong as covetousness ; in
affluence, he thought his income " miserably scanty,"
and he was always seeking to escape spending money
even on himself. Claiming to " have passed through
the higher military ranks in some of the most respect-
able services of Europe, and to be a major general of
five years7 standing," he had waited upon congress
with the thought of being chosen commander in chief.
Before he would consent to take rank after Ward,
whom he despised, he exacted a promise of indemnity
on renouncing his half pay ; and at the very moment
of his accepting employment from a body, which was
looking to France for sympathy, he assured his king
of his readiness to serve against the natural hered-
itary enemies of England with the utmost alacrity
and zeal. Ever brooding over the risk he ran, he
often regretted having hazarded his uall" in tfhe
American cause. Such was the man who, in the
probable event of Ward's early resignation, was
placed next in command to Washington.

New York had been asked to propose the third
major general ; she had more than one citizen of su-
perior military talent, but her provincial congress
which was consulted, limited the choice to those who
possessed " the gifts of fortune," and selected Philip
Schuyler. Montgomery hesitated, saying : " His con-

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 29

sequence in the province makes him a fit subject for CHAP.
an important trust; but has he strong nerves? I ^~^
could wish that point well ascertained with respect 1775.
to any man so employed." Doubts existed in con- 17.
gress, and the vote for him was not unanimous.
Born to opulence, accustomed to ease, of a generous,
open, and unsuspicious nature, infirm in health, chol-
eric and querulous, Schiiyler was ill suited to control
undisciplined levies of turbulent freemen ; or to pierce
the wiles of a crafty foe. Without peculiar fitness
for the • battle field, he had personal integrity, social
consideration, and a rare and almost unique superior-
ity to envy ; and his patriotism was so sincere and so
ardent, that he willingly used his credit, influence,
and wide connections to bring out the resources of
his native province. In this kind of service no one
equalled him, and neither rude taunts, nor inconsider-
ate disregard of his rank, nor successful intrigues,
could quench his hearty and unpretending zeal.

For the fourth major general, the choice fell upon
Israel Putnam, of Connecticut. Wooster and Spen-
cer, of the same colony, stood before him in age and
rank ; but the skirmish at Noddle's Island had been
heralded as a great victory, and the ballot in his favor
is recorded as unanimous. Of Massachusetts by birth,
at the ripe age of thirty seven he began his career
in war with the commission from Connecticut of a
second lieutenant, and his service had been chiefly as
a ranger. Deficient in the reflective powers, he was
also unusually illiterate. His bustling manner and
adventurous life had made his village tavern the re-
sort of the patriots of his neighborhood ; its keeper
their military oracle ; but his fame rested on deeds

VOL. VIII. 3*

30 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of personal prowess rather than on concerted action ;
— t-^ and at fifty seven he was too old to be taken from his
l775- farm and his stand to command armies, even if he had
not always wanted superintending vigilance, control-
ling energy, and the faculty of combination.

Next to those came Horatio Gates, as adjutant
general with the rank of brigadier. His experience
adapted him for good service in bringing the army
into order ; but he was shallow in his natural endow-
ments and in his military culture, yet restless for a
higher place, for which he did not possess either the
requisite genius for command, or firmness of mind.

The continent took up arms, with only one general
officer, who drew to himself the trust and love of the
country, with not one of the five next below him fit
to succeed to his place.

On the twenty first of June, Thomas Jefferson,
then thirty years of age, entered congress, preceded
by a brilliant reputation as an elegant writer and a
courageous and far-sighted statesman. The next day
brought tidings of the Charlestown battle. At the
grief for Warren's death, Patrick Henry exclaimed : " I
am glad of it ; a breach on our affections was needed
to rouse the country to action." Congress proceeded
at once to the election of eight brigadiers, of whom
all but one were from New England. The first was
Seth Pomeroy, a gunsmith of Northampton, the warm-
hearted veteran of two wars, beloved by all who knew
him ; but he was seventy years old, and on his per-
ceiving some distrust of his capacity, he retired from
the camp before receiving his commission. The
second was Richard Montgomery, of New York,
seventh from Washington in rank, next to him in

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 31

merit ; an Irishman by birth, well informed as a CHAP.

. XLI

statesman, faultless in private life, a patriot from the — ^—
heart. He was followed by David Wooster of Con- i7?5.
necticut, an upright old man of sixty five, frugal of
his means, but lavish of his life ; by William Heath,
of Roxbury, Massachusetts, a patriot farmer, who
held high rank in the trainbands and had read books
on the military art ; vain, honest, and incompetent ;
by Joseph Spencer of Connecticut, a man past sixty,
a most respectable citizen, but, from inexperience, not
qualified for councils of war; by John Thomas, a
physician of Kingston, Massachusetts, the best general
officer of that colony ; by John Sullivan, a lawyer of
New Hampshire, always ready to act, but not always
thoughtful of what he undertook ; not free from de-
fects and foibles ; tinctured with vanity and eager to
be popular ; enterprising, spirited, and able. The last
was Nathaniel Greene, of Rhode Island, who, after
Washington, had no superior in natural resources, un-
less it were Montgomery.

At a farewell supper, the members of congress all
rose, as they drank a health to " the commander in
chief of the American army ; " to his thanks, they
listened in stillness, for the sense of the difficulties
which lay before him suppressed every festal cheer.

u A kind of destiny has thrown me upon this ser-
vice ;" thus Washington announced " the cutting stroke
of his departure " to his wife, whose miniature he al-
ways wore on his breast from the day of his marriage
to his death. On the twenty third of June, a day after
congress had heard the first rumors of the battle at
Charlestown, he was escorted out of Philadelphia by
the Massachusetts delegates and many others, with

32 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, music, officers of militia, and a cavalcade of light
^^i^ horse in uniform. "I, poor creature," said John
1775. Adams, as he returned from this "pride and pomp of
war," u I, worn out with scribbling for my bread and
my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must
leave others to wear the laurels which I have sown ;
others to eat the bread which I have earned." To
his brother, Washington wrote confidingly : " I bid
adieu to every kind of domestic ease ; and embark on
a wide ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in which
perhaps no safe harbor is to be found." He went
forth not to eat the bread, still less to wear the honors
of others, but to hazard his fame and life in the com-
mand of an army which had neither discipline, nor
permanency, nor proper arms, nor ammunition, nor
funds for its support, nor experienced officers ; en-
couraged only by the hope that, by self-sacrifice, he
might unbar the gates of light for mankind.

On Sunday, the twenty fifth, all New York was in
motion. Tryon, the royal governor, who had arrived
the day before, was to land from the harbor; and
Washington, accompanied by Lee and Schuyler, un-
der the escort of the Philadelphia Light Horse, was
known to have reached Newark. As the colony of New
York had been enjoined by the general congress to
respect the king's government, the governor and the
general were both entitled to be received with public
' honors ; but the people intervened to mark the distinc-
tion. On the news that Washington was to cross the
Hudson, the bells were rung, the militia paraded in
their gayest trim, and at four o'clock in the afternoon
the commander in chief, dressed in a uniform of blue,
was received at Lispenard's by the mass of the inhab-

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 33

itants. Drawn in an open carriage by a pair of white CHAP.
horses, he was escorted into the city by nine compa- — ^
nies of infantry, while multitudes, of all ages and 1775.
both sexes, bent their eyes on him from the housetops,
the windows, and the streets. Night had fallen before
Tryon landed. Met by a company which he himself
had commissioned, and by a few of the magistrates in
military costume, he was attended noiselessly to a
house in Broadway, keenly suffering from disappoint-
ment. He had expected to find the royalists in the
undisputed ascendant ; and he saw himself left almost
alone, an object of suspicion, liable at any moment to
arrest. The false informers of the ministry excused
themselves by the suddenness of the " change of
measures and sentiments ; " but they frankly owned
that the province would fall behind none in opposition
to the king and parliament. Amazed and dejected
at heart, Tryon masked his designs under an air of
unconcern, and overflowed with bland professions.
Washington, who instantly penetrated his insincerity,
and had no scruple about the propriety of seizing him,
directed Schuyler to keep a watchful eye on his
movements, and wrote a warning to congress ; but
Schuyler, lulled by words of mildness which concealed
the most wary and malignant activity, soon reported
confidently, that Tryon " would create no trouble."

On the twenty-sixth, the provincial congress of
New York, in their address to Washington, " from
whose abilities and virtue they were taught to expect
security and peace," declared an accommodation with
the mother country to be the fondest wish of each
American soul, in the fullest assurance that, upon such
an accommodation, he would cheerfully resign his

34 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, trust, and become once more a citizen. " When we
^^ assumed the soldier, we did not lay aside the citizen,"
1775. answered Washington for himself and his colleagues ;
but having once drawn the sword, he postponed the
thought of private life to the " establishment of
American liberty on the most firm and solid foun-
dations."

On the next day the New York congress produced
its plan of accommodation. It insisted on the repeal
of obnoxious acts ; the undisturbed exercise, by the
respective colonies, of the powers of internal legis-
lation and taxation, and the free enjoyment of the
rights of conscience ; it conceded to Great Britain the
power to regulate the trade of the whole empire;
and, on proper requisitions, promised assistance in the
general defence, either from the colonies severally, or
through a continental congress under a president
appointed by the crown. Transmitting their demands
to their delegates, they added : " Use every effort for
compromising this unhappy quarrel ; so that, if our
well-meant endeavors shall fail of effect, we may
stand unreproachable by our own consciences in the
last solemn appeal to the God of battles." The spirit
of the colony was in harmony with the rest of the
continent; but here too, as everywhere else, prepara-
tions for resistance had been deferred ; no more than
four barrels of powder could be found in the city.

While Washington was borne toward Cambridge
on the affectionate confidence of the people, congress,
which had as yet supported its commander in chief
with nothing beyond a commission, was indulging a
hope, by one campaign, to dispose the British govern-
ment to treaty. How to find the ways and means for

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 35

such a temporary resistance was their great difficulty. CHAP.
They represented a fertile and wealthy continent ; but ^-^
even if commerce had not ceased, they possessed no 1775
power to lay taxes of any kind. Necessity led,
therefore, to the most disastrous of all financial
measures ; though the country was already languish-
ing under the depreciating paper money of the several
colonies, continental bills of credit to the amount of
two millions of dollars were authorized, and " the
twelve confederated colonies " were pledged for their
redemption.

A code for the government of the continental
army was adopted. Two more companies of riflemen
were asked of Pennsylvania, that the eight from
that colony might form a battalion. The Green
Mountain Boys, if they would but serve, were allowed
the choice of their own officers; and as Carleton
" was making preparations to invade the colonies, and
was instigating the Indian nations to take up the
hatchet against them," Schuyler, who was directed
to repair to Ticonderoga and Crown Point, received
authority to take possession of St. John's, Montreal,
and any other parts of Canada. To the Indians
agents were sent with presents and speeches, " to pre-
vent their taking any part in the commotions."
Alliances with them were forbidden, except where
some emissary of the ministry should have concerted
with them acts of hostility, or an offensive league.

On the sixth of July, congress set forth the causes July
and necessity of taking up arms. After recapitulating
the wrongs of America, they asked in words which
Edmund Burke ridiculed as the " nonsense " of men
wholly ignorant of the state of parties in England :

36 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. " Why should we enumerate our injuries in detail ?
— r-^> By one statute it is declared that parliament can of
1775. right make laws to bind us in all cases whatsoever.
What is to defend us against so unlimited a power ?
Not a single man of those who assume it, is chosen by
us; and an American revenue would lighten their
own burdens in proportion as they increase ours."
Lord North's proposition for conciliation they con-
demned as insidiously designed to divide the colonies,
and leave them nothing but " the indulgence of raising
the prescribed tribute in their own mode." After
enumerating the hostile acts at Lexington and Con-
cord, Boston, Charlestown, and other places, the
seizure of ships, the intercepting of provisions, the
attempts to embody Canadians, Indians, and insurgent
slaves, they closed their statement in words of their
new member, Jefferson : " These colonies now feel the
complicated calamities of fire, sword, and famine.
We are reduced to the alternative of choosing an
unconditional submission to irritated ministers, or
resistance by force. The latter is our choice. We
have counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing
so dreadful as voluntary slavery. Our cause is just,
our union is perfect, our internal resources are great,
and, if necessary, foreign assistance is undoubtedly
attainable. Before God and the world we declare,
that the arms we have been compelled by our enemies
to assume, we will employ for the preservation of our
liberties ; being, with one mind, resolved to die free-
men rather than live slaves. We have not raised
armies with designs of separating from Great Britain
and establishing independent states. Necessity has
not yet driven us into that desperate measure. We

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 37

exhibit to mankind the spectacle of a people attacked CHAP.
by unprovoked enemies, without any imputation or — ^
even suspicion of offence. In our own native land, in 1775.
defence of the freedom that is our birthright, for the
protection of our property against violence actually
offered, we have taken up arms. We shall lay them
down when hostilities shall cease on the part of the
aggressors, and all danger of their being renewed
shall be removed, and not before."

So firm a declaration should have been followed
by assuming powers of government, opening the ports
to every nation, holding the king's officers as hostages
and modelling a general constitution. Such was the
counsel of. John Adams. Franklin also knew that
there was no longer a time to negotiate or entreat.
In the ashes of Charlestown, along the trenches of
Bunker Hill, he saw the footsteps of a revolution that
could not be turned back; and to Strahan, the go-
between through whom he had formerly communicated
with Lord North, he wrote on the fifth of July : " You
are a member of parliament, and one of that majority
which has doomed my country to destruction. You
have begun to burn our towns, and murder our people.
Look upon your hands, they are stained with the
blood of your relations ! You and I were long friends ;
you are now my enemy, and I am yours." But
Franklin did not attempt to overrule the opinions or
defy the scruples of his colleagues, and, after earnest
debates, congress adopted the proposal of Jay to pe-
tition the king once more.

The second petition to the king was drafted by
Dickinson, and in these words put forward Duane's
proposal for a negotiation to be preceded by a truce :

VOL. Till.

38

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. " We beseech your majesty to direct some mode by
— v-^ which the united applications of your faithful col-
onists to the throne, in pursuance of their common
councils, may be improved into a happy and per-
manent reconciliation; and that, in the mean time,
measures may be taken for preventing the further
destruction of the lives of your majesty's subjects, and
that such statutes as more immediately distress any
of your majesty's colonies may be repealed."

The colonies, by refusing to treat separately and
offering to treat jointly, announced their union, which
thus preceded their independence. Yet as the king
would not receive a document from congress, the pe-
tition was signed by the members individually
Dickinson, confident of success, was proud of his
work. " There is but one word in it which I wish
altered," said he, " and that is — congress." " It is the
only word I wish should remain," answered Harrison,
of Virginia.

Having thus owned the continuing sovereignty
of the king, before whom they presented themselves
as beadsmen, the United Colonies, as a nation dealing
with a nation, a people speaking to a people, ad-
dressed the inhabitants of Great Britain. From
English institutions they had derived the principles
for which they had taken up arms, and their visions
of future greatness were blended with their pride as
men of English descent. They spoke, therefore, to
Englishmen as to countrymen and brothers, recapit-
ulating their griefs, and plainly setting forth that the
repeal of the laws of which they complained, must go
before the disbanding of their army, or the renewal
of commercial intercourse.

THE CONGRESS IN MIDSUMMER, 1775. 39

On the same day thanks were addressed to the CHAP.

YT T

lord mayor, aldermen, and livery of London, for their ^^^L
unsolicited sympathy. "North America," it was fur- 1777.
ther said, " wishes most ardently for a lasting connec-
tion with Great Britain on terms of just and equal
liberty ; less than which generous minds will not offer,
nor brave and free ones receive."

The desire for harmony was so intense, that
Richard Penn, a proprietary of Pennsylvania and re-
cently its governor, a most loyal Englishman, bound
by the strongest motives of affection and interest to
avert American independence, was selected to bear
the second petition to the throne. He assumed the
trust with alacrity, and on the twelfth of July em-
barked on his mission. The hope of success grew out
of the readiness of the Americans, on the condition of
exemption from parliamentary taxation, to bear the
restraints on their trade ; or, as an alternative, to
purchase a freedom of trade like that of Scotland, by
taxing themselves towards the payment of the na-
tional debt.

From the complacency engendered by delusive
confidence, congress was recalled to the necessities of
the moment by a letter from Washington.

CHAPTER XLII.

THE ARMY KOTOO) BOSTON.
JULY, 1775.

CHAP. ON Monday, the third day of July, Washington rode
_1_ forth from his quarters at Cambridge, numerously
1775, attended, and, under an elm tree on the common,

•r -1

J* assumed command of the continental army. A favor-
able opinion had gone before him ; but his presence
was greater than his fame. Of his companions, Mif-
flin, a brave and honest officer, though not of deep
insight, charmed by his activity, spirit, and obliging
behavior ; the intelligence, culture, and manners of
Reed engaged esteem; Lee personally excited dis-
gust, but the general persuasion of his skill and ex-
perience in the art of war, and of his sincerity in
professing a zealous attachment to " the cause of
mankind," won for him the confidence of Washing-
ton, and expressions of admiring gratitude from the
congress in Massachusetts. Gates, who arrived within
a week, gained friends by his affability, and his use-
fulness in a subordinate station.

THE ARMY ROUND BOSTON. 41

From the first moment of Ms coming, the com- CHAP.
mander in chief took the hearts of all about him, and vi^L
of all New England; though he himself was unused 1775.
to the ways of its people, whose character he never
could thoroughly understand. The provincial con-
gress at Watertown welcomed him in a cordial ad-
dress. From Philadelphia, Hancock expressed the
wish to serve under him; Greene and the Rhode
Island officers received him with words of affectionate
confidence. " Now be strong and very courageous,"
wrote Trumbull, the governor of Connecticut ; " may
the God of the armies of Israel give you wisdom and
fortitude, cover your head in the day of battle, and
danger ; and convince our enemies that all their at-
tempts to deprive these colonies of their rights and
liberties are vain." To Trumbull Washington made
answer : " The cause of our common country calls us
both to an active and dangerous duty ; divine prov-
idence, which wisely orders the affairs of men, will
enable us to discharge it with fidelity and success."

The camp contained a people in arms, rather than
an army. No one could tell precisely its numbers,
or the state of its stores. The soldiers had listed un-
der different agreements and for periods indefinite
but short. Each colony had its own rules of military
government, and its own system of supplies ; and the
men, chiefly freeholders and sons of freeholders, held
themselves bound only by a specific covenant, of
which they interpreted the conditions and required
the fulfilment.

Immediate orders were given for a return of
the state of the army. While this was preparing,
Washington visited the American posts and recon-

VOL. VIII. 4*

42 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, noitred those of the enemy. From Prospect Hill he
^^L> took a comprehensive view of Boston and Charles-
1775. town. Of the latter town, nothing was to be seen
U}' but chimneys and rubbish. Above the ruins rose the
tents of the great body of the British forces, strongly
posted on Bunker Hill. Their sentries extended
about one hundred and fifty yards beyond Charles-
town Neck. On Breed's Hill there was a redoubt ;
two hundred men kept guard at Moultrie's Point ; a
battery was planted on Copp's Hill ; three floating
batteries lay in Mystic river ; and a twenty-gun ship
was anchored below the Charlestown ferry. The
light horse and a few men were in the town of Bos-
ton ; the remainder were on Roxbury Neck, where
they were deeply intrenched and strongly fortified,
with outposts so far advanced, that the sentries of the
two armies could almost have conversed together.

Of the inhabitants of Boston six thousand seven
hundred and fifty three still remained in the town,
pining of sorrow ; deprived of wholesome food ; con-
fined to their houses after ten o'clock in the evening ;
liable to be robbed without redress ; ever exposed to
the malice of the soldiers, and chidden for tears as
proofs of disloyalty.

The number of the British army should have ex-
ceeded ten thousand men, beside the complements of
ships of war and transports, and was estimated by the
American council of war as likely to amount alto-
gether to eleven thousand five hundred; yet such
were the losses on the retreat from Concord, at Bun-
ker Hill, in skirmishes, from sickness, and by deser-
tion, that even after the arrival of all the transports,
the commanding officer had never more than sixty

THE ARMY ROUND BOSTON. 43

five hundred effective rank and file. But these were CHAP.

•yT TT

the choicest troops, thoroughly trained, and profusely — ^
supplied with the materials of war; and as he had 1775.
the dominion of the water, he was able, as from a
centre, to bend them against any one point in the
straggling line of their besiegers.

Washington found the American army dispersed
in a semicircle, from the west end of Dorchester to
Maiden, a distance of nine miles. At Roxbury, where
Thomas commanded two regiments of Connecticut
and nine of Massachusetts, a strong work, planned
by Knox and Waters, crowned the hill, and with
the brokenness of the rocky ground, secured that
pass. The main street was defended by a breast-
work, in front of which sharpened and well-pointed
trees, placed with the top towards Boston, prevented
the approach of light horse. A breastwork also
crossed the road to Dorchester. The men of Rhode
Island were partly on Winter Hill, partly at Sewall's
Farm, near the south bank of the Charles. The centre
of the army was with Ward at Cambridge, its lines
reaching from the colleges almost to the river. Put-
nam, with a division of four thousand men, composed
of troops from Connecticut and eight Massachusetts
regiments, lay intrenched on Prospect Hill, in a po-
sition which was thought to be impregnable. The
New Hampshire forces were fortifying Winter Hill ;
assisted perhaps by a Rhode Island regiment, and
certainly by Poor's Massachusetts regiment, which
for want of tents had its quarters in Medford. The
smaller posts and sentinels stretched beyond Maiden
river. Apart, in a very thick wood, near where the
Charles enters the bay, stood the wigwams of about

44 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, fifty doniiciliated Indians of the Stockbridge tribe.
5^IL They were armed with bows and arrows, as well as
1 775. guns, and were accompanied by their squaws and lit-

July. ,T

tie ones.

The American rolls promised seventeen thousand
men ; but Washington never had more than fourteen
thousand five hundred fit for duty. The community
in arms presented a motley spectacle. In dress
there was no uniformity. The companies from Rhode
Island were furnished with tents, and had the ap-
pearance of regular troops ; others filled the college
halls, the episcopal church, and private houses; the
fields were strown with lodges, which were as va-
rious as the tastes of their occupants. Some were
of boards, some of sailcloth, or partly of both ; others
were constructed of stone and turf, or of birch and
other brush. Some were thrown up in a careless
hurry; others were curiously wrought with doors
and windows, woven out of withes and reeds. The
mothers, wives, or sisters of the soldiers were con-
stantly coming to the camp, with supplies of clothing
and household gifts. Boys and girls, too, flocked in
with their parents from the country to visit their
kindred, and gaze on the terrors and mysteries of war.
Eloquent and accomplished chaplains kept alive the
habit of daily prayer, and preached the wonted ser-
mons on the day of the Lord. The habit of inquisi-
tiveness and self-direction stood in the way of military
discipline ; the men had never learnt implicit obedi-
ence, and knew not how to set about it; between
the privates and their officers there prevailed the
kindly spirit and equality of life at home.

In forming a judgment on the deficiency of num-

THE ARMY ROUND BOSTON. 45

bers, discipline, and stores of the army, "Washington CHAP
made allowances for a devoted province like Mas- v^^l
sachusetts, which had so long suffered from anar- 1775.
chy and oppression. " Their spirit," said he, " has
exceeded their strength." In the " great number of
able-bodied men, active, zealous in the cause, and of
unquestionable courage," he saw the materials for a
good army ; but, accustomed to the watchfulness of
the backwoodsmen in the vicinity of wily enemies, he
strongly condemned the want of subordination, and
the almost stupid confidence of inexperience, which
pervaded not only the privates but many of the in-
ferior officers. He set diligently about a reform,
though it made " of his life one continued round of
vexation and fatigue." The great inefficiency lay
with the officers. " If they will but do their duty,"
said Hawley, " there is no fear of the soldiery." To-
wards the incompetent, who, in the suddenness of
calling together so large a body of men, had crowded
themselves upward with importunate selfishness,
Washington resolved to show no lenity. By a
prompt and frequent use of courts martial, he made
many examples, and by lending no countenance to
public abuses, and by insisting on the distinction be-
tween officers and soldiers, he soon introduced the
aspect of discipline. Every day, Sundays not ex-
cepted, thousands were kept at work under strict
government from four till eleven in the morning,
strengthening the lines, and fortifying every point
which could serve the enemy as a landing place. The
strong and uniform will of Washington was steadily
exerted, with a quiet, noiseless, and irresistible
energy. " There are many things amiss in this camp,"

46 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, said the chaplain Emerson; "yet, upon the whole,

^-Y-^ God is in the midst of us."

1775. Meantime Lee had not been many days in the
camp before the British generals in Boston, who knew
him well, showed a disposition to tamper with him
for their own purposes. From Philadelphia he had,
in June, addressed to Burgoyne, his old comrade in
Portugal, a public letter condemning American taxa-
tion by parliament, and tracing the malady of the
state to the corrupt influence of the crown. In an
able reply, Burgoyne insisted, for himself and for
Howe, that their political principles were unchanged,
and invited Lee to " an interview" within the British
lines, for the purpose of " inducing such explanations
as might tend in their consequences to peace, for,"
said he, as if with the highest authority, "I know
Great Britain is ready to open her arms upon the first
overture of accommodation." Clutching at the office
of a negotiator, Lee avoided asking advice of a coun-
cil of war, and of himself requested the Massachusetts
congress to depute one of their body to be a witness of
what should pass. That body wisely dissuaded from
the meeting, and referred him to a council of war for
further advice. Thwarted in his purpose, Lee publicly
declined to meet Burgoyne, but he also sent him a
secret communication, in which among other things
he declared " upon his honor that the Americans had
the certainty of being sustained by France and Spain."
This clandestine correspondence proved that Lee had
then no fidelity in his heart; though his treasons may
as yet have been but caprices, implying momentary
treachery rather than a well considered system. His
secret was kept in America, but the statement found

THE ARMY ROUND BOSTON. 47

its way through, the British ministry to Vergennes, CHAP.
who pronounced it an absurdity worthy only of con- ^^i*
tempt. 1775.

All the while skirmishes continued. A party of
Americans on the eighth of July drove in the British
advance guard nearest Roxbury, and took several
muskets. On the evening of the tenth, three hundred
volunteers swept Long Island, in Boston harbor, of
more than seventy sheep and fifteen head of cattle,
and carried oft7 sixteen prisoners. Two days later,
just after the arrival of six crowded transports,
Greaton, with one hundred and thirty six men, went
again to the same island, and burnt the hay which
was stacked there for the British cavalry. After a
few days more, companies at Weymouth and Hing-
ham reaped and brought off the ripe grain from
Nantasket.

On the fifteenth of July, the army of Cambridge
heard Langdon, the president of Harvard college,
read the declaration by the continental congress for
taking up arms, which they 'interpreted to mean that
the Americans would never sheathe the sword till their
grievances were redressed to their utmost wishes.
On the eighteenth it was read on Prospect Hill
amidst such shouts that the British on Bunker Hill
put themselves in array for battle ; but neither then,
nor even after the arrival of their last transports, did
they venture an attack or even a sally. " I despair
seeing a battle fought this time coming down," wrote
Emerson to his wife at Concord.

In conformity to the direction of the continental
congress, the people of Massachusetts, holding town
meetings according to their usage and their charter,

48 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, chose a house of representatives. Boston took part
* — . — • in the elections ; for the wanderers from that town
were considered as bearing with them its living spirit,
and the exiles, many of whom had not seen each
other since they left their homes, came together at
Concord. On the nineteenth the provincial congress
dissolved itself forever, and the new house of repre-
sentatives began the restoration of government by
electing James Warren, of Plymouth, as its speaker.
The following night, Vose, a major in Heath's regi-
ment, set fire to the lighthouse in Boston harbor,
bringing off a field piece, a swivel, and the lamps.
The boats of a British man of war, which lay within
a mile, pursued the adventurous party; but they
were in whaleboats and escaped by rowing.

The continental fast was rigidly kept on the
twentieth; the next day the Massachusetts govern-
ment was permanently constituted. An annually
elected legislature themselves elected an annual coun-
cil of twenty eight, and that multitudinous body,
which also had concurrent legislative power, assumed
all executive authority. In a few weeks the old civil
and military offices were abolished, and the seal of the
commonwealth was changed into an Anglo- American^
holding a drawn sword, with the motto : Ense petit
placidam sub libertate quietem, "With the sword
he seeks placid rest under liberty." Forty thousand
pounds were assessed on polls and estates, and author-
ity was given to issue one hundred thousand more in
bills of public credit, varying in amount from forty
shillings to one.

" Congress and committees rule every province,"
said the British commander in chief. He looked

THE ARMY ROUND BOSTON. 49

about for colonial sympathy and contributions of CHAP.
men ; but none wished to share his confinement. He ^—
sent officers to New York to board emigrant ships
from Scotland, in the hope to enlist a few High-
landers. Growing more and more uneasy, on the
twenty fourth of July, he wrote home that Boston
was " the most disadvantageous place for all opera-
tions," and he wished himself safely at New York.

To repair the Boston lighthouse carpenters were
sent with a guard of thirty marines. On the even-
ing of the thirtieth, Major Tupper attacked them with
a party from Squantum and Dorchester, killed the
lieutenant and one man, and captured all the rest of
the party, fifty three in number. The Americans had
but one man killed and two or three wounded. The
next day in general orders, Washington praised their
gallant and soldierlike conduct. The country re-
garded with amazement what Jefferson called "the
adventurous genius and intrepidity of the New Eng-
land ers."

For all this, Washington, who was annoyed by
shoals of selfish importuners, and had not yet become
aware how bad men clamorously throng round the
distributors of offices, misjudged the Massachusetts
people ; but the existence of the army was itself a
miracle of their benevolence, and its sustenance dur-
ing May, June, and July cannot be accounted for by
ordinary rules. There was nothing regularly estab-
lished, and yet many thousands of men were abun-
dantly supplied. Touched by an all pervading influ-
ence, each householder esteemed himself a sort of
commissary. There were no public magazines, no
large dealers in provisions ; but the wants of the army

VOL. VIII. 5

50 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, rung in the ears of the farmers, and from every cellar,
— ^ and barn yard, and field throughout Worcester and
1775. Hampshire and even Berkshire, such articles of food
u y' as could be spared were devoted to the camp, and
everybody's wagons were used to forward them.
But for this the forces must have dispersed ; how it
was done, cannot exactly be told ; popular enthusiasm
keeps little record of its sacrifices ; only it was done,
and though great waste prevailed, the troops of Mas-
sachusetts, and for a long time also those of New
Hampshire, were fed by the unselfish care of the
people, without so much as a barrel of flour from the
continental congress. It was time for " the confede-
rated colonies " to interpose.

CHAPTER XLHI.

CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVEET WAE.
JULY 19 TO AUGUST.

THE continental congress, acting as a promiscu- CHAP.
ous executive, neither formed a carefully considered 2^
system, nor felt the weight of personal responsibility. 1775
It never presented to itself a vivid picture of Wash-
ington's situation, and never went in advance to miti-
gate his difficulties or supply his wants ; but, from the
first, waited inactively for his appeals.

On the nineteenth day of July it read his first
report from Cambridge, by which it appeared that
the army was defective in discipline and in numbers ;
that officers for the regiments were in excess, while
the files were not full ; that the order in rank of the
major generals and brigadiers had displeased the
troops and the New England governments ; that still
another class of officers was needed, to bring method
into the system of supplies ; that there was the most
urgent want of tents and clothing ; of hospitals ; of
skilful engineers ; of every kind of arms, especially

52 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of artillery ; and above all, of powder. Washington
— , — °> also called to mind, that he had not as yet been fur-
1775. nished with any money whatever.

The next day, though it was strictly kept as the
national fast, congress came together to hear from
Schuyler, that still greater confusion prevailed at
Ticonderoga. The northern army consisted of about
twenty eight hundred men, of whom seven parts in
eight were from Connecticut, most of them under
Wooster; exhibiting all the defects which had shown
themselves around Boston. Sentinels sleeping on their
posts, disorderly equality between officers and com-
mon soldiers, a universal want of discipline pro-
voked Schuyler to anger ; but while he found fault
enough with all that he saw, he had little power to
govern and reform a body of men whose education
and manners were uncongenial to his own.

Compelled to look at the condition of the army,
congress still shrunk from every act that could en-
danger the acceptance of its petition to the king.
Except the companies of riflemen, who were enlisted
only for one year, it called into being no troops whose
period of service extended beyond the time when an
answer to that petition was expected. On the side of
Canada, it did little more than sanction the employ-
ment of a body of five thousand men for the protec-
tion of the border and the frontier, and confirm
Schuyler in his command, subject to its own former
orders and the future instructions of the commander
in chief. Washington, who had represented the
necessity of an army of twenty two thousand men in
Massachusetts, was authorized to keep up that num-
ber ; but no method for obtaining troops was pro-

CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVERT WAR. 53

posed beyond recommendations to the several gov- CHAP.
ernments of New England and New York; and no ^ — '<
leave was given for permanent enlistments.

Thus far Franklin, who was constant in his attend-
ance, had left his associates to sound their own way
and shape their own policy ; but he could maintain
silent reserve no longer, and on the twenty first of
July, the statesman who, twenty one years before,
had at Albany reported a plan of union of provinces,
submitted an outline for confederating the colonies in
one nation. Each colony was to retain and amend
its own laws and constitution according to its sepa-
rate discretion, while the powers of the general gov-
ernment were to include all questions of war, peace,
and alliance ; commerce, currency, and the establish-
ment of posts ; the army, the navy, and Indian affairs ;
the management of all lands not yet ceded by the na-
tives. The common treasury was to be supplied and
taxes to 'be laid and collected by the several colonies
in proportion to their numbers. Congress was to
consist of one body only, whose members were to be
apportioned triennially according to population, and
annually chosen. One of its committees was to wield
the executive power.

Every colony of Great Britain in North America,
and even Ireland, which was still classed with the
colonies, was invited to accede to the union. The
imperfections in the new constitution which time and
experience would surely reveal, were to be amended
by congress with the approbation of a majority
of the colonial assemblies. Unless Britain should
consent to make acceptable retractions and indemni-
ties, the confederation was to be perpetual. In the

VOL. VIII. 5*

54 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, intention of Franklin, who well knew that the re-

XI TTT

— Y— '' quired concessions never would be made, the plan was
1775. a declaration of independence and an effective system
7' of a self-perpetuating republic. His scheme aimed at
a real, ever enduring union, and it contained the two
great elements of American political life ; the domes-
tic power of the several states, and the limited sove-
reignty of the central government.

The proposition of Franklin was, for the time, put
aside; the future confederacy was not to number
fewer members than thirteen ; for news now came,
that Georgia " was no more the defaulting link in the
American chain." On the fourth of July, it had met
in provincial congress ; and on the sixth had adhered
to all the measures of resistance. It had also resolved
neither to purchase, nor to employ, any slave imported
from Africa after that day.

Lord North's proposal had already been declared
inadequate; but as it was founded on joint resolves of
parliament, officially recommended by Lord Dart-
mouth, and referred by Virginia, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, to- the decision of congress, Franklin,
Jefferson, John Adams, and Richard Henry Lee, were
constituted a committee to report on its conditions
as a basis for the desired accommodation. Mean-
time congress remembered the friendly interposition
of Jamaica, whose peculiar situation as an island of
planters forbade active assistance, but whose good
wishes ministered consolation. America and Ireland
also came nearer to each other. In July the mer-
chants of Dublin applauded the earl of Effingham
for "refusing to draw his sword against the lives

CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVERT WAR. 55

and liberties of Ids fellow-subjects in America;" in CHAP.
the same month congress sent to Ireland a pledge — ^~
of their unalterable sympathy, and their joy that
their own trials had extorted some mitigation of its
wrongs. Howe was of an Irish family ; to the Irish,
therefore, they expressed their amazement at finding
his name in the catalogue of their enemies ; and they
fetched their complaint by adding: " America loved
his brother."

While these addresses were in progress, the British
government was exerting every nerve to provide the
means of reducing America ; and as the aid of Indian
tribes was believed to be absolutely necessary, Guy
Johnson, acting independently of Carleton, was lav-
ishing promises without bounds on the Six Nations
and the savages of Northwest Canada. An Iroquois
chief, who attended the conference at Montreal, con-
sented to take home a very large black war belt,
emblazoned with the device of the hatchet, but would
engage himself no further ; while the other savages,
for whom a pipe of wine was broached, feasted on an
ox that was named Bostonian, drank of his blood, and
sang the war song, with loud promises of prowess
when they should be called to the field.

Yet the majority of the congress, scrupulous not
to outrun the convictions and sympathies of their
constituents, and pleasing themselves by confiding in
the speedy restoration of peace, not only made no
adequate preparations for resistance, but would not
even consent to relieve the state of anarchy by sanc-
tioning the institution of governments in the several
colonies. The hesitancy of so many members, especially

56 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of Dickinson, incensed John Adams, who maintained
^-^ that the fifty or sixty men composing the congress,
1775. should at once form a constitution for a great empire,
provide for its defence, and, in that safe attitude, await,
the decision of the king. His letters to New England,
avowing these opinions, were intercepted ; and so lit-
tle were the central colonies prepared for the bold
advice, they were published by the royalists as the
surest way of destroying his influence, and heaping
obloquy upon his name. So hard it was to rend the
tie that bound America to England ! The king's de-
cision was already irrevocably taken ; even while the
congress was engaged in timid deliberations to mani-
fest to the world that war and independence, if they
came, would come unavoidably. The most decisive
measure was the adoption of the paper, prepared by
Jefferson, on Lord North's proposal for conciliation.

The American congress asked of the king a cessa-
tion of hostilities, and a settlement of the disputed
questions by a concert between the crown and the
collective colonies ; Lord North offered, as the Brit-
ish ultimatum, to treat separately with each assembly
for grants towards the general defence and for its
own civil government, with the promise that parlia-
ment would abstain from taxing the province that
should offer satisfactory terms. This proposition was
pronounced unreasonable, because it implied a pur-
chase of the forbearance of parliament at an uncertain
price ; invidious, as likely to divide the colonies, and
leave the dissatisfied to resist alone ; unnecessary,
for America had ever voluntarily contributed fully,
when called upon as freemen ; insulting, since the de-

CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVERT WAR. 57

niand for money was made with fleets and armies : CHAP.

XLIII

unjust, as it asked increased contributions without — ^
renouncing as an equivalent the monopoly of trade; if 75.
unwarrantable, as a wrongful intermeddling in the
colonial support of civil government ; unsatisfactory,
since it left the obnoxious acts unrepealed; insuf-
ficient, as it did not renounce the claim of a right to
alter colonial charters and laws ; insincere, as coming
from a minister who had declared " that he would
never treat with America, till he had brought her to
his feet ; " and delusive, as it offered no option but of
devastation or abject submission. On the other hand,
if the king would order a truce and point out a
method for treating with the colonies jointly, they
would desire nothing better than a colonial constitu-
tion, to be established by a mutual agreement.

Content with this declaration, and clinging to the
hope of a speedy adjustment with Britain, congress
shunned energetic measures to the last. For the trans-
mission of intelligence, Franklin was selected to or-
ganize a post office, and thus came to be known as the
first postmaster general ; a hospital was agreed to for
the army, and Benjamin Church elected its director;
the rate of pay of officers and soldiers was finally set-
tled ; but these votes added no real strength ; what was
really wanting was money and munitions of war. For
money, a third million of dollars was ordered to be
struck in paper bills. To promote their credit, some
mode for redeeming them must be devised. There was
no commerce, and therefore no hope of revenue from
duties upon imports. Besides, congress had no power
to enforce taxes of any kind. It was necessary, there-

58 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, fore, to charge each separate colony with the obliga-
v^-^ tion to provide for sinking its quota of the bills issued
1775. by the general congress. Here, at the creation of the
u y' national finances, the question arose as to the proper
principle for the apportionment ; whether wealth or
population; and, if of population, whether slaves
should be numbered as well as freemen. After a
long opportunity for deliberation, it was agreed that
population should constitute the distributive rule;
and that all persons, including free negroes, mulattoes,
and slaves, should be counted. Thus, to the correct
principle of "no representation, no taxation," and of
representation in proportion to population, was added
the injustice of taxation in proportion to representa-
tion ; so that the continental revenue was to be sus-
tained by a collective poll tax. Of four annual in-
stalments, by which the continental notes were to be
redeemed, the earliest was adjourned to the last day
of November, 1YY9 ; in other words, was adjourned
indefinitely. Paper money, which was never to be
sunk but by the concurring action of twelve or thir-
teen colonies at distant periods, was virtually irre-
deemable, and would surely depreciate with rapidity ;
yet the united colonies had no other available resource,
when they rose against a king who easily commanded
annually twenty millions of pounds sterling in solid
money.

There was no mode of obtaining munitions of war
but by throwing open the ports and inviting com-
merce, especially with the French and Dutch col-
onies ; yet the last act of congress, before its ad-
journment, was the renewal of the agreement, neither

CONGRESS STILL HOPES TO AVERT WAR. 59

directly nor indirectly to export any merchandise or CHAP.
commodity whatever to Great Britain, Ireland, or to — ^
the British, or even to the foreign, West Indies.

On the first day of August the congress adjourned
for five weeks, leaving the insurgent country without
a visible government, and no representative of its
unity but Washington and the army.

CHAPTER XLIV.

AMEEICA AWAITS THE KINOES DECISION.

AUGUST, SEPTEMBER,

THE duties of Washington were more various and
burdensome than ever devolved upon a European

1775.

Aug. commander. In the absence of an organized conti-
nental government, and with a most imperfect one in
Massachusetts, it fell on him to take all thought for his
army, from its general direction to the smallest want
of his soldiers. Standing conspicuous before the
world, with apparently no limiting authority at his
side, he made it his rule, as a military chief, to obey
most scrupulously the directions of the civil power,
which, from its inchoate character, was feeble and
uncertain, prompt to resolve rashly, destitute of sys-
tem, economy, and consistent perseverance. In his
intercourse with the neighboring colonial govern-
ments, whose good will was his main resource, he
showed the same deference to their laws, the same
courtesy to their magistrates ; and his zeal to give

AMERICA AWAITS THE KING'S DECISION. „ 61

effectiveness to his power, never hurried him beyond CHAP.
his self-prescribed bounds. ^^J.

Congress had voted him five hundred thousand 1775.
dollars, in its rapidly depreciating paper, but the per-
sons who were to sign the bills were dilatory ; and in
a scene of confusion and discord, without money, with-
out powder, without artillery, without proper arms,
he was yet expected to organize victory and drive
the British from Boston.

By the fourth of August the army was already
formed into three grand divisions, at Roxbury, Cam-
bridge, and Winter Hill, under the respective com-
mand of Ward, Lee, and Putnam. Each division
consisted of two brigades, each brigade of about six
regiments ; but Washington was still unable to return
the fire of the enemy, or do more than exchange a few
shot by scouting parties ; for when, with considerable
difficulty, he obtained an accurate return of the amount
of powder on hand, he found much less than half a
ton ; not more than enough to furnish his men with
nine rounds of cartridge. The extremity of danger
could not be divulged, even while he was forced to
apply in every direction for relief. To Cooke, the
governor of Rhode Island, he wrote on the fourth of
August, for every pound of powder and lead that
could possibly be spared from that colony ; no quantity,
however small, was beneath notice ; the extremity of
the case called loudly for the most strenuous exertions,
and did not admit of the least delay. He invoked
the enterprise of John Brown and other merchants
of Providence ; he sent an address to the inhabitants
of Bermuda, from which island a vessel, under Orde of
Philadelphia, actually brought off a hundred barrels

VOL. VIII. 6

62 ^ AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP of powder. His importunate messages were extended
.5^L even to New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania ;
1775. and for his aid those colonies readily left themselves
Aug' bare, till small supplies could arrive from South Caro-
lina and Georgia.

In all his wants, Washington had no safe trust
but in the spirit of the country, and that never failed
him. Between the twenty fifth of July and the
seventh of August, fourteen hundred riflemen, a
greater number than congress had authorized, arrived
in the camp. A company from Virginia had Daniel
Morgan for its captain, one of the best officers of the
revolution. His early life was so obscured by poverty,
that no one remembered his parents or his birth-place,
or if he had had sister or brother. Self-supported by
his daily labor, he was yet • fond of study, and self-
taught, he learned by slow degrees to write well.
Migrating from New Jersey, he became a wagoner in
Virginia in time to witness Braddock's expedition.
In 1YY4 he again saw something of war, having de-
scended the Ohio with Dunmore. The danger of his
country called him into action, which was his appro-
priate sphere. In person he was more than six feet
high and well proportioned ; of an imposing presence ;
moving with strength and grace ; of a hardy constitu-
tion that defied fatigue, hunger, and cold. His open
countenance was the mirror of a frank and ingenu-
ous nature. He could glow with intensest anger, but
passion never mastered his power of discernment, and
his disposition was sweet and peaceful, so that he de-
lighted in acts of kindness, never harbored malice or
revenge, and made his house the home of cheerfulness
and hospitality. His courage was not an idle quality;

AMERICA AWAITS THE KING'S DECISION. 63

it sprung from the intense energy of his will, which CHAP.
bore him on to do his duty with an irresistible ini- ^, — ',
petuosity. His faculties were only quickened by the 1775.
nearness of danger, which he was sure to make the
best preparations to meet. An instinctive perception
of character assisted him in choosing among his com-
panions those whom it was wise to betrust ; and a
reciprocal sympathy made the obedience of his sol-
diers an act of affectionate confidence. Wherever he
was posted in the battle field, the fight was sure to
be waged with fearlessness, good judgment, and mas-
sive energy. Of all the officers whom Virginia sent
into the war, next to Washington, Morgan was the
greatest ; equal to every occasion in the camp or be-
fore an enemy, unless it were that he knew not how
to be idle or to retreat. In ten days after he received
his commission, he attracted to himself from the val-
ley a company of ninety six young backwoodsmen.
His first lieutenant was John Humphreys ; his second,
William Heth ; his sergeant, Charles Porterfield. No
captain ever commanded braver soldiers, or was better
supported by his officers ; in twenty one days they
marched from Winchester in Virginia to Cambridge.
In Maryland Michael Cresap, then just thirty
three years old, on receiving notice by the committee
of Frederick, to raise a company, despatched a mes-
senger beyond the Alleghanies, and at his bidding
two and twenty of his old companions in arms, leav-
ing behind them their families and their all, came
swift as a roe or a young hart over the mountains.
From the east side, so many volunteered that he could
pick his men ; and with light step and dauntless spirit
they marched to the siege of Boston. Cresap moved

64 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, among them as their friend and father ; but he was

XT TV

^•v-^ not destined to take a further part in the war.

1775. Driven by desperate illness from Washington's camp,
he died on his way home at New York, where he was
buried with honor as a martyr. The second Mary-
land company was commanded by Price, whose
lieutenant was Otho Holland Williams.

Of the eight companies from Pennsylvania,
William Thompson was colonel. The second in com-
mand was Edward Hand, a native of Ireland, who
had come over as a surgeon's mate. One of the cap-
tains was Hendricks, long remembered for his stateli-
ness of person, his mild and beautiful countenance,
and his heroic soul.

The alacrity with which these troops were raised,
showed that the public mind heaved like the sea
from New England to the Ohio and beyond the Blue
Ridge. On the fourteenth of June congress first
authorised their enlistment, and in less than sixty
days twelve companies were in the camp, having
come on foot from four to eight hundred miles. The
men, painted in the guise of savages, were strong and
of great endurance ; many of them more than six
feet high ; they wore leggins and moccasons, and an
ash-colored hunting shirt with a double cape ; each
one carried a rifle, a hatchet, a small axe, and a hun-
ter's knife. They could subsist on a little parched
corn and game, killed as they went along ; at night,
wrapped in their blankets, they willingly made a tree
their canopy, the earth their bed. The rifle in their
hands sent its ball with unerring precision, a distance
of two or three hundred yards. Their motto was
"LIBERTY OR -DEATH." They were the first troops

AMERICA AWAITS THE KINOES DECISION. 65

raised under the authority of the continental con- CHAP.

XI IV

gress, and they formed the best corps in the camp. ^-^
Accustomed to the wild independence of the back- 1775.
woods, they yet gave an example of subordination,
discipline and vigilance. Enlisted for a year only,
many of them, both officers and men, continued in
the service during the war, and distinguished them-
selves in almost every field. They taught the ob-
serving Frederic of Prussia to introduce into his
service light bodies of sharp shooters, and their ex-
ample has modified the tactics of European armies.

On the twenty ninth of July, a party of riflemen
got behind the guard which the British had advanced
on the side of Charlestown, and before it could be
supported, killed two men and took five prisoners.

The New England men were not wanting in
daring. On the ninth of August the Falcon was seen
from Cape Ann in chase of two schooners bound to
Salem. One of these was taken ; a fair wind wafted
the other into Gloucester harbor. Linzee, the captain
of the Falcon, followed with his prize, and, after
anchoring, sent his lieutenant and thirty six men in a
whaleboat and two barges to bring under his bow
the schooner that had escaped. As the bargemen,
armed with muskets and swivels, boarded her at her
cabin windows, men from the shore fired on them,
killing three and wounding the lieutenant in the
thigh. Upon this Linzee sent his prize and a cutter
to cannonade the town. The broadside which fol-
lowed did little injury, and the Gloucester men kept
up a fight for several hours, till, with the loss of but
two, they took both schooners, the cutter, the barges,
and every man in them. Linzee lost thirty five men,
VOL. vm. 6*

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, or half his crew. The next day he warped off, carry-
N— ^ ing away no spoils except the skiff, in which the
woullded lieutenant had been brought away.

Meantime Gage endeavored to terrify the Ameri-
cans and cheer his own soldiers, by foretelling the
coming of thousands of Russians and Hessians and Han-
overians. Performing no one act of courage during the
summer, he vented his ill humor on his unhappy prison-
ers ; throwing officers of high rank indiscriminately
into a felon's jail, to languish of wounds and even to
undergo amputation. Pleading for " kindness and hu-
manity " as the "joint rule for their treatment of pris-
oners," Washington remonstrated ; but Gage scorned
to promise reciprocity to rebels, for any " barbarity "
shown to British prisoners menaced "dreadful con-
sequences," and further replied : " Britons, ever pre-
eminent in mercy, have overlooked the criminal in
the captive ; your prisoners, whose lives by the laws
of the land are destined to the cord, have hitherto
been treated with care and kindness ; indiscriminately
it is true, for I acknowledge no rank that is not de-
rived from the king." Consulting with Lee, Wash-
ington, who knew Gage from the day when his want
of presence of mind lost the battle on the Mononga-
hela, rejoined : " I shall not stoop to retort and in-
vective. You affect, Sir, to despise all rank not de-
rived from the same source with your own. I cannot
conceive one more honorable than that which flows
from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free
people, the purest source and original fountain of all
power. Far from making it a plea for cruelty, a mind
of true magnanimity would comprehend and respect
it." Towards his supercilious adversary, Washington

AMERICA AWAITS THE KING^S DECISION. 67

professed the purpose of retaliation, as lie sent the CHAP.
British officers who were his prisoners into the inte- J^iL
rior; but he privately countermanded the order, and 1775
allowed them liberty on parole. The lenity was ill
requited. One of them, Stanhope by name, was base
enough to forfeit his honor.

The arrival of reinforcements and recruits could
not inspirit Gage to venture outside of his lines. His
pent up troops, impaired by skirmishes, desertions,
and most of all by sickness, were disheartened by
their manifestly "disadvantageous situation." His
own timorousness, presaging " a long and bloody war,"
figured to itself the maritime powers of Europe tak-
ing possession of some of the provinces, and a south-
ern governor falling a prey to negroes. He even con-
fessed to Dartmouth, that he had fears for his own
safety ; that nothing could justify his risking an at-
tack ; that even to quit Boston safely would require
the greatest secrecy.

Washington was all the while more closely in-
vesting the town. In the night following the twenty
sixth of August, with a fatigue party of a thousand,
a guard of twenty four hundred, he took possession of
Ploughed Hill. On the next day, Gage began a
cannonade, which, for the need of powder, could not
be returned. On Monday the twenty eighth, the
British were seen drawn up on Bunker Hill, and
Washington, notwithstanding his want of ammuni-
tion, offered battle by marching five thousand men to
Ploughed Hill and Charlestown road. Silence was
observed on both sides, till three in the afternoon ;
when it appeared that the British would not accept
the challenge. But three days later, Gage enjoyed

68 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, the triumph of cutting down the Boston liberty tree ;

— , — '' and when marauding expeditions returned with sheep

1775. and hogs and cattle, captured from islands and along
shore, the bells were rung as for a victory.

"Washington, on his side, was eager to take every
advantage which his resources warranted. He could
hardly spare a single ounce of powder out of the
camp ; yet notwithstanding present weakness, he saw
in the courage and patriotism of the country the war-
rant of ultimate success. Looking, therefore, beyond
the recovery of Boston, he revolved in his mind how
the continent might be closed up against Britain.
He rejected apian for an expedition into Nova Scotia;
but learning from careful and various inquiries that
the Canadian peasantry were well disposed to the
Americans, that the domiciliated Indian tribes de-
sired neutrality, he resolved to direct the invasion of
Canada from Ticonderoga ; and by way of the Ken-
nebec and the Chaudiere, to send a party to surprise
Quebec, or at least to draw Carleton in person to its
relief, and thus lay open the road to Montreal.

Sept Solicitations to distribute continental troops along
the New England shore, for the protection of places
at which the British marauding parties threatened
to make a descent, were invariably rejected. The
governor of Connecticut, who, for the defence of that
province, desired to keep back a portion of the new-
ly raised levies, resented a refusal, as an unmerited
neglect of a colony that was foremost in its exer-
tions ; but the chief explained with dignity, that he
had only hearkened to an imperative duty ; that he
must prosecute great plans for the common safety;
that the campaign could not depend on the piratical

AMERICA AWAITS THE KING'S DECISION. 69

expeditions of two or three men-of-war ; while the CHAP.

VT i"y

numerous detachments, which would be required to — , — -
guard the coast, would amount to the dissolution of 1775.

?. Sept.

the army.

From his arrival in Cambridge, " his life was one
continual round of vexation and fatigue." In Sep-
tember the British were importing fuel for the winter,
so that there was no reason to expBct their voluntary
removal ; yet the time of the service of his army was
soon to expire, the troops of Connecticut and Rhode
Island being engaged only to the first of December,
those of Massachusetts only to the end of the year ;
and no provision had been made for filling their
places. The continental currency, as well as that of
all the provinces, was rapidly depreciating, and even
of such paper money the military chest was exhausted,
so that the paymaster had not a single dollar in hand.
The commissary general had strained his credit for
subsistence for the army to the utmost ; so had Mif-
flin, who in August had been appointed quarter-master
general, from confidence in his integrity, his activity,
and his independence on the men and the govern-
ments of New England. The greater part of the
troops submitted to a necessary reduction from their
stated allowance with a reluctance bordering upon mu-
tiny. There were no adequate means of storing wood
against the cold weather, or procuring blankets and
shelter. Washington would gladly have attempted
to strike some decisive blow ; but in September, his
council of war agreed unanimously, that an attack on
Boston was not to be hazarded. The country ex-
pected tidings of the rout and expulsion of the
British; although the continuing deficiency of pow-

70 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, der, which exceeded his worst apprehensions, com-
v^v^ pelled him to inactivity, from a cause which he was

obliged to conceal from the public, from the army,
and even from most of the officers.

Under every discouragement from the conflict-
ing rules and agreements, laws and usages, of separate
colonies, he toiled to form an army which he yet
knew must fall away from him before victory could
be achieved ; and " braving the shafts of censure, and
pledging a soldier's fame which was dearer to him
than life," he silently submitted to the reproach of
having adopted from choice the system of inaction,
at which his soul revolted.

CHAPTEE XLV.

CONDITION OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES.

JULY — OCTOBER, 1Y75.

IN the colonies which were not immediately involved
in the war, the officers of the crown should have
shown self-possession and forbearance. Adopting this
system, William Franklin, the governor of New Jer-
sey, was ever on the alert to soothe, divide, or confuse
the patriots, professed an equal regard for the rights
of the people and the royal prerogatives, continued the
usual sessions of the assembly, and where the authority
of his office was diminished, confined himself to com-
plaint, remonstrance or advice. But the self-organ-
ized popular government moved side by side with
that of the king ; the provincial congress which as-
sembled in May, and again by adjournment in August,
directed a general association, took cognizance of those
who held back, assumed the regulation of the militia,
apportioned a levy of ten thousand pounds, excused
the Quakers from bearing arms, though not from con-

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, tributing to relieve distress ; and by providing for the
v— Y— ' yearly election of its successors, severed from the co-
1775. lonial legislature the appointment of future delegates
to the general congress. The new provincial con-
gress, chosen with all the forms of law by the qualified
voters of each county, came together in October, and
while they anxiously prayed for the re-establishment
of harmony with Britain, they so far looked to the
contingency of war as to offer to raise four thousand
minute men, and actually to enrol two regiments for
the continental service. It was on this occasion that
William Alexander, commonly called the Earl of Stir-
ling, a man of courage, intelligence, and promptitude,
though a member of the royal council, entered the
army as colonel of the battalion of East New Jersey.
The attempt to raise money by taxation having failed,
the expenses were met by a reluctant issue of thirty
thousand pounds in bills of credit.

The disposition of New Jersey to languor was
confirmed by Pennsylvania, where, from the first,
Dickinson acted in concert with the proprietary
government ; and the ardent patriots, who had less
command of public confidence, less influence with the
religious parties, less tried ability in statesmanship,
less social consideration in the city which was then the
most populous and most wealthy in British America,
yielded to his guidance. The first Pennsylvania con-
vention in June, 1Y74, electing as its president the
opulent merchant Thomas Willing, long an opponent
of independence, aimed at no continuing political or-
ganization, and even referred the choice of the Penn-
sylvania delegates to congress to the house of repre-
sentatives, in which loyalists held the majority, and

CONDITION OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 16

Galloway exercised unrestricted sway. At the second CHAP.
convention, held in January, 1775, the president, — v—
Joseph Eeed, exerted all his influence, in public and in 1 7 7 5 •
private, to defeat the intention of arming and disciplin-
ing the province ; and to confine the votes as much as
possible to the encouragement of manufactures and
agriculture ; and while with a clear eye he foresaw that
the coming summer would form an epoch in history,
he desired to be known to the ministry as a person
who, though opposed to parliamentary taxation, had
such weight and influence in the province, that the
British government upon the whole might wish him
to be on their side. It was noticed that Dickinson
did not make his appearance in the meeting till the
day before its dissolution ; and then only to ward off
the taunts of his enemies. The convention once more
left every thing to the legislature ; though a motion
prevailed, empowering the committee of Philadelphia
to give notice, if a provincial congress should again
become necessary.

The events at Lexington and Bunker Hill did
not shake the purpose of Dickinson to prevent the
meeting of another convention. His wish that the
province should move in unbroken array, led him
even to importune his opponent Galloway, not to re-
fuse a seat in the next continental congress ; and Gal-
loway was excused only at his own urgent request.
Had Pennsylvania entrusted the direction of measures
of resistance to a convention, composed of men free
from religious scruples about taking up arms and un-
shackled by oaths of allegiance, all domestic conflict
would have been evaded. But the wealth and social

VOL. VIII. 7

74 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, influence of Philadelphia deprecated a revolutionary
— X' government, which must emanate from undetermined
1775- constituencies and exercise powers undefined; they,
therefore, for a time, made common cause with the
proprietary. The family of Penn had ceased to be
the object of hostile animosities, and had recovered
public regard ; attached to the Anglican church, their
episcopacy was yet of a mild form, free from intoler-
ance and proselyting zeal; and from their interests
and their position they were the most sincere friends
to conciliation with Britain. Their apostacy from the
Society of Friends was so far forgiven, that their
policy received the support of the rigid Quakers,
whose religious scruples confined them to long-suffer-
ing, or peace, or at furthest, to passive resistance. To
these elements of power, Dickinson, who still claimed
to lead the patriot party of Pennsylvania, added his
influence.

The system was wise, if nothing was intended be-
yond efforts for the restoration of harmony; but it
did not provide for ulterior measures. The pro-
prietary and his immediate friends had ties of loy-
alty which they never would break, and to defeat
independence, were swayed by interested motives
which would increase in strength in proportion as the
necessity for independence should appear. Insinceri-
ty, therefore, marked the character of the assembly ;
no vigorous action proceeded spontaneously from its
members. Many of them, who had long held their
seats and hankered after a re-election, were led step
by step to seemingly bold resolutions ; the friends of
the proprietary desired to keep up such an appear-
ance as would prevent a transfer of the direction of

CONDITION OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 75

affairs to a popular convention ; the governor and the CHAP.
assembly understood their relative position perfectly ; — r— -
he joined with them in such acts as could be jus- 1775.
tified before the king ; they, by their own separate
vote, adopted the measures which could not receive
his official sanction. In this manner the house, in
June, appointed a committee of safety, but with Dick-
inson at its head ; and placed at its disposition thirty-
five thousand pounds in bills of credit. At the ad-
journed session in September, the various memorials
were presented from primary meetings, in the hope
of quickening the energy of their representatives ; but
they were laid on the table. The coalition was too
powerful to be overthrown in the house, but mur-
murs and well-founded suspicions began to prevail
out of doors; Franklin saw the folly of temporizing,
dispassionately expressed his opinions, and bided his
time.

The provinces of Delaware and Pennsylvania
were under one executive head ; and were so nearly
united that their inhabitants interchangeably took ser-
vice in one or both. MacKean, an efficient member of
the committee of Philadelphia, was the leading dele-
gate from Delaware for the continent. The conduct of
that little colony was unequivocal ; its assembly unre-
servedly assented to the measure of keeping up an
armed force, and unanimously assumed their share of
the expense. Its first convention, its assembly, and
its council of safety, moved together in harmony.

The people of Maryland, happier than that of
Pennsylvania, escaped intestine dissensions and in-
sured unanimity, by passing overy the proprietary
government, and intrusting the conduct of resistance

TO AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, to a series of conventions. The prudent, the slow,
-— v~- the hesitating were allowed an influence ; but from
1775- the first, all parties acquiesced in the principle of de-
riving all power from the people ; and the province,
however its movement was sometimes retarded, pro-
ceeded courageously in an unbroken line. In Novem-
ber, 1774, it adhered to the association, adopted in
the general congress, and its patriotism was confirmed
by the austerity of religious zeal. At an adjourned
session in December, the Maryland convention, fifty
five members being present from sixteen counties, re-
solved unanimously to resist to the utmost of their
power taxation by parliament, or the enforcement of
the penal acts against Massachusetts. To this end
they voted with equal unanimity a well regulated
militia, to be composed of all the freemen of the col-
ony, between fifteen and sixty. They resolved also,
that all former difficulties about religion or politics
from henceforth should cease, and be forever buried
in oblivion ; and the benign aurora of the coming re-
public lighted the Catholic to the recovery of his
rightful political equality in the land which a Cath-
olic proprietary had set apart for religious freedom.
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who, under the British
government, had not had so much as a vote at the
polls, was placed unanimously on the committee of
correspondence.

It was throughout the continent a subject of re-
gret that the zeal of Dulany had grown cool. As he
kept silent, the foremost man in Maryland was Sam-
uel Chase, like Dulany a lawyer ; less circumspect and
less careful of appearances; but strong, downright,
brave and persevering ; capable of error from rash-

CONDITION OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 77

ness or self-will, but not capable of faltering in the CHAP.
cause which he approved. Vehement even to a fault, — . —
. he did not always speak softly or shun coarse invec- 1 7 7 5 •
tive ; but his undaunted spirit, his fierce independence
of mind, his unbending energy, his scorn of semblance
without substance, of servility, of plausible hypocrisy
that glossed servility over, his eloquence, which sprung
from his heart and expressed the vigor of his nature,
his uncompromising energy, justly won for him the
confidence of Maryland.

That province, like other colonies, had hoped for
the recovery of American rights through the inter-
ruption of trade ; but in April, 1775, a day or two
before the arrival of news from Lexington, on occasion
of a rumor that New York city was to be fortified
and garrisoned, they gave their delegates discretion
to proceed "even to the last extremity, if indispensa-
bly necessary for the safety and preservation of their
liberties and privileges."

The proprietary at this time had no hold on pub-
lic affection from historic recollections ; for he was an
illegitimate infant child of the late libertine Lord Bal-
timore, the last of that name ; and it might seem a
shame to a commonwealth that its executive power
should be transferable by testamentary disposition
even to a bastard. Yet the party of the proprietary
was strong and wary ; had struck deep root into the
soil of Maryland itself, and counted Dulany among its
friends. The lieutenant governor, Robert Eden, had
made himself acceptable and even beloved; had no
power to do mischief, and made no attempt to raise
the king's standard, maintaining a prudent reserve
and acquiescing in what he could not prevent or alter;

VOL. VIII.

78 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, so that he and the proprietary party were regarded
v— *-i* in the strife as neutrals, not hostile to the American
claims of right.

The convention which met at Annapolis on the
twenty sixth of July resolved fully to sustain Massa-
chusetts, and meet force by force. They saw " no alter-
native but base submission or manly resistance." They
therefore " approved of the opposition by arms to
British troops." The temporary government which
was instituted, was, in its form, a universal association
of the people of Maryland, one by one. Recognising
the continental congress as invested with a general
supervision, it managed internal affairs through a pro-
vincial council of safety, and subordinate executive
committees, which were appointed in every county,
parish, or hundred. It directed the enrolment of forty
companies of minuteraen ; established a military code ;
authorized the emission of more than a quarter of a
million of dollars, in bills varying in amount from six-
teen dollars to two thirds of a dollar ; and it extended
the franchise to all freemen having a visible estate of
forty pounds sterling, so that Protestant and Catholic
might henceforward go to the polls together. The
government thus instituted, was administered with
regularity and lenity.

By the prudent inactivity of the governors of
New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland,
those four colonies awaited the decision of Great
Britain in tranquillity ; south of the Potomac, Dun-
more precipitated a conflict, which the people of
Virginia, educated in the love of constitutional mon-
archy, and disinclined to change for the sake of
change, would gladly have avoided. In spite of their

CONDITION OP THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 79

wishes, the retreat of the governor from Williamsburg CHAP.

XLV.

foreshadowed the end of the colonial system. The ^^L.
house endeavored not to take things out of their old
channel. They revived the memory of Lord Bote-
tourt, and asked only for an administration like his ;
they reposed full trust in the royal council, a thorough-
ly loyal body of the king's own selection; and asked
only that the governor would conform to its advice.
In vain ; Dunmore, by a message, on Saturday the
twenty fourth of July, summoned the house before
him at what he called " his present residence ; " that
is, on board of a British man-of-war ; unless they would
come, he would not give his assent even to such of
their acts as he approved. Had they appeared, the
whole legislature might have found themselves kept
as hostages and prisoners. There were parties in
Virginia as everywhere else, more or less disinclined
to a final rupture. As yet the great majority earn-
estly desired a continuance of their ancient constitu-
tion ; but this message could not but be voted unan-
imously a high breach of the rights and privileges of
the house ; and in this manner the colonial legislature
ceased to exist. In concurrence with the council, the
house appropriated money for the expense of ratify-
ing the treaty with the Indians on the Ohio, and then
adjourned till the twelfth of October ; but no quorum
ever again assembled. In the one hundred and fifty
sixth year from the institution of legislative govern-
ment in Virginia, in the person of his governor, the
king abdicated his legislative power in the oldest and
most loyal of his colonies ; henceforward Virginia, re-
luctantly separating herself from the tried and cher-
ished system of constitutional monarchy, must take
care of herself.

80 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. On the seventeenth, of July, 1775, her people as-
— r— > sembled at Richmond in a convention, which was now,
1776. without a rival, the supreme government on her soiL
Every procedure was marked by that mixture of
courage and moderation which in times of revolution
is the omen of success. The military preparations
had nothing in view beyond defence ; a proposal of
volunteer companies in Williamsburg to secure the
public money was discountenanced and rejected.
Two regiments of regular troops in fifteen companies
were called into being ; sixteen regiments of minute-
men were to keep themselves in readiness for actual
service; for the command of the first regiment of
regulars, the convention, passing over Hugh Mercer,
now a resident of Virginia, elected Patrick Henry,
who thus became, for a few months, in rank at least,
the provincial commander-in-chief. For the relief of
scrupulous consciences in the army, it was made an
instruction, that dissenting clergymen might pray
with the soldiers and preach to them. Delegates to
serve in general congress for a year were elected ;
and among them once more Richard Bland. Of
the same lineage with Giles Bland, who, ninety nine
years before had perished as a martyr to liberty,
having in his veins the blood of Powhatan and Poca-
hontas, trained in the college of William and Mary,
and afterwards in the university of Edinburgh, he
was venerable with age, public service, and a long ca-
reer of vigilant, unswerving fidelity to civil liberty.
Profoundly versed in the history and charters and
laws of Virginia, in 1766 he had displayed the rights
of the colonies with an uncompromising vigor and
prophetic insight, such as Dickinson, who wrote after

CONDITION OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES. 81

him, never could equal. His deep blue eyes are now CHAP.
dimmed ; his step has lost its certainty ; he rises to de- ^v^
cline the appointment; all eyes rest on him, and the 1775-
convention hangs on his words : " I am an old man,
almost deprived of sight ; the honorable testimony
of my country's approbation shall ever animate me,
as far as I am able, to support the glorious cause in
which America is now engaged ; but advanced age
renders me incapable of an active part in the weighty
concerns which must be agitated in the great council
of the united colonies, and I desire that some abler
person may supply my place." The convention hav-
ing unanimously thanked him for his fidelity, re-
leased him from further service only on account of his
years. A strong party, at the head of which were
Henry, Jefferson, and Carrington, turned for his suc-
cessor to George Mason, a man of yet rarer virtues,
now for the first time a member of a political body.
He was a patriot, who renounced ambition, making
no quest of fame, never appearing in public life but
from a sense of duty and for a great end. " He will not
refuse," said Jefferson and Henry, "if ordered by his
country." But he was still suffering from an over-
whelming domestic grief; as he gave his reasons for
his refusal, tears ran down the presiding officer's
cheeks ; and the convention listened to him with the
sympathy of a family circle. At the same time that
Mason declined, he recommended Francis Lee, who
was accordingly chosen in the room of Bland, yet only
by one vote over a candidate who was noted for loy-
alty and dread of a democratic republic.

A spirit of moderation prevailed in the election of
the committee of safety for the province ; Edmund

82 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Pendleton, who ever desired it might be remembered
^-^ that " a redress of grievances, and not a revolution of
1775. government, was his wish," was placed at its head.

To defray the charges of the late Indian war, and
to provide for her defence, Virginia, following the
general example, directed an emission of three hun-
dred and fifty thousand pounds in paper currency ;
the smallest bill to be for one shilling and three pence.
George Mason urged the continuance of the land tax
and the poll tax, which would have annually sunk
fifty thousand pounds ; but his opposition was vain ;
and taxation was suspended for a year.

Having made preparations for security, both
against invasions and a servile insurrection, the mem-
bers of the convention once more declared before
God and the world, that they did bear faith and true
allegiance to his majesty George the Third, their only
lawful and rightful king ; and would, so long as it
might be in their power, defend him and his govern-
ment, as founded on the laws and well known prin-
ciples of the constitution ; but that they were also
determined to defend their lives and properties, and
maintain their just rights and privileges, even at the
extremest hazards. " Rather than submit to the rights
of legislating for us, assumed by the British parlia-
ment," wrote Jefferson from Monticello, " I would
lend my hand to sink the whole island in the ocean."

CHAPTER XLVI.

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS.

JULY — OCTOBER,

CHAP.

XLVI.

11 GOD grant conciliatory measures may take place ; — • —

there is not an hour to be lost ; the state of affairs will
not admit of the least delay : " such was the frank to
message sent to the ministry in July by the able Sir
James Wright, of Georgia ; and from a province in
which " a king's governor had little or no business,"
he pressed for leave to return to England and explain
and enforce his advice. The people met in congress ;
a council of safety maintained an executive super-
vision; local affairs were left to parochial committees;
but the crown officers were not molested, and but for
sympathy with South Carolina, and rumors of at-
tempts to excite slaves to desolate the heart of the
colony, Indians to lay waste the frontier, some good
appearance of authority would have been kept up.
When in Savannah the chief justice refused to accept

84 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, bail for a South Carolina recruiting officer, a crowd

XLVI

— <~^> broke open the gaol and set the prisoner free ; and on
1 ? f '&• the fifth of August he beat up for men at the door of
to the chief justice himself and hard by the house of the
governor. The militia officers were compelled to sign
the association ; and navigation was so effectually reg-
ulated, that a ship which arrived with two hundred
and four slaves, was compelled to go away without
landing them. In September two hundred and fifty
barrels of powder were taken by the " liberty" people
from a vessel at Tybee.

South Carolina needed more than ever a man of
prudence at the head of the administration ; and its
new governor owed his place only to his birth. The
younger son of a noble family, Lord William Camp-
bell knew nothing of the people whom he was to
govern, and he put himself under the direction of the
passionate and violent among his irresponsible subor-
dinates. The more temperate, especially Bull, the
lieutenant governor, kept aloof, and had no part in
his superciliousness and mistakes. The planters were
disposed to loyalty from affection and every motive
of interest ; but he would not notice the elements for
conciliation, nor listen to the advice of the considerate
and best informed. The council of safety, composed
of seventeen men, elected by the convention in June,
proved its dislike of independence by choosing Henry
Laurens for its president; but the governor wrote
home, that "the people of the best sense and the
greatest authority, as well as the rabble, had been
gradually led into the most violent measures by a set
of desperate and designing men;" and he planned
the reduction of the province by arms.

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. 85

He delayed calling an assembly, in the hope of hear- CHAP.
ing " favorable news from the Northward " to " mode- — ,—'

rate the frenzy with which all ranks seemed possessed ; "
but while intercepted letters revealed the tampering to
of British agents with Indians, on the eighth of July
news arrived from Boston of the battle of Bunker
Hill. On the tenth, Campbell met his first legisla-
ture ; and in his opening speech, refusing to discuss the
questions that had arisen, he denied by implication
the existence of grievances. u I warn you," said he,
u of the danger you are in ; the violent measures
adopted cannot fail of drawing down inevitable ruin
on this nourishing colony." These criminations and
menaces left little hope of escaping war ; the assembly
lingered inactive through the summer, and asked in
vain to be adjourned.

The patriot party was composed chiefly of residents
in the low country ; and hardly formed a majority of
the inhabitants of the colony. The best educated
were so unanimous, that when Campbell needed one
more member of the council, to make up the quorum
which required but three, he was under a necessity to
appoint an Englishman who was collector of the port;
for, said he, " there is not another person in the prov-
ince whom I can recommend, who would accept of
that honor, in so low an estimation is it at present
held." But in the districts of Camden and Ninety-six
he was assured that thousands were animated by
affection to the king. In the region from the line of
the Catawba and "Water ee to the Congaree and Sa-
luda, and all the way to Georgia, embracing the part
of South Carolina where there were the fewest slaves,
the rude settlers had no close sympathy with the

TOL. VIII. 8

86 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, planters. Instead of raising indigo or rice, they were
v—, — - chiefly herdsmen; below, the Protestant Episcopal
1775. church was predominant; the land above tide water
tJ thronged with various Christian sects. They had no
Oct- common family recollections or ancestry, no ties by
frequent intermarriages ; a body of Germans who occu-
pied Saxe Gotha on the Congaree, looked to the king
as their landlord, and would not risk an ejectment
from their farms ; others, recently escaped from pov-
erty in Europe, sought only subsistence and quiet in
America. Still less did the two populations blend in
political affinities; legislative power under the pro-
vincial government rested exclusively in the hands of
men of the Church of England; delegates were elected
only from the parishes, near the sea ; west of Orange-
burgh there had been no representation ; and the oc-
cupants of the land, as a class, were too newly arrived,
and too ignorant of the questions at issue, and too lit-
tle trained to a participation in public life, to have
fixed opinions. The planters were in constant con-
nection with England ; enough of them had been bred
there to give a tone to society, and a direction to
opinion ; they looked down upon the boors of the
interior as " men of low degree, though of eminence
in that new country ; totally illiterate, though of
common natural parts ; " and there were not wanting
agents or partisans of the crown — Fletchall, the very
active and spirited Robert Cunningham, Patrick Cun-
ningham and others — to fill the minds of these rude
husbandmen with bitterness against " the gentlemen."
The summer was passed in indecisive struggles for
superiority; the crown had its emissaries, whom the
Council of safety sent William Henry Drayton and

- GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. 87

a clergyman, William Tennent, to counteract. The CHAP.
opposing parties prepared for war ; Fort Augusta in ^-^
Georgia was taken and held by the Americans; the 1J75.
possession of the fort at Ninety-six was disputed. to7
Quiet was restored by a truce rather than by the Oct*
submission of the royalists. It was on this occasion
that Andrew Pickens was first heard of as a captain
in arms ; a puritan in religion ; a patriot in thought and
deed. On the other hand, Moses Kirkland, who had
accepted a commission from the council of safety,
changed sides, came down to Campbell with the as-
surance, that on the appearance of a British force, it
would be joined by four thousand men, and was sent
to the commander in chief at Boston for the purpose
of discussing an expedition against the South. The
inhabitants of the interior desired to be let alone ; if
compelled to take sides, a large body of them, proba-
bly a majority, inclined to the royal standard.

This deep and seemingly irreconcilable division
was a fearful embarrassment to the patriots ; the dan-
ger from the savages was more terrible ; and the dis-
covery that a large body of them stood ready to seize
the hatchet and the scalping knife at the king's be-
hest, set the community in a blaze. Stuart, the In-
dian agent for the Southern department, knew the
Red Men too well to advise calling them down ; but
he loved his office, and had withdrawn from Charles-
ton to St. Augustine, where he was open to the worst
suggestions of the most reckless underlings, who yet
were always clamoring at his dilatoriness and inef-
ficiency. The quickening authority of Gage was in-
voked ; and one of the last acts of that commander
was to write to him from Boston : " The people of

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

^aro^na m Burning rebels to their king have lost all
faith ; improve a correspondence with the Indians to
the greatest advantage, and even when opportunity
to offers, make them take arms against his majesty's ene-
mies, and distress them all in their power; for no terms
are now to be kept with them ; they have brought
down all the savages they could against us here, who,
with their riflemen, are continually firing upon our ad-
vanced sentries ; in short, no time should be lost to
distress a set of people so wantonly rebellious ; sup-
ply the Indians with what they want, be the expense
what it will, as every exertion must now be made on
the side of government." On receiving this order,
in which Indians and riflemen of the backwoods were
purposely confounded, Stuart promised the strictest
obedience ; he sent by way of Pensacola to the Lower
Creeks and even to the Chickasaws ; he looked with
impatience for answers to his messages to the dif-
ferent nations. To the Upper Creeks he despatched
his own brother as confidential envoy, " to say pub-
licly, that the want of trade and ammunition was en-
tirely owing to the rebels ; " that, " if they would at-
tach themselves to the king's interest, they should find
plenty pouring in upon them ;" and he was also to bribe
Emistisico, the great chief of the Upper Creeks, by
promising him " in private the greatest honor and favor,
if he would exert himself to bring the king's rebellious
white subjects to reason and a sense of their duty."
The same method was pursued with the Second Man
of the Little Tallassees, and with the Overhill Chero-
kees and their assembled chiefs ; to whom, as well as
to the Upper Creeks, ammunition was distributed,
that they might be ready " to act in the execution of

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. 89

any concerted plan for distressing the rebels." Cam- CHAP.
eron, the deputy agent, shrunk from the thought, say- -
ing : " I pray God there may be no intention to in- ju]y*
volve the Cherokees in the dispute ; for should the ^
Indians be prompted to take up the hatchet against
the colonies, they could not be restrained from com-
mitting the most inhuman barbarities on women and
children. I am averse to acts of this nature, though
my duty to my sovereign exceeds all other considera-
tions."

But the greatest danger to the planters was from
the sea, and the council of safety slowly and reluc-
tantly admitted the necessity of defending the har-
bor of Charleston. During the summer, ships were
boarded off Savannah river, and near St. Augustine,
and more than twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder
were obtained. The export of rice was allowed on no
other terms than that it should be exchanged for
arms and ammunition, which were obtained from
Hispaniola and from the French and Dutch islands.
The governor was all the while urging the ministry
to employ force against the three southernmost prov-
inces ; and the patriots were conscious of his importu-
nities. A free negro man of property, charged with
the intention of piloting British ships up the channel
to the city, perished on the gallows, though protesting
his innocence. All who refused the association were
disarmed, even though they were in the service of the
crown. On the thirteenth of September, just after a
full discovery of the intrigues of the governor with
the country people, his arrest was proposed ; yet, on
the opposition of Kawlins Lowndes, the motion was
defeated in the general committee by a vote of twenty

VOL. VIII. 8*

90 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, three against sixteen; but the council of safety order
' — . — • ed William Moultrie, colonel of the second regiment,
to take possession of Fort Johnson on James Island,
to Aware of the design, the governor sent a party to
)ct* throw the guns and carriages from the platform ; and
on the fifteenth of September, having suddenly dis-
solved the last royal assembly ever held in South
Carolina, he fled for refuge to comfortless quarters
on board the small man-of-war, the Tamer. During
the previous night, three companies commanded by
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Bernard Elliott, and
Francis Marion, under Lieutenant Colonel Motte, drop-
ped down with the ebb tide from Gadsden's wharf,
landed on James Island and entered the fort, in which
but three or four men remained. Lord William
Campbell sent Innis, his secretary, in the boat of the
Tamer, to demand " by what authority they had
taken possession of his Majesty's fort ; " and an officer
appeared and answered : " We are American troops,
under Lieutenant Colonel Motte ; we hold the fort by
the express command of the council of safety." " By
whom is this message given ? " Without hesitation
the officer replied : " I am Charles Cotesworth Pinck-
ney ; " and the names of Motte and Pinckney figured
in the next despatches of the governor. Moultrie was
desired to devise a banner ; and as the uniform of the
colony was blue, and the first and second regiments
wore on the front of their caps a silver crescent, he gave
directions for a large blue flag with a crescent in the
right-hand corner. A schooner was stationed between
Fort Johnson and the town, to intercept the man-of-
war's boats. A post was established at Haddrell's
Point, and a fort on Sullivan's Island was proposed.

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. 91

The tents on Jarnes Island contained at least five hun- CHAP.
dred men well armed and clad, soldier-like in their — , — -
deportment, and strictly disciplined. They were yj5*
taught not merely the use of the musket but the ex- to
ercise of the great guns. The king's arsenal supplied
cannon and balls. New gun carriages were soon con-
structed, for the mechanics, almost to a man, were
hearty in the cause. Hundreds of negro laborers were
brought in from the country to assist in work. None
stopped to calculate expense.

The heroic courage of the Carolinians, who, from
a generous sympathy with Massachusetts, went for-
ward to meet greater danger than any other province,
was scoffed at by the representatives of the king as an
infatuation. Martin, of North Carolina, making himself
busy with the affairs of his neighbors, wrote in midsum-
mer: "The people of South Carolina forget entirely
their own weakness and are blustering treason, while
Charleston, that is the head and heart of their boasted
province, might be destroyed by a single frigate, and
the country thereby reduced to the last distress. In
charity to them and in duty to my king and coun-
try, I give it as my sincere opinion, that the rod of
correction cannot be spared." A few weeks later,
Lord William Campbell chimed in with him, reckon-
ing up the many deadly perils by which they were
environed ; " the Indians ; " " the disaffected back
country people ;" their own social condition, " where
their slaves were five to one;" and the power of
Britain from the sea. Before the world they offered
their fortunes, the safety of their families, and their
own lives in witness to their love of freedom. From
Charleston harbor Campbell wrote in October : " Let

92 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, it not be entirely forgot, that the kins: has dominions in

XT VI

— r~— this part of America. What defence can they make ?

1775. Three regiments, a proper detachment of artillery,
to with a couple of good frigates, some small craft, and
Oct a bomb-ketch, would do the whole business here, and
go a great way to reduce Georgia and North Carolina
to a sense of their duty. Charleston is the fountain-
head from whence all violence flows ; stop that, and
the rebellion in this part of the continent will soon be
at an end."

North Carolina, fourth among the thirteen colo-
nies in importance, ranking next to Pennsylvania, was
happy in the natural security of its position, and its
comparative unanimity. In the low country, for the
distance of a hundred miles from the sea, all classes
were penetrated with the enthusiasm for liberty. Men
whom the royalists revered as of " the first order of
people in the country," of unblemished integrity and
earnest character, loyal by nature, gave thoughtful
consideration to the political questions in issue, and
decided irrevocably against the right of the British
parliament to tax the colonies. In Brunswick county,
Robert Howe, formerly captain of Fort Johnston,
employed himself in training the people to arms ;
though Martin, the royal governor, held his military
talents in light esteem. At Newbern, the capital,
whose name kept in memory that its founders were
emigrants from the highlands of Switzerland, volun-
teers openly formed themselves into independent com-
panies. Afraid of being seized, Martin, suddenly
shipping his family to New York, retreated to Fort
Johnston on Cape Fear river. He had repeatedly
offered to raise a battalion from the Scottish High-

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. 93

landers in Carolina, and declared himself sure of the CHAP.
allegiance of the Regulators, who were weary of insur- — <-^>
rection and scrupulous about their oaths. Again and l
again he importuned to be restored to his old rank in
the army as lieutenant colonel, promising the greatest
consequences from such an appointment. He could not
conceal that " the frenzy " had taken possession of all
classes of men around him, and that the news of the
affair at Lexington had universally wrought a great
change, confirming the seditious, and bringing over to
them vast numbers of the fickle, wavering, and un-
steady multitude. Being absolutely alone, at the mercy
of any handful of insurgents who should take the trou-
ble to come after him, his braggart garrulity increased
with his impotence ; and having formerly called for
three thousand stand of arms, he now wrote for four-
fold that number, ten thousand at least, to be sent im-
mediately from England, with artillery, ammunition,
money, some pairs of colors, and a military commis-
sion for himself; promising, with the aid of two regi-
ments, to force a connection with the interior, and
raise not the Highlanders alone, but the people of the
upper country in such overwhelming numbers, as to
restore order in the two Carolinas, " hold Virginia in
awe," and recover every colony south of Pennsylvania.
After the termination of the seven years' war, very
few of the Highland regiment returned home ; soldiers
and officers choosing rather to accept grants of land in
America for settlement. Many also of the inhabitants
of North Western Scotland, especially of the clans of
Macdonald and Macleod, listened to overtures from
those who had obtained concessions of vast domains,
and migrated to Middle Carolina ; tearing themselves,

94 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, with bitterest grief, from kindred whose sorrow at

^*^> parting admitted no consolation. Those who went

Vul5' ^rst' rePorted favorably of the clear, sunny clime,

to where every man might have land of his own ; the

>ct* distance and the voyage lost their terrors ; and from

the isles of Rasay and Skye whole neighborhoods

formed parties for removal, sweetening their exile by

carrying with them their costume and opinions,, their

old Celtic language and songs.

Distinguished above them all was Allan Mac-
donald of Kingsborough, and his wife Flora Mac-
donald, the same who in the midsummer of 1746,
yielding to a womanly sympathy for distress, had
rescued Prince Charles Edward from his pursuers,
with a self-possession, fertility of resources, courage,
and fidelity, that are never mentioned but to her
honor. Compelled by poverty, they had removed
to North Carolina in IT 74, and made their new home
in the west of Cumberland county. She was now
about fifty-five, mother of many children, of middle
stature, soft features, " uncommonly mild and gentle
manners, and elegant presence." Her husband had
the graceful mien and manly looks of a gallant High-
lander, aged, but still with hair jet black, a stately
figure, and a countenance that expressed intelligence
and steadfastness. On the third of July he came
down to Fort Johnston, and concerted with Martin
the raising a battalion of "the good and faithful
Highlanders," in which he was himself to be major,
and Alexander Macleod, an officer of marines on, half-
pay, was to be the first captain. They were to wait
the proper moment to take the field ; but the design,
though secretly devised, did not remain concealed ;

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS. 95

and rumor added a purpose of inviting the negroes CHAP.
to rise.

The spirit of resistance, quickened by the tidings
which came in from Bunker Hill, extended itself more to
and more widely and deeply. On the waters of Al-
bermarle Sound, over which the adventurous skiffs
of the first settlers of Carolina had glided before the
waters of the Chesapeake were known to Englishmen,
the movement was assisted by the writings of young
James Iredell, from England; by the letters and
counsels of Joseph Hewes ; and by the calm wis-
dom of Samuel Johnston of Edenton, a native of
Dundee in Scotland, a man revered for his integrity,
thoroughly opposed to disorder and to revolution,
if revolution could be avoided without yielding to
oppression. The last provincial congress had in-
vested him contingently with power to call a new
one ; on the tenth of July he issued his summons to
the people of North Carolina to elect their delegates.
But two days later, Dartmouth wrote from the king :
" I hope that in North Carolina the governor may
not be reduced to the disgraceful necessity of seeking
protection on board the king's ships ; " and just then
Martin slunk away from land, and took refuge on
board the Cruiser. On the eighteenth a party came
down, and, encouraged by the presence of John Ashe
and Cornelius Harnett, set the fort on fire before his
face, and within reach of the guns of the man-of-war.

As soon as the deliberations at Philadelphia would
permit, Richard Caswell, a delegate to the general
congress, hastened home to recommend and promote
a convention, and to quicken the daring spirit of his
constituents. He had with reluctance admitted the

96 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAR necessity of American resistance ; but having once
—, — > chosen his part, he advocated the most resolute con-
1775. duct, and even censured the Newbern committee for

July .

to allowing the governor to escape.

On Monday, the twenty-first of August, the people
of North Carolina assembled at Hillsborough in a con-
gress, composed of more than one hundred and eighty
members. A spirit of moderation controlled and
guided their zeal ; Caswell proposed Samuel Johnston
as president, and he was unanimously elected. In a
vituperative, incoherent, interminable proclamation,
Martin had warned the people against the convention,
as tending to unnatural rebellion ; that body, in reply,
voted, his proclamation " a false and seditious libel,"
and ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman.
They professed allegiance to the king, but in the
plainest words avowed the purpose to resist par-
liamentary taxation " to the utmost." They resolved,
that the people of the province, singly and collec-
tively, were bound by the acts of the continental and
provincial congresses, because in both they were rep-
resented by persons chosen by themselves. A confer-
ence was had with the Regulators, whose religious and
political scruples were thus removed. The intrigue
of Martin with the Highlanders was divulged by Far-
quhard Campbell, and a committee, on which were
many Scots, urged them, not wholly without success,
to unite with the other inhabitants of America in de-
fence of rights derived from God and the constitu-
tion. The meditated resistance involved the insti-
tution of government ; a treasury, which for the time
was supplied by an emission of paper money ; the pur-
chase of ammunition and arms; an embodying of a

GEORGIA AND THE CAROLINAS.

regular force of one thousand men; an organization
of the militia of the colony ; an annual provincial con-
gress to be elected by all freeholders ; a committee of
safety for each of the six districts into which the to
province was divided ; a provincial council, consist-
ing of the president of the convention and two mem-
bers from each of the six divisions, as the great ex-
ecutive power. Richard Caswell, who, for the com-
bined powers of wisdom and action, stands out as the
foremost patriot of North Carolina, efficient in build-
ing up society on its new foundation, a financier of skill
and integrity, a courageous statesman and a man of ca-
pacity for war, was detained by the people in their im-
mediate service ; and John Penn, a Virginian by birth,
became his successor in the general congress.

The most remarkable subject brought before the
convention was Franklin's plan of a confederacy,
which, on the twenty fourth of August, was introduced
by William Hooper ; like Franklin, a native of Bos-
ton ; trained under James Otis to the profession of the
law ; now a resident in Wilmington, " the region of
politeness and hospitality," of commerce, wealth, and
culture. North Carolina was always prompt to respond
to the call of her sister colonies; her convention
listened with ready sympathy to the proposition,
though it included a system of independence and gov-
ernment, and it was about to be adopted. But in
the committee of the whole house, the moderating
prudence of Johnston interposed ; and, by his persua-
sion, North Carolina consented to forego the honor of
being the first to declare for a permanent federal
union. On Monday, the fourth of September, it was
voted, but not unanimously, that a general confed-

VOL. VIII.

98 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, eration was not at present eligible; that a further

— r^ confederacy ought only to be adopted in case of the

*J [6' last necessity, and then only after consultation with

to the provincial congress. Hooper acquiesced, and the

house adopted unanimously his draft of an address

to the inhabitants of the British empire, most solemnly

disavowing the desire of independence, consenting to

the continuance of the old injurious and oppressive

regulation of trade, and asking only to be restored to

the state existing before 1Y63.

On the eighteenth of October the provincial coun-
cil held its first meeting. Among its members were
Samuel Johnston ; Samuel Ashe, a man whose integ-
rity even his enemies never questioned, whose name
a mountain county and the fairest town in the west-
ern part of the commonwealth keep in memory ; Ab-
ner Nash, an eminent lawyer, described by Martin as
" the oracle of the committee of Newbern, and a prin-
cipal promoter of sedition ; " but on neither of these
three did the choice of president fall ; that office of peril
and power was bestowed unanimously on Cornelius
Harnett, of New Hanover, whose earnestness of pur-
pose and disinterested, unquenchable zeal had made
him honored as the Samuel Adams of North Carolina.
Thus prepared, the people of that colony looked to-
wards the future with dignity and fearlessness. The
continent, still refusing to perceive the impending
necessity of independence, awaited the answer to its
last petition to the king.

CHAPTER XLVII

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUEOPE.
JULY 25 — AUGUST, 1775.

DuKmo the first weeks of July the king contem- CHAP.
plated America with complacency; assured that, in ^-t — •
New York, his loyal subjects formed the majority, y !5t
that in Virginia the rebels could be held in check by
setting upon them savages and slaves. Ships were to
be sent at once ; and if they did not reduce the country,
the soldiery would finish the work at the very worst
in one more campaign. Alone of the ministers, Lord
North was ill at ease, and when a friend said to him,
" The rebels may make you propositions," he replied
with vivacity, " Would to God they may." Neither the
court, nor the ministers, nor the people at large had
as yet taken a real alarm. Even Edmund Burke, who,
as the agent of New York, had access to exact infor-
mation and foresaw an engagement at Boston, be-
lieved that Gage, from his discipline and artillery as
well as his considerable numbers, would beat " the
raw American troops," and succeed. An hour be-

100 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, fore noon of the twenty fifth/ tidings of the Bunker

XL VII .

^^ — ' Hill battle reached the cabinet, and spread rapidly
1776. through the kingdom and through Europe. "Two
more such victories," said Vergennes, " and England
will have no army left in America." The great loss
of officers in the battle saddened the anticipations of
future triumphs ; the ministry confessed the unexam-
pled intrepidity of the rebels ; many persons from
that time believed, that the contest would end in
their independence : but difficulties only animated
the king ; no one equalled him in ease, composure,
and even gayety. He would have twenty thousand
regular soldiers in America by the next spring. Bar-
rington, the secretary at war, was of opinion, " that
no such number could be procured;" he therefore
entreated the secretary of state to give " no expecta-
tion of the kind in the despatches going out to the
colonies ; " and he wrote plainly to his sovereign : "The
proposed augmentation cannot possibly be raised, and
ought not to be depended on." But George the
Third, whose excitement dispelled hesitation and
gloom and left in his heart nothing but war, threw
his eye confidently over the continent of Europe, re-
solved at any cost to accomplish his purpose.

The ministers were of opinion that Gage, at an
early day, ought to have occupied the heights of Dor-
chester and of Charlestown; and he was recalled,
though without official -censure. For the time, the
command in America was divided ; and assigned in
Canada to Carleton, in the old colonies to Howe.
Ten thousand pounds and an additional supply of
three thousand arms were forwarded to Quebec, and
notwithstanding the caution of Barrington, word was

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 101

sent to Carleton, that lie might depend upon a re- CHAP.
enforcement of regular troops, that it was " hoped ~^~
the next spring to have in North America an army
of twenty thousand men, exclusive of the Canadians
and Indians." The first contribution was made by
the king as elector of Hanover ; nor did he drive a
hard bargain with the British treasury : his prede-
cessor, through Newcastle, took so much for the loan
of Hanoverian troops, that no account of the pay-
ment could be found ; George the Third asked only
the reimbursement of all expenses. His agent,
Colonel William Faucett, leaving England early in
August, stopped at the Hague just long enough to
confer with Sir Joseph Yorke on getting further as-
sistance in Holland and Germany, and straightway
repaired to Hanover to muster and receive into the
service of Great Britain five battalions of electoral
infantry. They consisted of two thousand three hun-
dred and fifty men, who were to be employed in the
garrisons of Gibraltar and Minorca, and thus to dis-
engage an equal number of British troops for service
in America. The recruiting officers of Frederic of
Prussia and of other princes environed the frontier
with the express design of tempting them to desert ;
for they were supposed to have an aversion for the
sea. The port of Bitzebuttell, near the mouth of the
Elbe, in the territory of Hamburg, was selected as
the place of their embarkation, which was courteously
promoted by the senate of that republic. It was the
fifth of October before they got on board the trans-
ports, and then a strong south-west wind that blew
incessantly for several weeks, locked them up till the
afternoon of the first of November.

VOL. Till. 9*

102 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Three days after the arrival of the news of the
— r~ Charlestown battle, Rochford, the secretary of state,
T7 \ 5 • called the attention of De Guines, the French ambassa-

July

and dor, to the dispute with the colonies; and remarked that
us' " many persons of both parties were thoroughly per-
suaded that the way to terminate the war in America,
was to declare war against France." De Guines sup-
pressed every sign of indignation or of surprise ; and
encouraged the secretary's communicativeness. It
was declared to be the English opinion, that England
now, as before the last peace, was a match for Spain
and France united ; that, in the event of a war with
those powers, America, through fear of the recovery
of Canada by France, would give up her contest and
side with England. Rochford repeated these remarks
to the Spanish minister, from indiscretion, or in the
hope to intimidate the two courts ; but as the minis-
try had no object so dear as that of keeping their
places, it followed that if the nation should clamor for
an attack on the house of Bourbon, they would at
once become belligerent. The subject was calmly
revolved by Vergennes ; who was unable to imagine,
how sensible people could regard a war with France
as a harbor of refuge ; especially as her marine, which
had been almost annihilated, was restored. " The Eng-
lish cabinet is greatly mistaken," said he, " if it thinks
we regret Canada; it may come to pass that they will
themselves repent having made its acquisition." He
felt the want of gaining exact information on the state
of opinion in America. For that end accident offered
a most trusty agent in De Bonvouloir, a French gen-
tleman, cousin german to the Marquis de Lambert ;
a man of good judgment and impenetrable secrecy.

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 103

He had been driven from St. Domingo by the climate, CHAP.
had returned by way of the English colonies, had, at — ^~
Philadelphia, New York, Providence, and near Bos- Aug.
ton, become acquainted with insurgent Americans;
and he reported that in America every man was
turned soldier; that all the world crowded to the
camp of liberty. The proposition to send him back
to America was submitted by the ambassador at
London through Vergennes to Louis the Sixteenth,
who consented. Here is the beginning of his inter-
vention in the American revolution. Neither his
principles nor his sentiments inclined him to aid in-
surgents ; but the danger of an attack from the Eng-
lish was held before his eyes, and on the seventh of
August Vergennes could reply to De Guines: "Be
assured, sir, the king very much approves sending
Bonvouloir with such precaution that we can in no
event be compromised by his mission. His instruc-
tions should be verbal and confined to the two most
essential objects ; the one, to make to you a faithful
report of events and of the prevailing disposition of
the public mind ; the other, to secure the Americans
against that jealousy of us, with which so much pains
will be taken to inspire them. Canada is for them the
object of distrust ; they must be made to understand
that we do not think of it at all ; and that far from
envying them the liberty and independence which
they labor to secure, we admire the nobleness and
the grandeur of their efforts, have no interest to in-
jure them, and shall with pleasure see happy circum-
stances place them at liberty to frequent our ports ;
the facilities that they will find there for their com-
merce will soon prove to them our esteem." With

104 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, these instructions Bonvonloir repaired to the Low
— v^ Countries, and after some delay found at Antwerp an
1775. opportunity of embarking for the colonies. His report
might open the way for relations and events of the
utmost importance. Yet all the while the means of
pacifying America were so obvious that Vergennes
was hardly able to persuade himself they could be
missed by the English ministers. The folly imputed
to them was so great, and was so sure to involve the
loss of their possessions, that he called in question the
accounts which he had received. The ambassador re-
plied : " You say what you think ought to be done,
but the king of England is the most obstinate prince
alive, and his ministers will never adopt the policy
necessary in a great crisis, for fear of compromising
their safety or their places."

The affairs of the United Colonies were at that time
under discussion in the heart of the Russian empire,
the ancient city of Moscow, at the court of Catharine
the Second. The ruling opinion in Russia demanded
the concentration of all power in one hand. From
the moment the empress set her foot on Russian soil,
it became her fixed purpose to seize the absolute
sway and govern alone. Though she mixed trifling
pastime with application to business, and for her re-
creation sought the company of the young and the
very gay, she far excelled those around her in indus-
try and knowledge. Frederic said of her, that she
had an infinity of talent and no religion; yet she
went over to the Greek church and played the de-
votee. Distinguished for vivacity of thought and
judgment, for the most laborious attention to affairs,
very proud of the greatness and power of her empire,

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 105

her intercourse with all her subjects was marked by CHAP.
mildness and incomparable grace ; and she made al-
most incredible exertions as a monarch to be useful
even to the meanest, to benefit the future as well as
the present age. Tragedy, comedy, music wearied
her ; she had no taste but to build, or to regulate her
court ; no passion but to rule and to make a great
name ; and this led her to undertake too much herself
without sufficient aid from her ministers. In the crowd
of the ambitious, who were all eager for advancement
and favor, she compared herself to a hare worried by
many hounds; and among an unscrupulous nobility
in a land which was not that of her birth, she was
haunted by a feeling of insecurity, and revealed a
secret unrest and discontent of soul. But those
around her were not offended at the completeness
with which she belonged to a century representing
the supremacy of the senses ; the spiritual life that
diffused itself over her form was a refinement of de-
light in physical pleasures ; the blandishments of her
manner, the smiles on her face, the flowers on her
breast, covered fiery passions that coursed riotously
through her veins.

Her first minister was Panin, without whom no
council was held, no decision taken in foreign or do-
mestic affairs. He alone could effectually promote
her schemes of administrative greatness ; though he
was guided by experience rather than comprehen-
sive views. With the faults of pride, inflexibility,
and dilatoriness, he also had incorruptness ; and he
was acknowledged to be the fittest man for his post.
At home his political principles led him to desire
some limitation of the power of the sovereign by a

106 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, council of nobles ; towards foreign powers lie was

XLVII.

^— v-^ free from rancor. It had been the policy of France
1775. to save Poland by stirring up Sweden and Turkey
against Russia ; yet Panin did not misjudge the rela-
tions of Russia to France. Nor was he blinded by
love for England ; he wanted no treaty with her ex-
cept with stipulations for aid in the contingency of a
war with the Ottoman Porte, and as that condition
could not be obtained, he always declined her alii,
ance. His weak side was vanity, and Frederic of
Prussia was said to have chained him to his interests
by frequent presents of small value, and autograph
letters filled with delicate flatteries. But Panin was
thoroughly a Russian statesman, and to win his favor
Frederic submitted to promise subsidies against
Turkey.

The British minister relied on the good-will of
Alexis Orloff, who had been a principal person in
raising Catharine to the throne ; but his influence
was on the wane, and his brother, who remained for
about ten years her favorite concubine, had been re-
cently superseded and dismissed from the court.

His successor was Potemkin, who, to the person
of a Titan joined a resolute ambition, and a com-
manding will, that became terrible to the empress
herself; so that when she dismissed him from her
bed, she found herself more and more subject to his
control in the administration. Never did a favorite
rise so rapidly, but at this time he cultivated the
greatest intimacy with Panin, whose opinion he pro-
fessed to follow.

The indifference of the king of Prussia on the re-
lation of England to her colonies, extended to the

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 107

court of Moscow, and the Russian ministers never CHAP.
spoke of the strife but as likely to end in American
independence. Yet this coolness was not perceived
by the British minister. One day Panin inquired of
him the news ; remembering his instructions, Gunning
seized the moment to answer, that the measures in
progress would shortly end the rebellion in America;
then, as if hurried by excess of zeal to utter an idle,
unauthorized speculation of his own, he asked leave to
acquaint his king, that " in case the circumstances of
affairs should render any foreign forces necessary, he
might reckon upon a body of her imperial majesty's
infantry." On the morning of the eighth of August,
Panin reported the answer of the empress. Nothing
was said specifically about troops ; still less of placing
Russian battalions under the command of a British
general, or despatching them across the Atlantic; but
she gave the strongest assurance of her entire readi-
ness, from gratitude for favors received from Eng.
land during her last war, upon this and upon every
other occasion, to give the British king assistance, in
whatever manner he thought proper. She charged
Panin to repeat her very words, that u she found in
herself an innate affection for the British nation which
she should always cherish." The unobserving envoy
drank in the words with delight ; and interpreted a
woman's lavish sentimentality as a promise of twenty
thousand men to be forwarded from Asia and Eastern
Europe to America. He flattered himself that he had
conducted the negotiation with delicacy and success,
and that the proposal, which was flying on the winds
to other courts, was a secret to everybody but Panin
and the empress.

108 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. The reply to Bunker Hill from England reached
— * — - Washington before the end of September ; and the
1^775. manifest determination of the ministers to push the
war by sea and land with the utmost vigor, removed
from his mind every doubt of the necessity of inde-
pendence. Such, also, was the conclusion of Greene ;
and the army was impatient when any of the chap-
lains prayed for the king. The general congress had
less sagacity. It should have assembled on the fifth
of September ; but for eight days more there were
too few delegates for the transaction of business.

The whole province of Georgia was now repre-
sented, and henceforward the confederacy never
embraced less than thirteen members. The war de-
veloped the germ of a state that was to include both
slopes of the Green Mountains, whose people fought
with the army of the continent under officers of their
own election ; but the pretensions of New York to
jurisdiction over their territory forbade as yet their
recognition as a separate political body.

From the new commonwealth which was rising
on the west of Virginia, an agent soon presented him-
self. The adventurers in that region spread the
fame of the healthfulness of its climate, the wonder-
ful goodness of its ranges for all kinds of game, and
the seemingly miraculous fertility of the soil where it
was underlaid by limestone ; and they already fore-
told the great city that was to rise at the falls of the
Ohio. Their representative discussed in private the
foundation on which the swiftly growing settlements
of Kentucky should rest; and received advice from
their northern well-wishers to reserve that "most
agreeable country" exclusively for the free. The ter-

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 109

ritorial claim of Virginia barred against him the doors CHAP.

XLVII

of congress, but the affection of the West flowed in v—, — '.
a full current towards the Union. 1J75

Sept.

The " inexpressibly distressing" situation of
Washington demanded instant and earnest attention ;
but the bias of the continental congress was to inac-
tivity. The intercepted letters of John Adams, in
which he had freely unbosomed his complaints of its
tardiness, and had justly thrown blame on " the pid-
dling genius," as he phrased it, of Dickinson, were ap-
proved by many ; but Dickinson himself was unfor-
giving ; wounded in his self-love and vexed by the ridi-
cule thrown on his system, from this time he resisted
independence with a morbid fixedness. He brushed
past John Adams in the street without returning his
salutation ; and the New England statesman encoun-
tered also the hostility of the proprietary party and of
social opinion in Philadelphia, and the distrust even
of some of the delegates from the South. At times,
an " unhappy jealousy of New England" broke forth ;
but when a member insinuated distrust of its people,
uas artful and designing men, altogether pursuing
selfish purposes," Gadsden, of South Carolina, said in
their defence : " I only wish we would imitate, instead
of abusing, them. I thank God we have such a sys-
tematic body of men, as an asylum that honest men
may resort to in the time of their last distress, if
driven out of their own states ; so far from being un-
der any apprehensions, I bless God there is such a
people in America."

Harmony was maintained only by acquiescence in
the policy of Dickinson. From Pittsburg, Lewis
Morris of New York and James Wilson of Penn-

VOL. VIII. 10

110 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, sylvania, the commissioners, recommended an expe-
v— , — \ dition to take Detroit : the proposal, after a full dis-
1 775. cussion, was rejected ; but the invasion of Canada, by
way of the Chaudiere and of Isle aux Noix, was ap-
proved; and delegates from a convention of the
several parishes of Canada would have been a wel-
come accession. Much time was spent in wrangling
about small expenditures. The prohibition by par-
liament of the fisheries of New England and the
restriction on the trade of the southern colonies, went
into effect on the twentieth of July : as a measure of
counteraction, the ports of America should have been
thrown open ; but though secret directions were given
for importing powder and arms from "the foreign
West Indies," the committee on trade was not ap-
pointed till the twenty second of September ; and
then they continued day after day, hesitating to act.
The prospect of financial ruin led De Hart, of New
Jersey, to propose to do away with issuing paper
money by the provincial conventions and assemblies ;
but no one seconded him. The boundary line be-
tween Virginia and Pennsylvania was debated ; as
well as the right of Connecticut to hold possession of
Wyoming. The roll of the army at Cambridge had,
from its first formation, borne the names of men of
color; but as yet without the distinct sanction of
legislative approval. On the twenty sixth, Edward
Eutledge, of South Carolina, moved the discharge of
all the negroes in the army, and he was strongly sup-
ported by many of the southern delegates ; but the
opposition was so powerful and so determined that
"he lost his point."

At length, came a letter from Washington, imply-

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. Ill

ing his sense that the neglect of congress had brought CHAP.
matters in his army to a crisis. Not powder and artil- — , — -
lery only were wanting, but fuel, shelter, clothing, pro- ^^ '
visions, and the soldiers' pay ; and, while a great part of
the troops were not free from mutiny, by the terms of
their enlistment all of them, except the riflemen,
were to be disbanded in December. For this state
of things, congress could provide no adequate rem-
edy. On the thirtieth of September, they therefore
appointed Franklin, Lynch, and Harrison, a commit-
tee to repair to the camp, and, with the New England
colonies and Washington, to devise a method for ren-
ovating the army.

While the committee were on the way, Gage, Oct-
on the tenth of October, embarked for England,
bearing with him the large requirements of Howe,
his successor, which he warmly seconded. The
king, the ministers, public opinion in England had
made very free with his reputation; but, on his
arrival, he was allowed to wear a bolder front
than he had shown in Massachusetts, and was dis-
missed into retirement with the rank and emolu-
ments of his profession. To Howe, the new com-
mander-in-chief, the ministers had sent instructions,
which permitted and advised the transfer of the war
to New York ; but, from the advanced state of the
season, and the want of sufficient transports, he de-
cided to winter at Boston, which place he did not
doubt his ability to hold.

On the fifteenth of October, the committee from
congress arrived at the camp. Franklin, who was its
soul, brought with him the conviction that the Ameri-
can people, though they might be made to suffer, could

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, never be beaten into submission ; that a separation
— , — from Britain was inevitable. His presence in the camp,
I0df' witnm signt °f his native town, was welcomed with
affectionate veneration. "During the whole evening,"
wrote Greene, " I viewed that very great man with
silent admiration." With Washington for the milita-
ry chief, with Franklin for the leading adviser from
congress, the conference with the New England com-
missioners, notwithstanding all difficulties, harmoni-
ously devised a scheme for forming, governing, and
supplying a new army of about twenty three thousand
men, whom the general was authorized to enlist with-
out delay. The proposed arrangements, in all their
details, had the aspect of an agreement between the
army, the continental congress, and the New Eng-
land colonies ; their successful execution depended on
those four colonies alone.

After the conference broke up, the committee
remained two days, to advise with the general on
every remaining question, and thus to establish a per-
fect understanding between him and the civil power.
On this occasion Franklin confirmed that affection, con-
fidence, and veneration, which Washington bore him to
the last moment of his life. The committee were uncer-
tain how to deal with Church, formerly an active mem-
ber of the Boston committee, lately the director general
of the hospital, a man of unsteady judgment, who had
been discovered in a secret correspondence with the
enemy in Boston : the extent of his indiscretion or com-
plicity was uncertain ; after an imprisonment for some
months, he was allowed to pass to the West Indies ;
but the ship in which he sailed was never again
heard of.

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 113

Franklin was still at the camp, when news from CHAP.

XL VI I

Maine confirmed his interpretation of the purposes
of the British. In the previous May, Mowat, a na-
val officer, had been held prisoner for a few hours,
at Falmouth, now Portland ; and we have seen Linzee,
in a sloop-of-war, driven with loss from Gloucester;
it was one of the last acts of Gage to plan with the
admiral how to wreak vengeance on the inhabitants
of both those ports. The design against Gloucester
was never carried out ; but Mowat, in a ship of
sixteen guns, attended by three other vessels, went
up the harbor of Portland, and after a short parley,
at half-past nine, on the morning of the sixteenth of
October, he began to fire upon the town. In five
minutes, several houses were in a blaze ; parties of
marines landed to spread the conflagration by hand.
All sea-going vessels were burned except two, which
were carried away. The cannonade was kept up till
after dark ; St. Paul's church, the public buildings,
and about one hundred and thirty dwelling houses,
three-fourths of the whole, were burned down ; those
that remained standing were shattered by balls and
shells. By the English account, the destruction was
still greater. At the opening of a severe winter, the
inhabitants were turned adrift in poverty and misery.
The wrath of Washington was justly kindled, as he
heard of these " savage cruelties," this new " exer-
tion of despotic barbarity." " Death and destruc-
tion mark the footsteps of the enemy," said Greene ;
"fight or be slaves is the American motto; and the
first is by far the most eligible." Sullivan was sent
to fortify Portsmouth ; Trumbull, of Connecticut, took

thought for the defence of New London.

10*

114 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Meantime, the congress at Philadelphia was still
^~ halting in the sluggishness of irresolution ; and, so
^°n^ ^ ^ere remaine(l the dimmest hope of favor to
its petition, the lukewarm patriots had the advan-
tage. No court as yet had power to sanction " the
condemnation of vessels taken from the enemy." On
the third of October, one of the delegates of
Rhode Island laid before Congress their instructions
to use their whole influence for building, equipping,
and employing an American fleet. It was the origin
of our navy. The proposal met great opposition;
but John Adams engaged in it heartily, and pursued
it unremittingly, though " for a long time against wind
and tide." On the fifth, Washington was authorized
to employ two armed vessels to intercept British
storeships, bound for Quebec ; on the thirteenth, con-
gress voted two armed vessels, of ten and of fourteen
guns, and seventeen days later, two others of thirty
six guns. But much time would pass before their
equipment ; as yet, war was not waged on the high
sea, nor reprisals authorized, nor the ports opened to
foreign nations.

On the sixteenth of October, the day on which
Mowat anchored below Falmouth, the new legislature
of Pennsylvania was organized. Chosen under a
dread of independence, all of its members who were
present subscribed the usual engagements of allegiance
to the king. In a few days the Quakers presented an
address, in favor of "the most conciliatory measures,"
and deprecating every thing " likely to widen or per-
petuate the breach with their parent state." To coun-
teract this movement, the committee for the city and
liberties of Philadelphia, sixty six in number, headed

EFFECT OF BUNKER HILL BATTLE IN EUROPE. 115

by George Clyiner and McKean, went two by two to CHAP.
the state-house, and delivered their remonstrance; ^^
but the spirit of the assembly, under the guidance 1175>
of Dickinson, followed the bent of the quakers.

Congress, for the time, was like a ship at sea with-
out a rudder, still buoyant, but rolling on the water
with every wave. One day would bring measures
for the defence of New York and Hudson river, or
for the invasion of Canada ; the next, nothing was to
be done that could further irritate Great Britain.
The continuance of the army around Boston depended
on the efficiency of all the New England provinces ;
of these, New Hampshire was without a government.
On the eighteenth of October, her delegates asked
in her behalf, that the general congress would sanc-
tion her instituting a government, as the only means
of preventing the greatest confusion; yet the major-
ity of that body let the month run out before giving
an answer, for they still dreamed of conciliation, and
of the good effects of their last petition to the king.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA.

AUGUST, 17*75.
THE chronicler of manners and events can alone

X TJ V III

— • — measure his own fairness, for no one else knows so

wna/k he throws aside. The greatest poet of ac-
tion has brought upon the stage the panorama of
mortal being, without once finding occasion to delin-
eate a faultless hero. No man that lives has not sin-
ned. The gentlest of historians, recounting in the
spirit of love the mighty deeds which divide the new
civilization from the old, tells how one of his fellow
messengers, thrice in the same night, denied the mas-
ter by whom he had been called. Indiscriminate
praise neither paints to the life, nor teaches by exam-
ple, nor advances social science ; history is no mosaic
of funeral eulogies and family epitaphs, nor can the
hand of truth sketch character without shadows as
well as light. The crimes and the follies which stand
in the line of causes of revolution, or modify the de-
velopment of a state, or color the morals of an age,

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 117

must be brought up for judgment ; and yet the hu- CHAP.
mane student of his race, in his searches into the past. ^*~

1 7 7 %

contemplates more willingly those inspirations of the Aug."
beautiful and the good, which lift the soul above the
interests of the moment, demonstrate our affinity
with something higher than ourselves, point the way
to principles that are eternal, and constitute the vital
element of progress.

From immeasurable distances in the material
universe the observer of the stars brings back word,
that the physical forces which rule our neighbor-
hood maintain an all-pervading energy; and the
records imbedded in the rocks, teaching how count-
less myriads of seasons have watched the sun go
forth daily from his chamber, and the earth turn
on its axis, and the sea ebb and flow, demonstrate
that the same physical forces have exerted their
power without change for unnumbered periods of
bygone years. The twin sciences of the stars and
of the earth establish the cosrnical unity of the
material universe in all that we can know of time
and space. But the conception of the perfect order
and unity of creation does not unfold itself in its
beauty and grandeur, so long as the guiding pres-
ence of intelligence is not apprehended. From the
depths of man's consciousness, which envelopes sub-
limer truths than the firmament over his head can
reveal to his senses, rises the idea of right ; and
history, testing that idea by observation, traces the
vestiges of moral law through the practice of the
nations in every age, proves experimentally the
reality of justice, and confirms by induction the in-
tuitions of reason.

118 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. The historian, not less than philosophers and nat-

XLVIII .' . • -I /» i

— ^ uralists, must bring to his pursuit the freedom of an
1.775' unbiassed mind: in his case the submission of reason

Aug. '

to prejudice would have a deeper criminality; for he
cannot neglect to be impartial without at once falsi-
fying nature and denying providence. The exercise
of candor is possible ; for the world of action has its
organization and is obedient to law. The forces that
constitute its antagonisms are very few, and are always
and everywhere present, and are always and every-
where the same, though they make their appearance
under many shapes. Human nature is forever iden-
tical with itself; and the state ever contains in its own
composition all the opposite tendencies which consti-
tute parties. The problems of politics cannot be solved
without passing behind transient forms to efficient
causes ; the old theories, founded on the distinction
of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, must give
place to an analysis of the faculties in man, and the
unvarying conditions, principles, and inherent wants
out of which they have been evolved ; and it will be
found, that as every class of vertebrate animals has
the forms of the same organs, so an exact generaliza-
tion establishes the existence of every element of civil
polity and of the rudiments of all its possible varieties
and divisions in every stage of human being

Society is many and is one ; and the organic unity
of the state is to be reconciled with the separate ex-
istence of each of its members. Law which re-
strains all, and freedom which adheres to each indi-
vidual, and the mediation which adjusts and connects
these two conflicting powers, are ever present as con-
stituent ingredients ; each of which, in its due propor-

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 119

tion is essential to the well being of a state, and is ^yni
ruinous when it passes its bounds. It has been said '
that the world is governed too much; no statesman
has ever said that there should be no government at
all. Anarchy is at one extreme, and the pantheistic
despotism, which is the absorption of the people into
one man as the sovereign, at the other. All govern-
ments contain the two opposite tendencies ; and were
either attraction or repulsion, central power or indi-
viduality, to disappear, civil order would be crushed
or dissolved.

The state has always for its life-giving principle
the idea of right ; the condition of facts can never
perfectly represent that idea ; and unless this antagon-
ism also is reconciled, no durable constitution can be
formed, and government totters of itself to its fall, or
is easily overthrown. Here, then, is another cause of
division ; one party clings to the bequests of the past,
and another demands reform ; the fanatics for con-
servatism are met by enthusiasts for ideal freedom,
while there is always an effort to bring the established
order into a nearer harmony with the eternal law of
justice. These principles have manifested their power
in every country in every stage of its existence, and
must be respected, or society will perish in chaotic
confusion or a stagnant calm.

The duty of impartiality in accounting for politi-
cal conflicts, is then made easy, if behind every party
there lies what an English poet has called " an eternal
thought," and if the generating cause of every party,
past, or present, or hereafter possible, is a force which
is never absent, which in its proper proportion is
essential to the wellbeing of society, and which turns

120 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. mto a poison only in its excess. It may take a di-
versity of names as it comes into flower respectively
among savages or the civilized, in kingdoms, in em-
pires, or in republics ; and yet every party has an
honest origin in human nature and the necessities of
life in a community.

To fail in impartiality with regard to men, is not
merely at variance with right ; it is also sure to defeat
itself. The fame which shines only in an eclipse
of that of others, is necessarily transitory; the
eclipse soon passes away and the brighter light re-
covers its lustre. The fond biographer who con-
structs the road to the monument of his idol over the
graves of the reputation of great men, will find the
best part of his race refusing to travel it. Besides, su-
perior merit, to be discerned, must be surrounded by
the meritorious ; the glory of the noblest genius of his
age would be sacrificed by detraction from the ability
of his antagonists, his competitors, and his associates.
Real worth delights to be environed by the worthy ;
it is serene, and can be duly estimated only by the
serene; the chord of human sympathy does not vi-
brate to eulogy that grates with malignity.

The idea of humanity, which, by its ever increas-
ing clearness, furnishes the best evidence of the steady
melioration of the race, teaches to judge with equity
the reciprocal relations of states. The free develop-
ment of all inherent powers is the common aim, and
the acknowledgment of the universal right to that free
development is the bond of unity. Between Britain
and the new empire which she founded, the duty of
impartiality belongs equally to the men of the two
countries ; but experience has shown that it is practised

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 121

with most difficulty by those of the parent land. The CHAP.
moral world knows only one rule of right ; but men in
their pride create differences among themselves. The
ray from the eternal fountain of justice suffers a de-
flection, as it falls from absolute princes on their sub-
jects, from an established church on heretics, from
masters of slaves on men in bondage, from hereditary
nobles on citizens and peasants, from a privileged
caste on an oppressed one. Something of this per-
verseness of pride has prevailed in the metropolitan
state towards its colonies; it is stamped indelibly on
the statute book of Great Britain, where all may observe
and measure its intensity. That same pride ruled with-
out check in the palace, and was little restrained in
the house of lords : it broke forth in the conduct of
the administration and its subordinates; it tinged the
British colonial state papers of the last century so
thoroughly, that historians who should follow them
implicitly as guides, would be as erroneous in their
facts as the ministers of that day were in their policy.
This haughty feeling has so survived the period of
revolutionary strife, that even now it sometimes
hangs as a heavy bias on the judgment even of Eng-
lishmen professing liberal opinions. The Americans
more easily recovered their equanimity. They in-
tended resistance to a trifling tax and a preamble, and
they won peace with liberty ; the vastness of the acqui-
sition effaced the remembrance of a transient attempt
at oppression, and left no rankling discontent be-
hind. The tone of our writers has often been defer-
entially forbearing ; those of our countrymen who
have written most fully of the war of our revolution,
brought to their task no prejudices against England,

VOL. VIII. 11

122 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and while they gladly recall the relations of kindred,
— • — no one of them has written a line with gall.

^or are c^zens °f a republic most tempted to
evil speaking of kings and nobles ; it takes men of
the privileged class to scandalize their peers and
princes without stint. The shameless slanders which
outrage nature in the exaggerations of the profligacy
of courts have usually originated within palaces, and
been repeated by men of rank ; — American writers
have no motive to take them up ; the land of equal-
ity recognises sovereigns and aristocrats as men, and
places them under the protection of the tribunal of
humanity.

The Americans, entering most reluctantly on a
war with Britain, preserved an instinctive feeling,
that the relations of affinity *were suspended rather
than destroyed ; they held themselves called to main-
tain " the rights of mankind," the liberties of the
English people, as well as their own ; they never
looked upon the transient ministers who were their
oppressors as the type of the parent country. The
moment approaches when the king proclaimed his
irrevocable decision; to understand that decision it
is necessary to state with precision the question at
issue.

The administration of numerous colonies, each of
which had a representative government of its own,
was conducted with inconvenience from a want of
unity ; in war, experience showed a difficulty in ob-
taining proportionate aid from them all; in peace,
the crown officers were impatient of owing their sup-
port to the periodical votes of colonial legislatures.
To remedy this seeming evil by a concentration of

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 123

power, James the Second usurped all authority over CHAP.
the country north of the Potomac, and designed to — . — '
consolidate and govern it by his own despotic will.

The revolution of 1688 restored to the colonies
their representative governments, and the collision
between the crown officers and the colonial legisla-
tures was renewed; threats of parliamentary inter-
vention were sometimes heard ; but for nearly three
quarters of a century no minister had been willing
to gratify the pertinacious entreaties of placemen
by disturbing America in the enjoyment of her
liberties.

Soon after the accession of George the Third, the
king, averse to governing so many prosperous and free
and loyal colonies by consent, resolved, through the
paramount power of parliament, to introduce a new
colonial system, which Halifax, Bedford, and especially
Charles Townshend, had matured, and which was to
have sufficient vigor to control the unwilling. First :
the charter governments were to be reduced to one
uniform direct dependence on the king, by the aboli-
tion of the jurisdiction of the proprietaries in Mary-
land and Pennsylvania, and by the alteration or re-
peal of the charters of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
Rhode Island. Secondly : for the pay of the crown
officers, the British parliament was to establish in
each colony a permanent civil list, independent of the
assemblies, so that every branch of the judicial and
executive government should be wholly of the king's
appointment and at the king's will. Thirdly: the
British parliament was, by its own act of taxation, to
levy on the colonies a revenue towards maintaining
their military establishment. Townshend, as the head

124 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of the board of trade, was unfolding the plan in the
' — <~~* house of commons just before Bute retired.

The execution of the design fell to George Gren-
ville. Now Grenville conceived himself to be a whig
of the straitest sect, for he believed implicitly in the
absolute power of parliament, and this belief he re-
garded as the great principle of the revolution of 1688.
He was pleased with the thought of moulding the
whole empire into closer unity by means of parliamen-
tary taxation ; but he also preserved some regard for
vested rights, and this forbade him to consent to a
wilful abrogation of charters. The Americans com-
plained to him that a civil list raised by the British
parliament would reduce the colonial assemblies to a
nullity; Grenville saw the justice of the objection,
disclaimed the purpose, dropped that part of the plan
also, and proposed to confine the use of the par-
liamentary revenue to the expenses of the military
establishment. The colonists again interposed with
the argument, that by the theory of the British con-
stitution, taxation and representation are inseparable
correlatives ; to this Grenville listened and answered,
that the whole empire was represented collectively,
though not distributively, in parliament as the com-
mon council ; but that, as even in Britain some re-
form by an increase of the number of voters was de-
sirable, so taxation of the colonies ought to be fol-
lowed by a special colonial representation ; and, with
this theory of constitutional law, he passed the
stamp act.

When a difference at court drove Grenville from
office, his theory lost its importance, for no party
in England or America undertook its support. The

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 125

new ministers by whom his colonial policy was to be CHAP.

XLVI1I

changed, had the option between repealing the tax — <~
as an act of justice to the colonies, or repealing it as a ]775-
measure of expediency to Britain. The first was the
choice of Pitt, and its adoption would have ended the
controversy; the second was that of Rockingham.
He abolished the tax, and sent over assurances of his
friendship ; but his declaratory act established as the
rule for the judiciary and the law of the empire, that
the legislative power of parliament reached to the
colonies in all cases whatsoever. This declaration
opened the whole question of the nature of represen-
tation, and foreshadowed a revolution or peaceful
reform in America and in England. In 1688 the
assertion of the paramount power of parliament
against a king, who would have sequestered all legis-
lative liberty, was a principle of freedom ; but in the
eighteenth century, the assertion of the absolute power
of a parliament acting in concert with the king was
to frame an instrument of tyranny. The colonies de-
nied the unqualified authority of a legislature in
which they were not represented; and when they
were told that they were as much represented as nine
tenths of the people of Britain, the discussions which
followed awakened the British people from that day
to complain unceasingly of the inadequate composition
of a parliament, in whose election nine tenths of them
had no voice whatever.

The agitation of reform for England was long de-
ferred; the question was precipitated upon America.
In the very next year, Charles Townshend, resuming
the system which he had advocated in the adminis-

VOL. VIII. 11*

126 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

xLvni ^ra^lon °f Bute, proposed a parliamentary tax to be
— ^ collected in America on tea, glass, paper, and painters'
lAu5 c°l°rs) an(i introduced the tax by a preamble, assert-
ing that " it is expedient that a revenue should be
raised in his majesty's dominions in America for de-
fraying the charge of the administration of justice
and support of civil government, and towards further
defraying the expenses of defending the said do-
minions." Grenville had proposed taxes for the de-
fence of the colonies ; Townshend's preamble prom-
ised an ever increasing American civil list, indepen-
dent of American assemblies, to be disposed of by
ministers at their discretion for salaries, gifts, or pen-
sions. Here lay the seeds of a grievance indefinite
in its extent, taking from the colonies all control
over public officers, and menacing an absolute gov-
ernment to be administered for the benefit of office
holders, without regard to the rights, and liberties,
and welfare of the people.

Just as Townshend had intrenched the system in
the statute book, he died, and left behind him no great
English statesman for its steadfast upholder ; while the
colonies were unanimous in resisting the innovation,
and at once avoided the taxes by agreements to stop
imports from Britain. The government gave way, and
repealed all Townshend's taxes except on tea. Of that
duty Lord North maintained that it was no innova-
tion, but a reduction of the ancient duty of a shilling
a pound to one of threepence only; and that the
change of the place where the duty was to be col-
lected, was no more than a regulation of trade to
prevent smuggling tea from Holland. The state-

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 127

ment, so far as the tax was concerned, was unanswer- CHAP.

' . . XLVIII

able ; but the sting of the tax act lay in its pream — -* — •
ble : Rockingham's declaratory act affirmed the power ^ J 5 *
of parliament in all cases whatsoever ; Townshend's
preamble declared the expediency of using that power
to raise a very large colonial revenue. Still collision
was practically averted, for the Americans, in their
desire for peace, gave up the importation of tea. No
revenue, therefore, was collected ; and by resolute
self-denial, the colonies escaped the mark of the brand
which was to show whose property they were.

At this the king, against the opinion of Lord
North and of the East India Company, directed that
company itself to export tea to America, and there to
pay the duty, hoping that a low price would tempt
Americans to buy. But the colonists would not suffer
the tea to be exposed for sale ; the crown' officers
yielded to their unanimous resistance, every where
except at Boston, and there the tea was thrown over-
board.

To close the port of Boston and require an indem-
nity for the East India Company's loss, was the advice
of Hutchinson, and neither New York, nor Pennsyl-
vania, nor Virginia would have supported a refusal
to such a requisition ; but the king and the Bedford
party seized the occasion to carry into effect part of
their cherished system, and changed by act of par-
liament the charter granted by William and Mary
to Massachusetts. The object of the change was
the compression of popular power in favor of the
prerogative. The measure could bring no advantage
to Britain and really had nothing to recommend it ;

128 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

to the people of Massachusetts and to the people of
— . — all the colonies, submission to the change seemed an
acknowledgnient of the absolute power of parliament
over liberty and property in America. The people
of Massachusetts resisted : the king answered, u blows
must decide." A congress of the colonies approved
the conduct of Massachusetts; parliament pledged
itself to the king. In 1773 a truce was possible ;
after the alteration of the charter of Massachusetts,
in 17 7 4, America would have been pacified by a sim-
ple repeal of obnoxious acts ; in 1775, after blood had
been shed at Lexington, some security for the future
was needed.

British statesmen of all schools but Chatham's,
affirmed the power of parliament to tax America ;
America denied that it could be rightfully taxed
by a body in which it was not represented, for taxa-
tion and representation were inseparable. British
politicians rejoined, that taxation was but an act of
legislation ; that, therefore, to deny to parliament the
right of taxation, was to deny to parliament all right
of legislation for the colonies, even for the regulation
of trade. To this America made answer that, in reason
and truth, representation and legislation are insepara-
ble ; that the colonies, being entitled to English free-
dom, were not bound by any act of a body to which
they did not send members ; that in theory the colo-
nies were independent of the British parliament;
but as they honestly desired to avoid a conflict, they
proposed as a fundamental or an organic act their
voluntary submission to every parliamentary diminu-
tion of their liberty which time had sanctioned,

THE QUESTION BETWEEN BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 129

including the navigation acts and taxes for regulating CHAP.
trade, on condition of being relieved from every part
of the new system of administration and being secured
against future attempts for its introduction. Richard
Penn, the agent of congress, was in London with its
petition to the king, to entreat his concurrence in this
endeavor to restore peace and union.

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS.

AUGUST, SEPTEMBER, IN EUROPE.

NOVEMBER IN AMERICA — 1775.
CHAP.

XLIX

— . — THE zeal of Richard Perm appeared from his
irj5' celerity. Four days after the petition to the king had
been adopted by congress, he sailed from Philadelphia
on his mission. He arrived in Bristol on the thir-
teenth of August, and made such speed that he was
the next day in London. Joint proprietary of the
opulent and rapidly increasing colony of Pennsylvania,
of which he for a time was governor, long a resident
in America, intimately acquainted with many of its
leading statesmen, the chosen suppliant from its united
delegates, an Englishman of a loyalty above impeach-
ment or suspicion, he singularly merited the confidence
of the government. But not one of the ministers
waited on him, or sent for him, or even asked him,
through subordinates, one single question about the
state of the colonies. The king, on whose decision
neither the petition nor its bearer had the slightest

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 131

influence, would not see him. " The king and his CHAP.
cabinet," said Suffolk, " are determined to listen to v-~^
nothing from the illegal congress, to treat with the
colonies only one by one, and in no event to recog-
nise them in any form of association."

" The Americans," reasoned Sandwich, " will soon
grow weary, and Great Britain* will subject them by
her arms." Haldimand, who had just arrived, owned
that " nothing but force would bring the Americans
to reason." Resolvedly blind to consequences, George
the Third scorned dissimulation, and eagerly " showed
his determination," such were his words, " to prose-
cute his measures, and force the deluded Americans
into submission." He chid Lord North for " the de-
lay in framing a proclamation declaring the Ameri-
cans rebels, and forbidding all intercourse with
them." He was happier than his minister ; he had
no misgivings that he could be in the wrong, or
could want power to enforce his will. The colonists
who pleaded their rights against the unlimited supre-
macy of the king in parliament, were to him false to
the crown and the constitution, to religion, loyalty,
and the law; in his eyes, to crush their spirit and
punish their disobedience was a duty and a merit.
In the indulgence of his anger he sought to impose an
authority which the colonists never could endure, and
which promised no advantage to Britain. The navi-
gation acts, of which it already began to be seen that
the total repeal would not diminish British trade,
were not questioned; the view of a revenue from
America had dissolved; the unwise change in the
charter of Massachusetts weakened the influence of
the crown by irritating the people; the most per-

132 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, feet success in reducing the American colonies to un-

•y-y TV- O

— ^ conditional submission, would have stained the glory

nati°n whose great name was due to the freedom,
of its people, and would, moreover, have been danger-
ous, if not fatal, to her own liberties. Yet the word
of the king would be irrevocable ; for to what power
in England could the colonies look for interposition in
their behalf? Not to the landed aristocracy, which
would not suffer the authority of parliament to be
questioned ; not to the electors, for they had just
chosen a parliament, and thus exhausted their power
of mediation ; not to the city of Bristol, which bounded
its political liberality by its commercial interests ; not
to the city of London, for with the unprincipled
Wilkes as its Lord Mayor, it could offer no support
beyond a noisy remonstrance ; not to the public opin-
ion of England, for though it really preferred that the
colonies should be tolerably governed, it never showed
forbearance when the imperial supremacy of England
was assailed.

Conscious that his will was unrestrained, the king
made his decision without a moment's hesitation in
conformity with his own nature ; and he wished
the world to know that his will could not change.
To render retreat impossible, on the twenty third of
August, two days after receiving a copy of the pe-
tition of congress, he made a proclamation for sup-
pressing rebellion and sedition. It set forth, that
many of his subjects in the colonies had proceeded to
open and avowed rebellion, by arraying themselves
to withstand the execution of the law, and traitorously
levying war against him ; but its menaces were chiefly
directed against men in England. " There is reason,"

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 133

so ran its words, " to apprehend that such rebellion CHAP.
hath been much promoted and encouraged by the — , — '•
traitorous correspondence, counsels, and comfort of 1775.
divers wicked and desperate persons within our
realm ; " not only all the officers civil and military,
but all subjects of the realm, were therefore called
upon to disclose all traitorous conspiracies, and to
transmit to one of the secretaries of state " full infor-
mation of all persons who should be found carrying
on correspondence with, or in any manner or degree
aiding or abetting the persons now in open arms and
rebellion against the government within any of the
colonies in North America, in order to bring to con-
dign punishment the authors, perpetrators, and abet-
tors of such traitorous designs."

This proclamation, aimed at Chatham, Camden,
Barre, and their friends, and at the boldest of the
Rockingham party, even more than against the Amer-
icans, was read without the customary ceremonies at
the Royal Exchange, where it was received with a gen-
eral hiss. The ministry could no longer retrace their
steps without resigning their places ; war was menaced
against the remnant of a popular party in England.
As to the colonies, the king would perish rather than
consent to repeal the alterations in the charter of
Massachusetts, or yield the absolute authority of par-
liament.

The progress of these discussions was closely
watched by the agents of France. Its ambassador,
just after Penn's arrival, wrote of the king and his
ministers to Vergennes : " These people appear to
me in a delirium; that there can be no concilia-
tion we have now the certainty ; " " Rochford even
VOL. TIII. 12

134 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, assures me once more, that it is determined to burn

A 1,1 A .

v — * — ' the town of Boston, and in the coming spring to

XAu5' *rans^er ^ne sea^ °f operations to New York. You
may be sure the plan of these people is, by devas-
tations to force back America fifty years if they can-
not subdue it." Vergennes had already said : " The
cabinet of the king of England may wish to make
North America a desert, but there all its power will
be stranded; if ever the English troops quit the
borders of the sea, it will be easy to prevent their
return."

Vergennes could not persuade himself that the
British government should refuse conciliation, when
nothing was demanded but the revocation of acts
posterior to 1Y63; and in his incredulity he de-
manded of the ambassador a revision of his opinion.
" I persist," answered De Guines, " in thinking negotia-
tions impossible. The parties differ on the form and
on the substance as widely as white and black. An
English ministry in a case like this can yield nothing,
for according to the custom of the country it must
follow out its plan or resign. The only sensible course
would be to change the administration. The king of
England is as obstinate and as feeble as Charles the
First, and every day he makes his task more difficult

Sept. and more dangerous." Vergennes gave up his doubts,
saying : " The king's proclamation against the Ameri-
cans changes my views altogether ; that proclamation
cuts off the possibility of retreat; America or the
ministers themselves must succumb."

Nov. In a few weeks the proclamation reached the col-
onies at several ports. Abigail Smith, the wife of
John Adams, was at the time in their home near the

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 135

foot of Penn Hill, charged with the sole care of their CHAP.
little brood of children ; managing their farm ; keeping — ^
house with frugality, though opening her doors to the l£™ •
houseless and giving with good will a part of her scant
portion to the poor ; seeking work for her own hands,
and ever busily occupied, now at the spinning wheel,
now making amends for having never been sent to
school by learning French, though with the aid of
books alone. Since the departure of her husband for
congress, the arrow of death had sped near her by day,
and the pestilence that walks in darkness had entered
her humble mansion ; she herself was still weak after a
violent illness ; her house was a hospital in every part ;
and such was the distress of the neighborhood, she
could hardly find a well person to assist in looking af-
ter the sick. Her youngest son had been rescued from
the grave by her nursing ; her own mother had been
taken away, and, after the austere manner of her fore-
fathers, buried without prayer. Woe followed woe,
and one affliction trod on the heels of another. Win-
ter was hurrying on ; during the day family affairs
took off her attention, but her long evenings, broken
by the sound of the storm on the ocean, or the
enemy's artillery at Boston, were lonesome and
melancholy. Ever in the silent night ruminating on
the love and tenderness of her departed parent, she
needed the consolation of her husband's presence ; but
when, in November, she read the king's proclamation,
she willingly gave up her nearest friend exclusively
to his perilous duties, and sent him her cheering mes-
sage : " This intelligence will make a plain path for
you, though a dangerous one ; I could not join to-day
in the petitions of our worthy pastor for a reconcilia-

136 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, tion between our no longer parent state, but tyrant

— . — state, and these colonies. Let us separate ; they are

Noy." unworthy to be our brethren. Let us renounce them ;

and, instead of supplications, as formerly, for their

prosperity and happiness, let us beseech the Almighty

to blast their counsels, and bring to nought all their

devices."

Her voice was the voice of New England. Un-
der the general powers of commander, Washington,
who had hired vessels, manned them with sea cap-
tains and sailors from his camp, and sent them to take
vessels laden with soldiers or stores for the British
army, now urged on congress the appointment of
prize courts for the condemnation of prizes ; the
legislature of Massachusetts, without waiting for fur-
ther authority, of themselves, in an act drawn by
Elbridge Gerry to encourage the fitting out of armed
vessels, instituted such tribunals.

" The king's silly proclamation will put an end to
petitioning," wrote James Warren, the speaker, to
Samuel Adams ; " movements worthy of your august
body are expected; a declaration of independence,
and treaties with foreign powers."

Hawley was the first to discern through the dark-
ness the coming national government of the republic,
even while it still lay far below the horizon ; and he
wrote from Watertown to Samuel Adams: "The
eyes of all the continent are fastened on your body,
to see whether you act with firmness and intrepidity,
with the spirit and dispatch which our situation calls
for ; it is time for your body to fix on periodical an-
nual elections — nay, to form into a parliament of two
houses."

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 137

The first day of November brought to the gen- CHAP-
eral congress the king's proclamation, and definite ^-r^
rumors that the colonies were threatened with more 1775.

Nov

ships of war and British troops, and Russians, Han-
overians, and Hessians. The burning of Falmouth
was also known. The majority saw that the last
hope of conciliation was gone ; and while they waited
for instructions from their several constituencies be-
fore declaring independence, they instantly acted
upon the petitions of the colonies that wished to
institute governments of their own. On the second
in committee, on the third in the house, it was re-
solved: "That it be recommended to the provin-
cial convention of New Hampshire, to call a full
and free representation of the people, and that the
representatives, if they think it necessary, establish
such a form of government, as, in their judgment,
will best produce the happiness of the people, and
most effectually secure peace and good order in the
province, during the continuance of the present dis-
pute between Great Britain and the colonies." On
the fourth the same advice was extended to South
Carolina. Here was, indeed, the daybreak of revolu-
tion ; two peoples were summoned to come together
and create governments with a single view to their
own happiness. A limit seemed to be set to the du-
ration of the new system ; but it was already the con-
viction of the majority that the dispute between
Great Britain and the colonies could end only in a
separation ; so that the men of New Hampshire and
of South Carolina were virtually instructed to give
the example of assuming power for all future time.
The revolution plainly portended danger to the

VOL. VIII. 12*

138 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, proprietary government of Pennsylvania. The legis-
^* — lature of that colony was in session ; it continued to
1775. require all its members to take and subscribe the
old qualification appointed by law, which included
the promise of allegiance to George the Third ; so
that Franklin, though elected for Philadelphia through
the Irish and the Presbyterians, would never take his
seat. Dickinson had been returned for the county by
an almost unanimous vote ; supported by patriots who
still confided in his integrity, by loyalists who looked
upon him as their last hope, by the Quakers who
knew his regard for peace, by the proprietary party,
whose cause he had always espoused. Now was the
crisis of his fame. That body, on the fourth, elected
nine delegates to the continental congress. Of these
one was too ill to serve ; of the rest, Franklin stood
alone as the unhesitating champion of independence ;
the majority remained to the last its unyielding op-
ponents. It was known that, two days before the
king issued his proclamation, his secretary of state
had received from Richard Penn a copy of the second
petition of congress ; and that Penn and Arthur Lee,
who had pressed earnestly to obtain an answer, had
been told that u as his majesty did not receive it on
the throne, no answer would be given." The proc-
lamation included Dickinson among the "danger-
ous and designing men," rebels and traitors, whom
the civil and military officers were ordered to " bring
to justice ; " but with the bad logic of wounded vanity
he shut his mind against the meaning of the facts;
and on the ninth he reported and carried these in-
structions to the Pennsylvania delegates : " We direct
that you exert your utmost endeavors to agree upon

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 139

and recommend such measures as you shall judge to CHAP.
afford the best prospect of obtaining redress of Amer- — ,— -
lean grievances, and restoring that union and har- 1175*
rnony between Great Britain and the colonies, so
essential to the welfare and happiness of both coun-
tries. Though the oppressive measures of the British
parliament and administration have compelled us to
resist their violence by force of arms, yet we strictly
enjoin you, that you, in behalf of this colony, dissent
from and utterly reject any propositions, should such
be made, that may cause or lead to a separation from
our mother country, or a change of the form of this
government."

The assembly which adopted these instructions
sat always with closed doors, and did not even allow
the names of the voters on the division to be recorded
in their journal. Their act was in every way mis-
chievous in its consequences: nothing could have
been devised more completely in the interest of the
British ministry, whose accusation that there existed
in the continental congress a party for independence
on insufficient grounds, appeared to be confirmed
by high authority ; it was also an intimation to the
powers of the European continent, that the colonies
were incurably divided. The influence of the meas-
ure was wide ; Delaware was naturally swayed by the
example of its more powerful neighbor ; the party
of the proprietary in Maryland took courage ; in a
few weeks the assembly of New Jersey, in like man-
ner, held back the delegates of that province by an
equally stringent declaration. Thus for five or six
months the assembly of Pennsylvania blocked the
way to effective measures, sowing broadcast the seeds

140 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of domestic discord, and preparing for Dickinson a

life of regrets. Had it done no more than express its
1 7 7 5- opposition to independence, a convention of the people
would have soon been called, and the proprietary
government suspended. To prevent this by a suf-
ficiently plausible appearance of patriotism, it ap-
proved the military association of all who had no
scruples about bearing arms, adopted rules for the
volunteer battalions, and before its adjournment ap-
propriated eighty thousand pounds in provincial
paper money to defray the expenses of a military
preparation. The insincerity of the concessions was
perceived; extreme discontent led the more deter-
mined to expose through the press the trimming of
the assembly ; and Franklin encouraged Thomas
Paine, an emigrant from England of the previous
year, who was the master of a singularly lucid and
attractive style, to write an appeal to the people of
America in favor of independence.

Moreover the assembly in asserting the inviola-
bility of the proprietary form of government, which
had originally emanated from a king, placed itself in
opposition to the principle of John Rutledge, John
Adams, and the continental congress, that " the people
are the source and original of all power." That prin-
ciple had just been applied on the memorial of New
Hampshire with no more than one dissenting vote.
Yet the men of that day had been born and educated
as subjects of a king; to them the house of Hanover
was a symbol of religious toleration, the British con-
stitution another word for the security of liberty and
property under a representative government. They
were not yet enemies of monarchy; they had as

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 141

yet turned away from considering whether well or- CHAP.
ganized civil institutions could be framed for wide
territories without a king; and in the very moment
of resistance they longed to escape the necessity of a
revolution. Zubly, a delegate from Georgia, a Swiss
by birth, declared in his place " a republic to be little
better than a government of devils," shuddered at the
idea of a separation from Great Britain as fraught
with greater evils than had yet been suffered, and
fled from congress to seek shelter under the authority
of the crown ; but the courage of John Adams, whose
sagacity had so soon been vindicated by events, rose
with the approach of danger ; he dared to present to
himself the problem of the system, best suited to the
colonies in the sudden emergency; and guided by
nature and experience, looked for the essential
elements of government behind its forms. He studied
the principles of the British constitution not merely
in the history of England, but as purified and repro-
duced in the governments of New England, and as
analyzed and reflected in the writings of Montesquieu.
"A legislative, an executive, and a judicial power
comprehended the whole of what he meant and
understood by government;" and as the only secret
to be discovered was how to derive these powers
directly from the people, he persuaded himself and
succeeded in persuading others, that, by the aid of a
convention, " a single month was sufficient, without
the least convulsion or even animosity, to accomplish
a total revolution in the government of a colony."

The continental congress perceived the wisdom
of a declaration of independence ; but they acquiesced
in the necessity of postponing its consideration, till

142 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, there should be a better hope of unanimity. They
• — • — became more resolute, more thorough, and more
active; they recalled their absent members; they
welcomed the trophies of victory sent by Montgomery
from the Northern army. In September they had
appointed a secret committee to import gunpowder,
field -pieces, and arms; now, without as yet opening
the commerce of the continent by a general act, they
empowered that committee to export provisions or
produce to the foreign West Indies at the risk of the
continent, in order to purchase the materials of war.
They did not authorize letters of reprisal against
British property on the high seas ; but in November
they adopted "rules for the government of the
American navy ;" directed the enlistment of two bat-
talions of marines ; authorized the inhabitants of the
colonies to seize all ships employed as carriers for the
British fleet or army ; and sanctioned tribunals insti-
tuted in the separate colonies to confiscate their car-
goes. The captures already made under the authority
of Washington they confirmed. To meet the further
expenses of the war, they voted bills of credit to the
amount of three millions more.

A motion by Chase of Maryland to send envoys
to France with conditional instructions did not pre-
vail ; but on the twenty ninth of November Har-
rison, Franklin, Johnson, Dickinson, and Jay were
appointed a secret " committee for the sole purpose
of corresponding with friends in Great Britain, Ire-
land, and other parts of the world ;" and funds were
set aside " for the payment of such agents as they
might send on this service," " It is an immense mis-

THE KING AND THE SECOND PETITION OF CONGRESS. 143

fortune to the whole empire," wrote Jefferson to a CHAP.
refugee, " to have a king of such a disposition at such ^^
a time. We are told, and every thing proves it true, 1775.
that he is the bitterest enemy we have ; his minister
is able, and that satisfies me that ignorance or wick-
edness somewhere controls him. Our petitions told
him, that from our king there was but one appeal.
The admonition was despised, and that appeal forced
on us. After colonies have drawn the sword, there
is but one step more they can take. That step is
now pressed upon us by the measures adopted, as if
they were afraid we would not take it. There is not
in the British empire a man who more cordially loves
a union with Great Britain than I do ; but, by the
God that made me, I will cease to exist, before I
yield to a connection on such terms as the British
parliament propose; and in this I speak the senti-
ments of America." But Dickinson still soothed him-
self with the belief, that the petition of his drafting
had not been rejected, and that proofs of a concilia-
tory disposition would be manifested in the king's
speech at the opening of the session of parliament.

CHAPTER L.

HOW GEORGE THE THIRD FAKED IN HIS BID FOE

RUSSIANS.

SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER

CHAP. THE king's proclamation was a contemptuous defi-
s-^A., ance of the opposition, alike of the party of Rocking-
1775. ham and the party of Chatham, as the instigators, cor-
respondents, and accomplices of the American rebels.
Party spirit was exasperated and embittered, and
Rochford was heard repeatedly to foretell, that be^
fore the winter should pass over, heads would fall on ,
the block. " The king of England," said Wilkes, the
lord mayor of London, in conversation at a public
dinner, " hates me ; I have always despised him : the
time is come to decide which of us understands the
other best, and in what direction heads are to fall."
The French statesmen who, with wonderful powers
of penetration, analyzed the public men and their
acts, but neither the institutions nor the people of
England, complacently contrasted its seeming anarchy
with their own happiness in " living peacefully under

THE KING AND HIS BID FOR RUSSIANS. 145

a good and virtuous king." For a moment they CHAP

thought that danger menaced George the Third him ^

self, and that he was deficient in the greatness of
character which his position required ; but his forti-
tude was exemplary in difficulties, and he always bore
adversity with a courage that would have become a
righteous cause. Others might quail ; he scoffed at
the thought of an insurrection, but stationed troops
where riotous disorder was apprehended. " I know,"
said he, " what my duty to my country makes me
undertake, and threats cannot prevent me from doing
that to the utmost extent." A rumor prevailed that
seven or eight members of the opposition would be
sent to the tower of London ; but this happened only
to Stephen Sayre, an American by birth, a man of no
political importance.

Loyal addresses began to come in, to the joy of
Lord North ; but the king, from his fatal experience
and his instincts, which, on the subject of despotic
authority, were more true than those of any man in
his cabinet, wished to avoid the appeal to popular
opinion. Yet for a time the public was united by the
representation, that the insurrection in the colonies
had been long premeditated with the deliberate de-
sign of achieving independence ; and while that delu-
sion lasted, the violent measures of coercion were
acquiesced in " by a majority of individuals of all
ranks and professions ; " yet their countenance of
the ministry was passive, without zeal, and unat-
tended by a willingness to serve in America, so that
the regiments could not be kept full by enlistments
in Britain. The foreign relations of England became,
therefore, of paramount importance.

VOL. VIII. 13

146 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. The secretary of state desired to draw from the
W-' French ambassador at London a written denial of
Lee's assertion, that the Americans had a certainty of
receiving support from France and Spain ; but the
intimation was evaded, for "the king of France
would not suffer himself to be made an instrument to
bend the resistance of the Americans." " If they
should make us any application," said Vergennes,
" we shall dismiss them politely, and we shall keep
their secret."

Beaumarchais who was then in England as an
emissary from Louis the Sixteenth, and who from
the charms of his conversation, his ability to write
verses and to sing well, his generous style of living,
and his apparent want of an official character, had
opportunities of gaining information from the most
various sources, encouraged the notion that England
might seek to recover her colonies by entering on a
war with France, and thus reviving their ancient
sympathies. Having become acquainted with Ar-
thur Lee, and having received accurate accounts of
the state of America from persons newly arrived, he
left London abruptly, ran over to Paris, and through
De Sartine, presented to the king a secret memorial
in favor of taking part with the insurgents. " The
Americans," said he, " are full of the enthusiasm of
liberty, and resolve to suffer everything rather than
yield ; such a people must be invincible ; all men of
sense are convinced that the English colonies are lost
for the mother country, and that is my opinion too."
On the twenty-second of September, the day after
the subject was discussed in the council of the king,
De Sartine put a new commission into the hands

THE KING AND HIS BID FOR RUSSIANS. 147

of Beaumarchais. Vergennes continued to present CHAP.
America to his mind in every possible aspect. He — ,—
found it difficult to believe, that the mistakes, ab-
surdity, and passion of the British ministers could
be so great as they really were ; otherwise he never
erred in his judgment. He received hints of nego-
tiations for Russian troops; but yet he held it im-
possible that the king of England should be willing
to send foreign mercenaries against his own subjects.
Henry the Fourth would not have accepted the aid
of foreign troops to reduce Paris ; their employment
would render it in any event impossible to restore
affectionate relations between the parent state and
the colonies. But Vergennes had not penetrated the
character of the British government of his day,
which, in the management of domestic affairs, was
tempered by a popular influence, but which, in its
foreign policy, consulted only the interests or the
pride of the oligarchy, and was less capable of a
generous impulse than that of France. The ministry
did not scruple to engage troops wherever they
chanced to be in the market.

The hereditary prince of Hesse Cassel, who was
already the ruler of the little principality of Hainau,
had instinctively scented the wants of England, and
written to George the Third: " I never cease to make
the most ardent vows and prayers for the best of
kings ; I venture to offer, without the least condition,
my regiment of five hundred men, all ready to sacri-
fice with me their life and their blood for your maj-
esty's service. Deign to regard the motive and not
the thing itself. Oh ! that I could offer twenty thou-
sand men to your majesty ; it should be done with

148 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, the same zeal ; my regiment is all ready at the first
*•—. — twinkle that shall be given me ; " and like the beg-
gar that sends his goods as a present to a rich patron
from whose charity he means to extort more than the
market price, he demanded nothing, but was now in
England to renew his solicitations.

The king wished leave to recruit in Holland, and
also to obtain of that republic the loan of its so called
Scottish brigade, which consisted no longer of Scots,
but chiefly of Walloons and deserters. The consent of
the house of Orange could easily have been gained ;
but the dignity, the principles, and the policy of the
States General forbade. This is the first attempt of
either party to induce Holland to take part in the
American war ; and its neutrality gave grievous of-
fence in England.

Sir Joseph Yorke, at the Hague, was further di-
rected to gain information on " the practicability of
using the good dispositions of the king's friends upon
the continent, and the military force which its princes
might be engaged to supply." For England to recruit
in Germany was a defiance of the law of the empire ;
but Yorke reported that recruits might be raised
there in any number, and at a tolerably easy rate ;
and that bodies of troops might be obtained of the
princes of Hesse Cassel, Wiirtemberg, Saxe Gotha,
Darmstadt, and Baden.

But for the moment England had in contemplation
a larger scheme. Gunning's private and confidential
despatch from Moscow was received in London on the
first day of September, with elation and delight. That
very day Suffolk prepared an answer to the minister.
To Catharine, George himself, " with his own hand

THE KING AND HIS BID FOR RUSSIANS. 149

wrote a very polite epistle," requesting her friendly CHAP.
assistance: "I accept the succor that your majesty ^^~
offers me of a part of your troops, whom the acts of 1775.
rebellion of my subjects in some of my colonies in
America unhappily require ; I shall provide my min-
ister with the necessary full powers ; nothing shall
ever efface from my memory the offer your imperial
majesty has made to me on this occasion." Armed
with this letter, Gunning was ordered to ask an audi-
ence of the empress, and to request of her the assist-
ance of twenty thousand disciplined infantry, com-
pletely equipped and prepared on the opening of the
Baltic in spring, to embark by way of England for
Canada, where they were to be under the supreme
command of the British general. The journey from
London to Moscow required about twenty three
days ; yet they were all so overweeningly confident,
that they hoped to get the definitive promise by the
twenty third of October, in season to announce it at
the opening of parliament ; and early in September
Lord Dartmouth and his secretary hurried off mes-
sages to Howe and to Carleton, that the empress had
given the most ample assurances of letting them have
any number of infantry that might be wanted.

On the eighth, Suffolk despatched a second courier
to Gunning, with a project of a treaty for taking a
body of Russian troops into the pay and service of
Great Britain. The treaty was to continue for two
years, within which the king and his ministers were
confident of crushing the insurrection. The levy
money for the troops might be seven pounds sterling
a man, payable one half in cash and the other half on

embarkation. A subsidy was not to be refused. " I
VOL. YIII. 13*

150 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, will not conceal from you," wrote Suffolk to Gunning,
v— ^ " that this accession of force being very earnestly de-
s*re(^ expense is not so much an object as in ordinary
cases."

Scarcely had the project of a treaty left England,
when, on the tenth of September, Gunning at court
poured out to the empress assurances of the most in-
violable attachment on the part of England. " Has
any progress been made," asked the empress with the
utmost coolness, "towards settling your dispute in
America ? " and without waiting for an answer, she
added : " For God's sake put an end to it as soon as
possible, and do not confine yourselves to one method
of accomplishing this desirable end ; there are other
means of doing it than force of arms, and they
ought all to be tried. You know my situation has
lately been full as embarrassing, and, believe me, I
did not rest my certainty of success upon one mode
of acting. There are moments when we must not be
too rigorous. The interest I take in everything that
concerns you, makes me speak thus freely upon this
subject."

"The measures which are pursuing to suppress
the rebellion," answered Gunning, who found himself
most unexpectedly put upon the defensive, " are such
as are consistent with his majesty's dignity and that
of the nation, and I am persuaded that your majesty
would neither advise nor approve of any that were
not so ; resentment has not yet found its way into his
majesty's councils." But Catharine only repeated her
wishes for a speedy and a peaceful end to the differ-
ence ; thus reading the king of England a lesson in
humanity, and citing her own example of lenity and

THE KING AND HIS BID FOR RUSSIANS. 151

concession as the best mode of suppressing a re- CHAP.
bellion. ^— '

Late on the twenty fourth, the first British courier
reached Moscow a few hours after Catharine's depar-
ture for some days of religious seclusion in the monas-
tery at Voskresensk, for she was scrupulous in her ob-
servance of the forms and usages of the Greek church.
As no time was to be lost, Gunning went to Panin, who
received him cordially, heard his communication with-
out any sign of emotion, and consented to forward to
the empress in her retirement a copy of the king's
letter. It was the policy of the empire to preserve
amicable relations with George the Third ; the vice
chancellor Ostermann, therefore, calmly explained the
impossibility of conceding his request ; but the British
envoy persisted in his urgency, and wilfully deluded
by the tranquil self-possession and friendly manner of
the Russian minister, left him with the belief that if
the British requisition should come to be a matter of
debate, it would be supported by his voice.

The empress having returned to Moscow, Gunning,
at five in the afternoon of the thirtieth, waited on
Panin, by appointment. The autograph letter, which
he wished to deliver in person, said positively that
she had made him an offer of troops ; Panin denied
that any offer of troops had been made, and after
much expostulation, Gunning confessed : " It is true ;
in your answer to me no explicit mention was made
of troops."

The message of the empress now was, that she was
affected by the cordiality of the king, that in return,
her friendship was equally warm, but that she had

152 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, much repugnance to having her troops employed in
— ^ America. " And could not his majesty," asked Panin,
Sept/ "make use of Hanoverians ?"

Gunning replied at great length : " Would the re-
fusal of troops be a suitable return for our conduct
during the late war, for our having foregone the com-
mercial advantages which the Porte would undoubt-
edly have granted us, could she only have obtained
a real neutrality on our part, which our partiality for
Russia prevented us from observing. Were not the
king's harbors, his subjects, and the credit and influ-
ence of the nation at her service during the whole
war? Did not her majesty, at the risk of a rupture
with France and Spain, forbid those powers to molest
the Russian fleet which they would otherwise have
annihilated? And though these services were ren-
dered from the most pure and disinterested motives,
yet as it had pleased the empress so frequently to
express her wishes for an occasion of showing her
sense of their merit, it is with the utmost astonish-
ment I see her decline the present occasion of evincing
it. I conjure you, by regard for the honor of your
sovereign, to reflect on the light in which such a re-
fusal must be looked upon by us, as well as by all the
powers in Europe, and on the effect it might have on
the conduct of some of them." And as he was re-
fused an audience, he desired Panin himself to deliver
the autograph letter of George the Third.
Oct. The next morning, Gunning went to Panin before
he was up, and to remove objections, offered to be
content with a corps of fifteen thousand men. At
court, though it was the grand duke's birthday, he
found that the empress would not appear. He re-

THE KING AND HIS BID FOR RUSSIANS. 153

turned to the palace in the evening, but the empress, CHAP.
feigning indisposition, excused herself from seeing him. ^^

Meantime the subject was debated in council, and 1^75
objections without end rose up against the proposed
traffic in troops, from the condition of the array wasted
by wars, the divisions in Poland, the hostile attitude
of Sweden, the dignity of the empress, the danger
of disturbing her diplomatic relations with other
European powers, the grievous discontents it would
engender among her own subjects. She asked Panin
whether granting the king such assistance would not
disgust the British nation; and Ivan Ctzernichew,
lately her ambassador at London, now minister of the
marine, declared that it would give offence to the
great body of the people of England, who were ve-
hemently opposed to the policy of the king and his
ministers.

Besides, what motive had the people of Russia
to interfere against the armed husbandmen of New
England? Why should the oldest monarchy of
modern Europe, the connecting link between the
world of antiquity and the modern world, assist to
repress the development of the youngest power in
the west ? Catharine claimed to sit on the throne of
the Byzantine Caesars, as heir to their dignity and
their religion ; and how could she so far disregard her
own glory, as to take part in the American dispute,
by making a shambles of the mighty empire which
assumed to be the successor of Constantine's ? The
requisition of England was marked by so much ex-
travagance, that nothing but the wildest credulity
of statesmanship could have anticipated success.

The first suggestion to Catharine that the king of

154 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. England needed her aid, was flattering to her vanity,
^^~ and, supposing it had reference only to entanglements
1 775 in Europe, she was pleased with the idea of becoming
the supreme arbiter of his affairs. But when the appli-
cation came to be exhibited to her as a naked demand
of twenty thousand men to be shipped to America,
where they were to serve, under British command,
not as auxiliaries but as mercenaries, with no liberty
left to herself but to fix the price of her subjects in
money and so plunge her hand as deeply as she
pleased into the British exchequer, the offer was
taken as an offence to her pride, and an insult to her
honor. Using no palliatives she framed accordingly
a sarcastic and unequivocal answer: "I am just be-
ginning to enjoy peace, and your majesty knows that
my empire has need of repose. It is also known
what must be the condition of an army, though victo-
rious, when it conies out of a long war in a murder-
ous climate. There is an impropriety in employing
so considerable a body in another hemisphere, under
a power almost unknown to it, and almost deprived
of all correspondence with its sovereign. My own
confidence in my peace, which has cost me so great
efforts to acquire, demands absolutely that I do not
deprive myself so soon of so considerable a part of
my forces. Affairs on the side of Sweden are but
put to sleep, and those of Poland are not yet defin-
itively terminated. Moreover, I should not be able
to prevent myself from reflecting on the consequences
which would result for our own dignity, for that of
the two monarchies and the two nations, from this
junction of our forces, simply to calm a rebellion
which is not supported by any foreign power."

THE KING AND HIS BID FOR EUSSIANS. 155

Every word of the letter of the king of England CHAP.
to the empress of Russia was in his own hand ; she — ^
purposely employed her private secretary to write 1I75-
her answer. The second English courier, with the
project of a treaty, reached Gunning on the fourth of
October ; he seized the earliest opportunity to begin
reading it to Panin, and was willing to come down in
his demand to ten thousand men ; but the chancellor,
interrupting him, put into his hands Catharine's an-
swer, and declined all further discussion.

The letter seemed to the British envoy in some
passages exceptionable, and he was in doubt whether
it was fit to be received ; but suppressing his discon-
tent, he forwarded it to his sovereign.

The conduct of this negotiation was watched with
the intensest curiosity by every court from Mos-
cow to Madrid, and its progress was well understood ;
but no foreign influence whatever, not even that of
the king of Prussia, however desirous he might have
been of rendering ill offices to England, had any
share in determining the empress. The decision was
founded on her own judgment and that of her minis-
ters, on the necessities of her position and the state
of her dominions. For a short time a report prevailed
through western Europe, that the English request was
to be granted ; but Vergennes rejected it as incred-
ible, and wrote to the French envoy at Moscow : " I
cannot reconcile Catharine's elevation of soul with
the dishonorable idea of trafficking in the blood of
her subjects."

On the last day of October, the French minister
asked Panin of the truth of the rumors, and Panin
answered : " People have said so, but it is physically

156 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. •

CHAP, impossible ; besides, it is not consistent with the dig-
— ^ nity of England to employ foreign troops against its

1775. -i • , ««

Oct. own subjects.

The empress continued to be profuse of courtesies
to Gunning ; and when in December he took his
leave, she renewed the assurances of affection and
esteem for his king, whom she expressed her readi-
ness to assist on all occasions, adding, however : " But
one cannot go beyond one's means."

CHAPTER LI.

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE
OCTOBER — DECEMBER,

the Russians arrive, will you go and see CHAP.
their camp ? " wrote Edward Gibbon to a friend. — r—
"We have great hopes of getting a body of these 1176>
barbarians ; the ministers daily and hourly expect to
hear that the business is concluded ; the worst of it
is, the Baltic will soon be frozen up, and it must be
late next year before they can get to America." The
couriers that, one after another, arrived from Moscow,
dispelled this confidence. The king was surprised by
the refusal of the empress of Russia, and found fault
with her manner as not " genteel ; " for, said he, " she
has not had the civility to answer me in her own
hand ; and has thrown out expressions that may be
civil to a Russian ear, but certainly not to more civil-
ized ones." Yet he bore the disappointment with his
wonted firmness ; and turned for relief to the smaller
princes of Germany, who now, on the failure of his
VOL. vm. 14

158 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, great speculation, had the British exchequer at their

— Y-— mercy.

The plan of the coming campaign was made in
the undoubting expectation of completely finishing
the war in season to disband the extraordinary forces
within two years. For the Russians, who were to
have protected the city and province of Quebec, Ger-
mans*were to be substituted, whatever might be the
cost. The advantage of keeping possession of Boston
as a means of occupying the attention of New Eng-
land, was considered ; but it was determined to con-
centrate the British forces at New York, as the best
means of securing the central provinces and the con-
nection with Canada. The vaunts of Dumnore were
so far heeded, that a small force of some hundred men
was held sufficient, with the aid of loyalists and ne-
groes, to recover the province. The promises of
Martin led to the belief that, on the appearance of a
few regiments, the Highland emigrants and many
thousands in the back counties of North Carolina
would rally round the royal standard ; and in conse-
quence, five regiments of infantry, with ten thousand
stand of arms, six small field pieces, two hundred
rounds of powder and ball for each musket and field
piece, were ordered to be in readiness to sail from
Cork early in December; and this force was soon
after made equal to seven regiments. " I am not ap-
prized where they are going ;" thus Barrington expos-
tulated with Dartmouth ; " but if there should be an
idea of such a force marching up the country, I hope
it will not be entertained. Allow me once more to
remind you of the necessity there is in all military mat-
ters, not to stir a step without full consultation of able

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 159

military men, after giving them the most perfect CHAP.
knowledge of the whole matter under consideration, ^~
with all its circumstances." The warning had no in- l™&-
fluence, for the king, in his dauntless self-will, would
not consult those who were likely to disagree with
him. A naval force, equal to the requirements of the
governor of South Carolina for the recovery of that
province, was also prepared.

Of the hearty concurrence of parliament no doubt
was harbored. " I am fighting the battle of the legis-
lature," said the king ; " I therefore have a right to
expect an almost unanimous support ; I know the up-
rightness of my intentions and am ready to stand any *
attack of ever so dangerous a kind."

The good sense of the English people reasoned
very differently, and found an organ among the min-
isters themselves. The duke of Grafton, by letter,
entreated Lord North to go great lengths to bring
about a durable reconciliation, giving as his reasons
that " the general inclination of men of property in
England differed from the declarations of the congress
in America little more than in words ; that many
hearty friends to government had altered their
opinions by the events of the year; that their confi-
dence in a strong party among 4he colonists, ready to
second a regular military force, was at an end ; that
if the British regular force should be doubled, the
Americans, whose behavior already had far surpassed
every one's expectation, could and would increase
theirs accordingly; that the contest was not only
hopeless, but fraught with disgrace ; that the attend-
ant expenses would lay upon the country a burden
which nothing could justify but an insult from a for-

160 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, eign enemy ; that, therefore, the colonies should be
v — r^ invited by their deputies to state to parliament their
1775. wishes and expectations, and a truce be proclaimed,
until the issue should be known." Of this commu-
nication Lord North took no note whatever until
within six days of the opening of parliament, and
then replied by enclosing a copy of the intended
speech.

Hastening to court, Grafton complained of the
violent, injudicious, and impracticable schemes of the
ministers, framed in a misconception of the resources
of the colonies ; and He added : u Deluded themselves,
they are deluding your majesty." The king debated
the business at large ; but when he announced that a
numerous body of German troops was to join the
British forces, Grafton answered earnestly : " Your
majesty will find too late that twice the number will
only increase the disgrace, and never effect the pur-
pose."

On the twenty sixth of October, two days after
the refusal of the empress of Russia was known, the
king met the parliament. Of the many who were to
weigh his words spoken on that occasion, the opinion
of those not present was of the most importance.
Making no allusion whatever to the congress or to
its petition, he charged the people in America with
being in a state of openly avowed revolt, levying a
rebellious war for the purpose of establishing an in-
dependent empire; he professed to have received
the most friendly offers of foreign assistance ; and
he announced that he had garrisoned Gibraltar and
Port Mahon with his electoral troops, in order to
employ the former garrisons in America. To make

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 161

a speedy end of the disorders by most decisive exer- CHAP.
tions, he recommended an increase of the navy and » — ^
the army; at the same time he proposed to send over
commissioners with power to grant pardons and re-
ceive the submission of the several colonies. Thus
the speech, which in its words and its effects was irre-
vocable, presented a false issue. The Americans had
not designed to establish an independent government ;
of their leading statesmen it was the desire of Samuel
Adams alone ; they had all been educated in the love
and admiration of constitutional monarchy, and even
John Adams and Jefferson so sincerely shrunk back
from the attempt at creating another government in
its stead, that, to the last moment, they were most
anxious to avert a separation, if it could be avoided
without a loss of their inherited liberties.

The house of commons took the king at his word ;
Acland, who moved the address, reduced the question
into a very short compass : " Does Britain choose to
acquiesce in the independence of America, or to
enforce her submission ? " Lyttelton, whom we have
seen as governor of South Carolina, in seconding the
address, explained the inherent weakness of the
southern colonies; and with obvious satisfaction in-
timated that, " if a few regiments were sent there,
the negroes would rise, and imbrue their hands in the

O '

blood of their masters. He was against conciliatory
offers ; the honor of the nation required coercive
measures ; the colonies ought to be conquered before
mercy should be shown them." The house sustained
these sentiments by a vote of two hundred and seventy
eight against one hundred and ten.

On the report of the address, the debate was re-

VOL. Till. 14*

162 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, newed. " If we suffer by the war," said Lord North,
— r— uthe Americans will suffer much more. Yet," he

1 oct" a(^ed? "I ^l1 to ^°d, if ^ were possible, to put
the colonies on the same footing they were in 1763."
His seeming disinclination to the measures of his
own ministry, justly drew on him the rebuke from
Fox for not resigning his place. " The present war,"
argued Adair at length, " is unjust in its commence-
ment, injurious to both countries in its prosecution,
and ruinous in its event, staking the fate of a great
empire against a shadow. The quarrel took- its rise
from the assertion of a right, at best but doubtful
in itself; a right, from whence the warmest advo-
cates for it have long been forced to admit that this
country can never derive a single shilling of advan-
tage. The Americans, it is said, will be satisfied with
nothing less than absolute independence. They do
not say so themselves ; they have said the direct
contrary: 'Restore the ancient constitution of the
empire, under which all parts of it have flourished ;
place us in the situation we were in the year sixty
three, and we will submit to your regulations of com-
merce, and return to our obedience and constitutional
subjection:' this is the language of the Americans.
Our ministers tell us they will not in truth be con-
tent with what they themselves have professed to
demand. Have you tried them? Make the experi-
ment. Take them at their word. If they should
recede from their own proposals, you may then have
recourse to war, with the advantage of a united, in-
stead of a divided people at home." Sir Gilbert
Elliot was unwilling " to send a large armament to
America, without sending at the same time terms of

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 163

accommodation." " I vote for the address," said Rig- CHAP.
by, " because it sanctifies coercive measures. America ^.J^.
mus,t be conquered, and the present rebellion must 1^75-
be crushed, ere the dispute will be ended." The com-
mons unhesitatingly confirmed their vote of the pre-
vious night.

Among the lords, Shelburne insisted that the pe-
tition of the congress furnished the fairest foundation
for an honorable and advantageous accommodation ;
and he bore his testimony to the sincerity of Frank-
lin as one whom " he had long and intimately known,
and had ever found constant and earnest in the wish
for conciliation upon the terms of ancient connection."
His words, which were really a prophecy of peace
and a designation of its mediators, were that night
unheeded ; and he was overborne by a majority of
two to one. Some of the minority entered their pro-
test, in which they said : " We conceive the calling
in foreign forces to decide domestic quarrels, to be a
measure both disgraceful and dangerous."

That same day the university of Oxford, the
favored printer of the translated Bible for all whose
mother tongue was the English, the natural guardian
of the principles and the example of Wickliffe and
Latimer and Ridley and Cranmer, the tutor of the
youth of England, addressed the king against the
Americans as " a people who had forfeited their lives
and fortunes to the justice of the state."

On the last day of October, Lord Stormont, the
British ambassador in France, who had just returned
to his post, was received at court. The king of France,
whose sympathies were all on the side of monarchical
power, said to him : " Happily the opposition party is

164 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, now very weak." From the king, Stormont went to
>— r— - Vergennes, who expressed the desire to live in perfect
1 7 7 5 . harmony with England ; " far from wishing to increase
your embarrassments," said he, "we see them with some
uneasiness." " The consequences," observed Stormont,
"cannot escape a man of your penetration and extensive
views." "Indeed they are very obvious," responded
Vergennes ; " they are as obvious as the consequences
of the cession of Canada. I was at Constantinople
when the last peace was made ; when I heard its con-
ditions, I told several of my friends there, that Eng-
land would ere long have reason to repent of having
removed the only check that could keep her colonies
in awe. My prediction has been but too well verified.
I equally see the consequences that must follow the
independence of North America, if your colonies
should carry that point, at which they now so visibly
aim. They might, when they pleased, conquer both
your islands and ours. I am persuaded that they
would not stop there, but would in process of time
advance to the southern continent of America, and
either subdue its inhabitants or carry them along
with them, and in the end not leave a foot of that
hemisphere in the possession of any European power.
All these consequences will not indeed be immediate
Neither you nor I shall live to see them; but for be
ing remote they are not less sure."

Nov< The moderate men among British statesmen saw
no less clearly that the king's policy was forcing in-
dependence upon the colonies. On the first of No-
vember the Duke of Manchester said to the lords :
"The violence of the times has wrested America
from the British crown, and spurned the jewel be-

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 165

cause the setting appeared uncouth ; " but the debate CHAP.
which he opened had no effect except that Grafton
took part with him, and as a consequence resigned
his place as keeper of the privy seal. Every effort of
the opposition was futile. On the tenth of Novem-
ber Richard Penn was called to the bar of the house
of lords, where he bore witness in great detail to the
sincerity of the American congress in their wish for
conciliation, and to the unanimity of support which
they received from the people. Under the most
favorable auspices the duke of Richmond proposed
to accept the petition from that congress to the king
as a ground for conciliation ; he was ably supported
by Shelburne ; but his motion, like every similar mo-
tion in either house, was negatived by a majority of
about two to one.

On the same day, the definitive ministerial changes,
which were to give a character to the whole war, were
completed. Rochford retired on a pension, and his
place was taken by Lord Weymouth, who greatly
surpassed him in ability and resolution. Dartmouth,
who was mild tempered, amiable, and pure, yet weak,
ignorant, and narrow, one of the best disposed of
British statesmen, yet one whose hand was set to the
most cruel and most arbitrary measures, exchanged
his seat in the cabinet for the privy seal, consoling him-
self with the belief that he had been ever laboring for
conciliation, while in fact he had been sanctioning and

o

executing the policy at which his soul revolted. The
seals of the American department were transferred to
Lord George Sackville Germain, who owed his selec-
tion to his speech in the house of commons on the
twenty eighth of March, 1774, and who came into

166 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, office on the condition of his enforcing the measures

» — *-^> recommended in that speech.

INOV Germain stood before Europe as a cashiered officer,

disgraced for cowardice on the field of battle; and
his unquestioning vanity made him eager to efface his
ignominy by a career that should rival that of Pitt in
the Seven Years' war. Haunted by corroding recol-
lections, he stumbled like one in the dark as he strug-
gled to enter the temple of fame, and eagerly went
about knocking for admission at every gate but the
right one. He owed his rehabilitation to Rocking-
ham, to whom he instantly proved false ; Chatham
would never sit with him at the council board. His
career was unprosperous, from causes within himself.
His powers were very much overrated; he had a
feverish activity, punctuality to a minute, and personal
application, but no sagacity, nor quickness or delicacy
of perception, nor soundness of judgment. He wanted
altogether that mastery over others which comes from
warmth of heart. Minutely precise and formal, he
was a most uncomfortable chief, always throwing
upon the officers under his direction the fault of
failure even in impossible schemes. His rancor to-
wards those at whom he took offence was bitter and
unending. His temper was petulant ; his selfish pas-
sions were violent and constant, yet petty in their
objects. Apparelled on Sunday morning in gala, as
if for the drawing room, he constantly marched out
all his household to his parish church; where he
would mark time for the singing gallery, chide a rus-
tic chorister for a discord, stand up during the sermon
to survey the congregation, or overawe the idle, and
with unmoved sincerity gesticulate approbation to the

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 167

preacher, whom he sometimes cheered on by name. CHAP.
Though smooth and kindly to his inferiors and de- ^^
pendents, he was capable of ordering the most relent- 177
less acts of cruelty; could chide his generals for check-
ing savages in their career as destroyers; and at
night, on coming home to his supper and his claret,
the friendless man, unloving and unloved, could, with
cold, vengeful malice, plan how to lay America in
ashes, because he could not have the glory of reducing
her to submission.

An opportunity soon offered for the new secretary
to unfold his policy. On the sixteenth Burke brought
forward a bill for composing the existing troubles, by
formally renouncing the pretension to an American
revenue. " If we are to have no peace," replied Ger-
main, " unless we give up the right of taxation, the
contest .is brought to its fair issue. I trust we shall
draw a revenue from America; the spirit of this
country will go along with me in the idea to crush
rebellious resistance."

As he said this, the orders were already on the
way to hire troops of the roytelets of Brunswick
and Hesse Cassel, and in defiance of the laws of the
empire to raise four thousand recruits in Germany ;
for if Germain was to crush the Americans, it could
not be done by Englishmen. The ministry was the
master of parliament, but not of the affections of
the English people. Germain's appointment shows
how little their sympathies were considered; the
administration, as it was now constituted, was the
weakest, the least principled, and the most unpopular
of that century. The England that the world re-
vered, the England that kept alive in Europe the

168 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, vestal fire of freedom, was at this time outside of the
^^ government, though steadily gaining political strength.
1775. "Chatham, while he had life in him, was its nerve."

Nov.

Had Grenville been living, it would have included Gren-
ville ; it retained E-ockingham, Grenville's successor ;
it had now recovered Grafton, Chatham's successor;
and Lord North, who succeeded Grafton, sided with
Germain and Sandwich only by spasms, and though
he loved his place, was more against his own min-
istry than for it. The king's policy was not in har-
mony with the England of the Revolution, nor with
that of the eighteenth century, nor with that of the
nineteenth. The England of to-day, which receives
and brightens and passes along the torch of liberty,
has an honest lineage, and springs from the England
of the last century ; but it had no representative in
the ministry of Lord North, or the majority of the
fourteenth parliament. America would right herself
within a year ; Britain and Ireland must wait more
than a half century.

Still less did the ministry possess the hearts of the
people of Ireland; though it controlled a majority of
her legislature, and sought to allay discontent by con-
cessions in favor of her commerce and manufactures.
The consent of the Irish house of commons was re-
quested to sending four thousand of the troops on the
Irish establishment to America, and receiving in their
stead four thousand German Protestants. " If we give
our consent," objected Ponsonby, in the debate on the
twenty fifth of November, " we shall take part against
America, contrary to justice, to prudence, and to hu-
manity." "The war is unjust," said Fitzgibbons, " and
Ireland has no reason to be a party therein." Sir

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 169

Edward Newenham could not agree to send more CHAP.
troops to butcher men who were fighting for their — -v^-*
liberty; and he reprobated the introduction of foreign 1175-
mercenaries as equally militating against true reason
and sound policy. " If men must be sent to America,"
cried George Ogle, " send there foreign mercenaries,
not the brave sons of Ireland," Hussey Burg con-
demned the American war as " a violation of the law
of nations, the law of the land, the law of humanity,
the law of nature ; he would not vote a single sword
without an address recommending conciliatory meas-
ures ; the ministry, if victorious, would only establish
a right to the harvest when they had burned the
grain." Yet the troops were voted by one hundred
and twenty one against seventy six, although the reso-
lution to replace them by foreign Protestants was neg-
atived by sixty eight against one hundred and six.

The majority in parliament did not quiet Lord Dec.
North. Sir George Saville describes him " as one day
for conciliation ; but as soon as the first word is out,
he is checked and controlled, and instead of concilia-
tion out comes confusion." On the first day of De-
cember, he pressed to a second reading the American
prohibitory bill, which consolidated the three special
acts against the port of Boston, the fisheries, and the
trade of the southern colonies, and enlarged them
into a prohibition of all the trade of all the thirteen
colonies. American vessels and goods were made the
property of their captors; the prisoners might be
compelled to serve the king even against their own
countrymen. No one American grievance was re-
moved ; but commissioners were to be appointed to ac-
cept the submission of the colonies, or parts of colonies,

VOL. VIII. 15

170 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, one by one ; with power to grant pardons to individ-
-X— - uals or to a whole community in the lump. The
a^roc^7 °f the measure was exposed in the house of
commons, but without effect ; on the third reading, in
the house of lords, Mansfield explained his own views,
which in their essential features were also those of the
king : " The people of America are as much bound to
obey- the acts of the British parliament as the inhab-
itants of London and Middlesex. I have not a doubt
in my mind, that ever since the peace of Paris the
northern colonies have been meditating a state of
independence on this country. But allowing that all
their professions are genuine, that every measure hith-
erto taken to compel submission to the parliamentary
authority of this country was cruel and unjust, yet
what, my lords, are we to do ? Are we to rest inac-
tive with our arms across, till they shall think proper
to begin the attack, and gain strength to do it with
effect ? We are now in such a situation that we must
either fight or be pursued. As a Swedish general said
to his men of their enemy, clf you do not kill them,
they will kill you ; ' if we do not, my lords, get the
better of America, America will get the better of us.
Are we to stand idle, because we are told this is an
unjust war? I do not consider who was originally in
the wrong ; we are now only to consider where we
are. The justice of the cause must give way to our
present situation ; and the consequences which must
ensue should we recede, would, nay must be, in-
finitely worse, than any we have to dread by pursu-
ing the present plan, or agreeing to a final separa-
tion." After these words the bill was adopted without
a division.

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 171

From the beginning of the troubles, George the CHAP.
Third had regarded the renunciation of the colonies — ^
as preferable to the continuance of the connection on
the American principles ; for such a continuance would
have overturned or endangered his system of govern-
ment at home. To him it was an option between
losing the brightest jewel in his crown, or losing the
crown itself, in so far as it was an emblem of monarch-
ical power. The same consideration animated Fox
and Buckingham to defend American liberty as the
bulwark of the rights of the British people. If a
cordial reconciliation should not be speedily effected,
to lose America entirely seemed to them a less evil
than to hold her as a conquered country; for the
maintaining of that dominion by an army only wrould
inevitably terminate in the downfall of the consti-
tution.

Outside of parliament, the most intelligent among
the philosophers of North Britain yielded to the
ministerial measures a reluctant acquiescence or dis-
countenanced them by open rebuke. The lukewarm
Presbyterian, William Robertson, whose smooth style
in his more elaborate pages is like satin without a
crease, and whose discreet method in history palliated
or veiled the enormities of the Spaniards, forgot how
well he had written at the time when the men in
power were repealing the stamp act. " If the wis-
dom of government could now terminate the contest
with honor instantly," he thought " that would be
the most desirable issue ; " but yet he would have the
British " leaders at once exert the power of the British
empire in its full force." He would even have ap-
proved stationing a " few regiments in each capital."

172 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. He was certain that the Americans had been aiming
— • — all along at independence, and like the Bedford party
1775. in parliament, he held it fortunate that matters had
so soon been brought to a crisis. As a lover of man-
kind, he was ready to bewail the check to prosperous
and growing states ; but, said he, " we are past the
hour of lenitives and half exertions."

On the other hand, John Millar, the professor
of law in the university of Glasgow, taught the
youth of Scotland who frequented his lectures, " that
the republican form of government is by far the best,
either for a very small or a very extensive country."

"I cannot but agree with him," said David Hume,
who yet maintained that it would be " most criminal"
to disjoint the established government in Great Brit-
ain, where he believed a republic would so certainly
be the immediate forerunner of despotism, that none
but fools would think to augment liberty by shaking
off monarchy. He had written the history of Eng-
land without love for the country, or comprehension
of its early popular liberty, or any deep insight into
its parties, or exact study of its constitution. He that
reads his lucid and attractive pages will not learn
from them the formation of the "native English"
tongue, or of the system of English government, or
of religious opinion, or of English philosophy, or of
English literature ; his work is the work of a sceptic,
polemic against the dogmatism of the church, other-
wise unbiassed except by the sceptic's natural pre-
dilection for the monarchical principle. But he had
no faith in the universal application of that principle.
" The ancient republics," said he, rising above the in-
fluence of his philosophy, " were somewhat ferocious

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 173

and torn by bloody factions ; but they were still much CHAP.
preferable to the ancient monarchies or aristocracies, ^-^,
which seem to have been quite intolerable. Modern 1775.
manners have corrected this abuse ; and all the re-
publics in Europe, without exception, are so well
governed, that one is at a loss to which we should
give the preference." " I am an American in my
principles, and wish we would let them alone to
govern or misgovern themselves, as they think prop-
er ; the affair is of no consequence, or of little conse-
quence to us."

But one greater than Robertson and wiser than
Hume gave the best expression to the mind of Scot-
land. Adam Sn^jbh, the peer and the teacher of states-
men, enrolled among the servants of humanity and
benefactors of our race, one who had closely studied
France as well as Britain, and who in his style com-
bined the grace and the clearness of a man of the
world with profound wisdom and the sincere search
for truth, applied to the crisis those principles of free-
dom and right which made Scotland, under every dis-
advantage of an oppressive form of feudalism and a
deceitful system of representation, an efficient instru-
ment in promoting the liberties of mankind. He
would have the American colonies either fairly repre-
sented in parliament, or independent. The prohib-
itory laws of England towards the colonies he pro-
nounced " a manifest violation of the most sacred
rights," "impertinent badges of slavery imposed upon
them without any sufficient reason by the ground-
less jealousy of the merchants and manufacturers of
the mother country." " Great Britain," said he, " de-
rives nothing but loss from the dominion she as-
VOL. vin. 15*

174 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, sumes over her colonies." " It is not very probable
' — ^ that they will ever voluntarily submit to us; the
1 775- blood which must be shed in forcing them to do so is
every drop of it the blood of those who are or of
those whom we wish to have for our fellow citizens."
" They are very weak who flatter themselves that in
the state to which things are come, our colonies will
be easily conquered by force alone." And he pointed
out the vast immediate and continuing advantages
which Great Britain would derive, if she "should
voluntarily give up all authority over her colonies,
and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to
enact their own laws, and to make peace and war as
they might think proper." %

Josiah Tucker, an English royalist writer on po-
litical economy, had studied perseveringly the laws of
nature, which are the laws of God, in their application
to commerce ; and at the risk of being rated a vision-
ary enthusiast, he now sought to convince the landed
gentry, that, Great Britain would lose nothing if she
should renounce her colonies and cultivate commerce
with them as an independent nation. This he en-
forced with such strength of argument and perspicu-
ity of statement, that Soame Jenyns wrote verses in
his praise, and Mansfield approved his treatise.

Thus rose through the clouds of conflict and pas-
sion the cheering idea, that the impending change,
which had been deprecated as the ruin of the empire,
would bring no disaster to Britain. American states-
men had struggled to avoid a separation, which
neither the indefatigable zeal of Samuel Adams, nor
the eloquence of John Adams, nor the sympathetic
spirit of Jefferson, could have brought about. The

PARLIAMENT IS AT ONE WITH THE KING. 175

king was the author of American independence. CHAP.
His several measures, as one by one they were sue- — ,—
cessively borne across the Atlantic — his contempt 17?5-
for the petition of congress, his speech to parliament,
his avowed negotiations for mercenaries, the closing
the ports of all the thirteen colonies and confis-
cating all their property on the ocean — forced upon
them the conviction that they must protect and
govern themselves.

CHAPTER LIL

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL.
AUGUST — NOVEMBER, 17*75.

CHAP. WHEN Carleton heard of the surrender of Ticon-
— ^ deroga to Allen and Arnold, lie resolved to attempt
1775- its recovery. The continental congress had, on the
first of June, explicitly disclaimed the purpose of in-
vading Canada; and a French version of their resolu-
tion was very widely distributed among its inhabit-
ants. But on the ninth of that month the governor of
, the province proclaimed the American borderers to be
a rebellious band of traitors, established martial law,
and summoned the French peasantry to serve under
the old colonial nobility, while the converted Indian
tribes and the savages of the northwest were insti-
gated to take up the hatchet against New York and
New England. These movements affected the inten-
tions of congress, and made the occupation of Canada
an act of self-defence.

The French nobility, of whom many under the
Quebec act were received into the council or ap-

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 177

pointed to executive offices, and the Catholic clergy CHAP.
who were restored to the possession of their estates — ^
and their tithes, acquiesced in the new form of gov- 1775
eminent ; but by a large part of the British residents
it was detested, as at war .with English liberties, and
subjecting them to arbitrary power. The instincts of
the Canadian peasantry inclined them to take part
with the united colonies : they denied the authority
of the French nobility as magistrates, and resisted
their claim of a right as seignors to command their
military services. Without the hardihood to rise of
themselves, they were willing to welcome an invasion.

Carleton, in his distress, appealed to the Catholic
bishop. That prelate, who was a stipendiary of the
British king, sent a mandate to the several parishes, '
to be read by the subordinate clergy after divine
service, but the peasantry persisted in refusing to
come out.

We have seen the feeble and disorderly condition
of the northern army at the time of Schuyler's arrival.
His first object was to learn the state of Canada, and
in Major John Brown he found a fearless, able, and
trusty emissary. He next endeavored to introduce
order into his command. On the twenty seventh of
July the regiment of Green Mountain Boys elected
its officers ; the rash and boastful Ethan Allen was
passed by, and instead of him Seth Warner, a man of
equal courage and better judgment, was elected its
lieutenant colonel.

Under the direction of Schuyler, boats were built Aug.
at Ticonderoga as fast as possible ; and his humanity
brooked no delay in adopting measures for the relief
of the sick ; but as twelve hundred men formed the

178 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, whole force that he could as yet lead beyond the bor-
v-^~ der, he feared that the naval strength of the enemy
ll™' might prevent his getting down the Sorel river; and
on the sixth of August he wrote to congress, which
had already adjourned, for information whether he
was to proceed. The reference implied his own
conviction, that his army was inadequate to the vast
enterprise. Before the middle of the month, Brown
returned from his perilous march of observation, and
reported that now was the time to carry Canada ;
that the inhabitants were friends ; that the number
of regulars in Canada was only about seven hundred,
of whom three hundred were at St. John's ; that the
militia openly refused to serve under the French of-
ficers lately appointed. At the same time a new ar-
rival at Ticonderoga changed the spirit of the camp.
"We have seen Richard Montgomery, who had
served in the army from the age of fifteen, gain dis-
tinction in the Seven Years' war. Several years after
his return to Ireland, he took the steps which he be-
lieved sufficient for his promotion to a majority ;
failing in his pursuit and thinking himself over-
reached, he sold his commission in disgust and emi-
grated to New York. Here, in 17Y3, he renewed
his former acquaintance with the family of Robert
R. Livingston, and married his eldest daughter. Never
intending to draw his sword again, studious in his
habits, he wished for retirement ; and his wife,
whose affections he entirely possessed, willingly con-
formed to his tastes. At Rhinebeck a mill was built,
a farm stocked, and the foundation of a new house
laid, so that peaceful years seemed to await them.
Montgomery was of a sanguine temperament, yet

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 179

the experience of life had tinged his spirit with CHAP.
melancholy, and he would often say : " My happiness — *—
is not lasting; but yet let us enjoy it as long as we 1775.
may, and leave the rest to God." And they did enjoy
life ; blest with parents, brothers, sisters, and friends,
their circle was always enlivened by intelligent con-
versation and the undisturbed flow of affection. The
father of his wife used to say, that "if American
liberty should not be maintained, he would carry
his family to Switzerland, as the only free country in
the world." War was the dream of her grandfather
alone, the aged Eobert Livingston, the staunchest and
most sagacious patriot of them all. In 1773, in his
eighty fourth year, he foretold the conflict with Eng-
land, and when his son and grandchildren smiled at
his credulity, " You, Robert," said he to his grandson,
" will live to see this country independent." At the
news of the retreat of the British from Concord, the
octogenarian's eye kindled with the fire of youth, and
he confidently announced American independence.
Soon after the battle of Bunker Hill, he lay calmly
on his deathbed, and his last words were: "What
news from Boston ? "

From such a family circle the county of Dutchess,
in April, 1775, selected Montgomery as a delegate to
the first provincial convention in New York, where he
distinguished himself by unaffected modesty, prompt-
ness of decision, and soundness of judgment. On
receiving his appointment as brigadier general he
reluctantly bade adieu to nis " quiet scheme of life ; "
" perhaps," he said, " for ever, but the will of an op-
pressed people, compelled to choose between liberty
and slavery, must be obeyed."

180

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. On the sixth of August, from Albany, he advised
—* — that Tryon, whose secret designs he had penetrated,
should be conducted out of the way of mischief to
Hartford. He reasoned justly on the expediency of
taking possession of Canada, as the means of guard-
ing against Indian hostilities, and displaying to the
world the strength of the confederated colonies; it
was enlarging the sphere of operations, but a failure
would not impair the means of keeping the command
of Lake Champlain. Summoned by Schuyler to Ti-
conderoga, he was attended as far as Saratoga by his
wife, whose fears he soothed by cheerfulness and good
humor, and his last words to her at parting were :
" You will never have cause to blush for your Mont-
gomery."

On the seventeenth of August his arrival at Ti-
conderoga was the signal for Schuyler to depart for
Saratoga, promising to return on the twentieth. That
day came, and other days followed, and still Schuyler
remained away. On the twenty fifth Montgomery
wrote to him entreatingly to join the army with all
expedition, as the way to give the men confidence in
his spirit and activity. On the evening of the twenty
sixth he received an express from Washington, who
urged the acquisition of Canada and explained the
plan for an auxiliary enterprise by way of the Ken-
nebec. " I am sure," wrote the chief, " you will not
let any difficulties, not insuperable, damp your ardor ;
perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.
You will therefore, by the return of this messenger,
inform me of your ultimate resolution; not a moment's
time is to be lost." In obedience to this letter, Schuyler

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 181

left the negotiation with Indians to the other com- CHAP.
missioners at Albany, and set off for his army.

Montgomery, wherever he came, looked to see Aug/
what could be done, and to devise the means of doing
it ; he had informed Schuyler that he should prob-
ably reach St. John's on the first day of September.
Schuyler sent back no reply. " Moving without your
orders," rejoined Montgomery, "I do not like; but
the prevention of the enemy is of the utmost con-
sequence ; for if he gets his vessels into the lake, it
is over with us for the present summer ; " and he went
forward with a thousand or twelve hundred men.
Retarded by violent head winds and rain, it was the ge t
third of September when he arrived at Isle La Motte.
On the fourth he was joined by Schuyler, and they
proceeded to Isle aux Noix. The next day a declara-
tion of friendship was dispersed amongst the inhab-
itants. On the sixth Schuyler, whose forces did not
exceed a thousand, embarked for St. John's. They
landed without obstruction, a mile and a half from
the fortress, towards which they marched in good
order over marshy and wooded ground. In cross-
ing a creek, the left of their advanced line was
attacked by a party of Indians ; but being promptly
supported by Montgomery, it beat off the assailants,
yet with a loss of nine subalterns and privates.
Schuyler's health had declined as he approached the
army. In the night a person came to his tent with
false information, which he laid before a council of
war ; their opinion being consonant with his own, he
immediately ordered a retreat, and without carefully
reconnoitring the fortress, he led back the troops un-
molested to the Isle aux Noix. From that station

TOL. VIII. 16

182 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, lie wrote to congress : " I have not enjoyed a moment's
— ^ health since I left Fort George ; and am now so low

^ not to ^e a^e to kold tlie Pen< Should we not
be able to do any thing decisively in Canada, I shall
judge it best to move from this place, which is a very
wet and unhealthy part of the country, unless I re-
*ceive your orders to the contrary."

This letter was the occasion of " a large contro-
versy" in congress; his proposal to abandon Isle
aux Noix was severely disapproved ; it was resolved
to spare neither men nor money for his army, and if
the Canadians would remain neuter, no doubt was
entertained of the acquisition of Canada. He himself
was encouraged to attend to his own health, and this
advice implied a consent that the command of the in-
vading forces should rest with Montgomery.

Meantime Schuyler, though confined to his bed,
sent out on the tenth a party of five hundred;
they returned on the eleventh, disgraced by " unbe-
coming behavior." Upon this Montgomery, having
discerned in the men a rising spirit more consonant
with his own, entreated permission to retrieve the
late disasters ; and Schuyler, who was put into a cov-
ered boat for Ticonderoga, turned his back on the
scene with regret, but not with envy, and relinquished
to the gallant Irishman the conduct, the danger, and
the glory of the campaign.

The day after Schuyler left Isle aux Noix, Mont-
gomery began the investment of St. John's. The
Indians kept at peace, and the zealous efforts of the
governor, the clergy, and the French nobility, had
hardly added a hundred men to the garrison. Carle-
ton thought himself abandoned by all the earth, and

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 183

wrote to the commander in chief at Boston: "I had CHAP.
hopes of holding out for this year, had the savages v — ^
remained firm; but now we are on the eve of being 1775.
overrun and subdued."

On the morning after Montgomery's arrival near
St. John's, he marched five hundred men to its north
side. A party which sallied from the fort was beaten
off, and the detachment was stationed at the junction
of the roads to Chambly and Montreal. Additions
to his force and supplies of food were continually ar-
riving, through the indefatigable attention of Schuy-
ler ; and though the siege flagged for the want of
powder, the investment was soon made so close that
the retreat of the garrison was impossible.

The want of subordination delayed success. Ethan
Allen had been sent to Chambly to raise a corps of
Canadians. They gathered round him with spirit,
and his officers advised him to lead them without de-
lay to the army ; but dazzled by vanity and rash am-
bition, he attempted to surprise Montreal. Dressed
as was his custom when on a recruiting tour, in " a
short fawn skin, double breasted jacket, a vest and
breeches of woollen serge, and a red worsted cap," he
passed over from Longeuil to Long Point, in the night
preceding the twenty fifth of September, with about
eighty Canadians and thirty Americans, though he
had so few canoes, that but a third of his party could
embark at once. On the next day he discovered that
Brown, whom he had hoped to find with two hundred
men on the south side of the town, had not crossed
the river. Retreat from the island was impossible ;
about two hours after sunrise he was attacked* by a
motley party of regulars, English residents of Mon-

184 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, treal, Canadians, and Indians, in all about five hun-
— ^ dred men, and after a defence of an hour and three
lSe7t5' (luarters5 ne7 ^h tnirty eight men, was obliged to
surrender ; the rest fled to the woods. At the bar-
rack yard in Montreal, Prescott, a British brigadier,
asked the prisoner : " Are you that Allen who took
Ticonderoga ? " "I am the very man," quoth Allen.
Then Prescott, in a great rage, called him a rebel and
other hard names, and raised his cane. At this Allen
shook his fist, telling him : " This is the beetle of mor-
tality for you, if you offer to strike." " You shall grace
a halter at Tyburn," cried Prescott, with an oath.

The wounded, seven in number, entered the hos-
pital ; the rest were shackled together in pairs, and dis-
tributed among different transports in the river. But
Allen, as the chief offender, was chained with leg irons
weighing about thirty pounds ; their heavy substan-
tial bar was eight feet long ; the shackles, which en-
compassed his ancles, were so very tight and close
that he could not lie down exeept on his back ; and in
this plight, thrust into the lowest part of a vessel, the
captor of Ticonderoga was dragged to England, where
imprisonment in Pendennis Castle could not abate his
courage or his hope.

Oct. The issue of this rash adventure daunted the
Canadians for a moment, but difficulties only brought
out the resources of Montgomery. He was obliged
to act entirely from his own mind ; for there was no
one about him competent to give advice. Of the
field officers, he esteemed Brown alone for his ability;
though McPherson, his aide-de-camp, a very young
man, universally beloved, of good sense, and rare en-
dowments, gave promise of high capacity for war.

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 185

But his chief difficulties grew out of the badness of CHAP.
the troops. Schuyler also complained of the Connec-
ticut soldiers, announcing even to congress: "If Job
had been a general in my situation, his memory had
not been so famous for patience." " The New England-
ers," wrote Montgomery, " are the worst stuff imagin-
able for soldiers. They are homesick ; their regiments
are melted away, and yet not a man dead of any dis-
temper. There is such an equality among them, that
the officers have no authority, and there are very few
among them in whose spirit I have confidence ; the
privates are all generals, but not soldiers; and so
jealous that it is impossible, though a man risk his
person, to escape the imputation of treachery."

Of the first regiment of Yorkers, he gave a far
worse account; adding: "The master of Hindostan
could not recompense me for this summer's work ;
I have envied every wounded man who has had so
good an apology for retiring from a scene where no
credit can be obtained. O fortunate husbandmen;
would I were at my plough again ! " Yet, amidst all
his vexations, his reputation steadily rose throughout
the country, and he won the affection of his army, so
that every sick soldier, officer, or deserter, that passed
home, agreed in praising him wherever they stopped.

The wearisomeness of delay, occasioned by the
want of munitions of war, increased the anxiety of
Montgomery. There was no hope of his reducing the
garrison from their want of provisions. The ground
on which he was encamped was very wet; the
weather cold and rainy, so that the troops suffered
exceedingly from sickness. Insubordination height-
ened his distress. Seeing that the battery was ill

VOL. VIIL 16*

186 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

placed, lie would have erected one at the distance
of four hundred yards from the north side of the
^ort> ^ut *ke Judgment °f tne army was against
him. " I did not consider," said he, u I was at the
head of troops who carried the spirit of freedom into
the field and think for themselves ; " and saving ap-
pearances by consulting a council of war, he acqui-
esced in their reversing his opinion. In John Lamb,
the captain of a New York company of artillery, he
found " a restless genius, brave, active, and intelligent,
but very turbulent and troublesome."

Anxious to relieve St. John's, Carleton, after the
capture of Allen, succeeded in assembling about nine
hundred Canadians at Montreal ; but a want of mu-
tual confidence and the certainty that the inhabitants
generally favored the Americans, dispirited them, and
they disappeared by desertions, thirty or forty of a
night, till he was left almost as forlorn as before.
The Indians, too, he found of little service ; u they
were easily dejected, and chose to be of the strongest
side, so that when they were most wanted they van-
ished." But history must preserve the fact that,
though often urged to let them loose on the rebel
provinces, in his detestation of cruelty, he would not
suffer a savage to pass the frontier.

In this state of mutu'al weakness, the inhabitants
of the parishes of Chambly turned the scale. Rang-
ing themselves under James Livingston of New York,
then a resident in Canada, and assisted by Major
Brown, with a small detachment from Montgomery,
they sat down before the fort in Chambly, which,
on the eighteenth of October, after a siege of a day
and a half was ingloriously surrendered by the Eng-

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 187

lish commandant. The colors of the seventh regi- CHAP.
ment, which were here taken, were transmitted as — ^

the first trophy to congress; the prisoners, one hun-
dred and sixty eight in number, were marched to
Connecticut ; but the great gain to the Americans
was seventeen cannon and six tons of powder.

The siege of St. John's now proceeded with
efficiency. The army of Montgomery yielded more
readily to his guidance ; Wooster of Connecticut had
arrived, and set an example of cheerftil obedience to his
orders. At the northwest, a battery was constructed
on an eminence within two hundred and fifty yards
of the fort ; and by the thirtieth it was in full action.

To raise the siege Carle ton planned a junction
with McLean ; but Montgomery sent Easton, Brown,
and Livingston to watch McLean, who was near the
mouth of the Sorel, while Warner was stationed near
Longeuil. Having by desperate exertions got to-
gether about eight hundred Indians, Canadians, and
regulars, Carleton, on the last day of October em-
barked them at Montreal, in thirty four boats, to
cross the Saint Lawrence. But Warner, with three
hundred Green Mountain Boys and men of the second
New York regiment, watched their approach, and as
they drew near the bank, poured on them so destruc-
tive a fire from the one four-pounder of the Ameri-
cans, that they retired precipitately with loss and in
disorder.

On the news of Carleton's defeat, McLean, de- NOV.
serted by the Canadians, and losing all hope of sup-
port, retired to Quebec ; while the besiegers pushed
on their work with unceasing diligence, keeping up a
well-directed fire by day and night. On the third of

188 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. November, after a siege of fifty days, the fort of St.

^^ John's surrendered ; and its garrison, consisting of five

1 775. hundred regulars and one hundred Canadians, many

of whom were of the French gentry, marched out

with the honors of war.

Montgomery now hastened to Montreal as rapidly
as the bad weather and worse roads would permit ;
and on the twelfth of November, unopposed, he took
possession of the town. He came as the auxiliary of
the Canadians, to give them the opportunity of estab-
lishing their freedom and reforming their laws ; and
he requested them to choose as soon as possible
" faithful representatives to sit in the continental con-
gress, and make a part of that union." He sought to
impress them with the idea that the freedom of the
thirteen colonies could never be securely enjoyed, so
long as arbitrary government should remain estab-
lished in Canada ; that no reconciliation could take
place till the liberties of all should be secured on the
same basis. He did not think himself a great poli-
tician, but his plan had, as he believed, " the merit of
being liberal, and of coming from an honest heart,
void of any ambition but that of serving the public."
He earnestly urged Schuyler to pass the winter at
Montreal. In the midst of his unparalleled success,
the hero longed to be below the Catskills, with his
young wife, his pleasant farm occupations, and his
books. " I am weary of power," said he to Schuyler ;
" I must go home this winter, if I walk by the side
of the lake." " I have courted fortune," he wrote to
his brother-in-law, " and found her kind. I have one
more favor to solicit, and then I have done." Without
Quebec, Canada remained unconquered; and honor

THE CAPTURE OF MONTREAL. 189

forbade him to turn back before attempting its cap- CHAP.
ture. Men, money, and artillery were wanting ; in — , —
the face of a Canadian winter, he nevertheless resolved 1 7 75 •
to go down to Quebec, and pledged his word that on
his part there should be no negligence of duty, no
infirmity of purpose.

CHAPTER IHL

THE MAKCH TO QUEBEC.

SEPTEMBER — NOVEMBER, 1 7 Y 5 .

*

CHAP. THE detacliinent which "Washington, as he though t-
vJ^L fully brooded over the future without hope of a
1775. speedy termination of the war, sent against Quebec,
consisted of ten companies of New England infantry,
one of riflemen from Virginia, and two from Pennsyl-
vania, in all two battalions of about eleven hundred
men. The command was given to Arnold, who, as a
trader in years past, had visited Quebec, where he
still had correspondents. In person he was short of
stature and of a florid complexion ; his broad, com-
pact frame displayed a strong animal nature and
power of endurance ; he was complaisant and persua-
sive in his manners ; daringly and desperately brave ;
avaricious and profuse ; grasping but not sordid ; san-
guinely hopeful; of restless activity; "intelligent
and enterprising."

The next in rank as lieutenant colonels were
Roger Enos, who proved to be a craven, and the

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 191

brave Christopher Greene of Rhode Island. The ma- CHAP.

T TTT

jors were Return J. Meigs of Connecticut, and Tim- ^-^
othy Bigelow, the early patriot of Worcester, Massa- 1775
chusetts. Morgan, with Humphreys and Heth, led
the Virginia riflemen; Hendricks, a Pennsylvania
company ; Thayer commanded one from Rhode Island,
and like Arnold, Meigs, Dearborn, Henry, Senter, Mel-
vin, left a journal of the expedition. Aaron Burr,
then but nineteen years old, and his friend Matthias
Ogden, carrying muskets and knapsacks, joined as
volunteers. Samuel Spring attended as chaplain.

The humane instructions given to Arnold enjoined
respect for the rights of property and the freedom of
opinion, and aimed at conciliating the affectionate co-
operation of the Canadians. "If Lord Chatham's
son," so wrote Washington, "should be in Canada,
and in any way should fall into your power, you can-
not pay too much honor to the son of so illustrious a
character, and so true a friend to America." Chat-
ham, on his part, from his fixed opinion of the war,
withdrew his son from the service ; and Carleton, an-
ticipating that decision, had already sent him home as
bearer of despatches.

To the Canadians, Washington's words were :
" The cause of America and of liberty is the cause of
every virtuous American citizen, whatever may be his
religion or his descent. Come then, range yourselves
under the standard of general liberty."

Boats and provisions having been collected, the
detachment, on the evening of the thirteenth of Sep-
tember, marched to Medford. On the nineteenth
they sailed from Newburyport, and on the morning
of the twentieth were borne into the Kennebec.

192 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. They passed the bay where that river and the An-
^r-is droscoggin hold their " merry meeting ; " on the
1775. twenty first they reached the two block houses, and
one large house, enclosed with pickets, which stood on
the east bank of the river, then known as Fort "Wes-
tern, on the site of Augusta. An exploring party of
seven men went in advance to discover the shortest
carrying place from the Kennebec to the Dead River,
one of its branches, along a path which had already
been marked, but which they made more distinct by
blazing the trees and snagging the bushes. The de-
tachment followed in four divisions, in as many
successive days. Each division took provisions for
forty five days. On the twenty fifth Morgan and
the riflemen were sent first to clear the path; the
following day Greene and Bigelow started with three
companies of musketeers ; Meigs with four companies
was next in order ; Enos with three companies closed
the rear.

They ascended the river slowly to Fort Halifax,
opposite Waterville; daily up to their waists in wa-
ter, hauling their boats against a very rapid current.
Oct. On the fourth of October they passed the vestiges
of an Indian chapel, a fort, and the grave of the mis-
sionary Rasle. After they took leave of settlements
and houses at Norridgewock, their fatiguing and haz-
ardous course lay up the swift Kennebec, and they
conveyed arms and stores through the thick woods of
a rough, uninhabited, and almost trackless wild ; now
rowing, now dragging their boats, now bearing them
on their backs round rapids and cataracts, across mo-
rasses, over craggy highlands. On the tenth the
party reached the dividing ridge between the Ken-

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 193

nebec and Dead River. Their road now lay through CHAP.
forests of pines, balsam fir, cedar, cypress, hemlock, • — ^
and yellow birch, and over three ponds, that lay hid l?75
among the trees and were full of trout. After pass-
ing them, they had no choice but to bear their
boats, baggage, stores, and ammunition across a
swamp, which was overgrown with bushes and white
moss, often sinking knee deep in the wet turf and
bogs. From Dead Kiver, Arnold on the thirteenth
wrote to the commander of the northern army, an-
nouncing his plan of co-operation. Of his friends in
Quebec he inquired as to the number of troops at
Quebec, what ships were there, and what was the
disposition of the Canadians and merchants ; and he
forwarded his letter by an Indian.

On the fifteenth the main body were on the
banks of the Dead River ; following its direction a
distance of eighty three miles, encountering upon it
seventeen falls, large enough to make portages neces-
sary, and near its source a series of small ponds
choked with fallen trees, in ten or twelve days
more they arrived at the great carrying place to the
Chaudiere.

On the way they heard the disheartening news,
that Enos, the second in command, had deserted the
enterprise, leading back three companies to Cam-
bridge. Yet the diminished party, enfeebled by
sickness and desertion, with scanty food, and little
ammunition, still persevered in their purpose to ap-
pear before a citadel, which was held to be the strong-
est in North America, and which the English officers
in Canada would surely defend to the last.

The mountains had been clad in snow since Sep-
VOL. vni. 17

194 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, tember ; winter was howling around them, and their
— v-~ course was still to the north. On the night preceding
1olt5' *ke twent7 eighth of October, some of the party en-
camped on the height of land that divides the waters
of the Saint Lawrence and the Atlantic. As they ad-
vanced their sufferings increased. Some went bare-
foot for days together. Their clothes had become so
torn, they were almost naked, and in their march
were lacerated by thorns ; at night they had no couch
or covering but branches of evergreens. Often for
successive days and nights they were exposed to cold,
drenching storms, and had to cross streams that were
swelling with the torrents of rain. Their provisions
failed, so that they even eat the faithful dogs that
followed them into the wilderness.

Many a man, vainly struggling to march on, sank
down exhausted, stiffening with cold and death.
Here and there a helpless invalid was left behind,
with perhaps a soldier to hunt for a red squirrel, a jay,
or a hawk, or various roots and plants for his food,
and to watch his expiring breath. On Dead River,
McLeland, the lieutenant of Hendrick's company,
caught a cold, which inflamed his lungs ; his friends
tenderly carried him on a litter across the mountain,
Hendrick himself in his turn putting his shoulder to
the loved burden.

The men had hauled up their barges nearly all
the way for one hundred and eighty miles, had carried
them on their shoulders near forty miles, through
hideous woods and mountains, often to their knees
in mire, over swamps and bogs almost impenetra-
ble, which they were obliged to cross three or four
times to fetch their baggage ; and yet starving, de-

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 195

serted, with an enemy's country and uncertainty CHAP.
ahead, officers and men, inspired with the love of ^-^
liberty and their country, pushed on with invincible IQ™'
fortitude.

The foaming Chaudiere hurries swiftly down its
rocky channel. Too eager to descend it quickly, the
adventurers had three of their boats overset in the
whirls of the stream ; losing ammunition and precious
stores, which they had brought along with so much
toil.

The first day of November was bright and warm, Nov.
like the weather of New England. " I passed a num-
ber of soldiers who had no provisions, and some that
were sick and had no power to help them," writes one
of the party. At last, on the second of that month,
French Canadians came up with two horses, driving
before them five oxen ; at which the party fired a
salute for joy, and laughed with frantic delight. On
.the fourth, about an hour before noon, they descried
a house at Sertigan, twenty five leagues from Quebec,
near the fork of the Chaudiere and the De Loup. It
was the first they had seen for thirty one days ; and
never could the view of rich cultivated fields or of
flourishing cities awaken such ecstasy of gladness as
this rude hovel on the edge of the wilderness. They
did not forget their disabled fellow soldiers : McLel-
and was brought down to the comfortable shelter,
though he breathed his farewell to the world the day
after his arrival.

The party followed the winding of the river to
the parish of St. Mary, straggling through a flat and
rich country, which had for its ornament many low
bright whitewashed houses, the comfortable abodes of

196

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, a cheerful, courteous, and hospitable people. Here
— ^ and there along the road chapels met their eyes, and
images of the Virgin Mary and rude imitations of the
Savior's sorrows.

For seven weeks Cramahe*, the lieutenant governor,
had been repairing the breaches in the walls of Que-
bec, which were now put into a good posture for de-
fence. The repeated communications, intrusted by
Arnold to friendly Indians, had been, in part at least,
intercepted. On the eighth of November his ap-
proach was known at Quebec, but not thfe amount of
his force ; and the British officers, in this state of un-
certainty, were not without apprehensions that the
affair would soon be over.

On the tenth Arnold arrived at Point Levi, but
all boats had been carefully removed from that side
of the Saint Lawrence. He waited until the thir-
teenth for the rear to come up, and employed the
time in making ladders and collecting canoes, while
Quebec was rapidly gaining strength for resistance.
On the fifth of November a vessel from Newfound-
land had brought a hundred carpenters. Colonel
Allan McLean arrived on the twelfth with a hundred
and seventy men, levied chiefly among disbanded
Highlanders who had settled in Canada. The Lizard
and the Hunter, ships of war, were in the harbor;
and the masters of merchant ships with their men
were detained for the defence of the town. At nine
in the evening of the thirteenth, Arnold began his
embarkation in canoes, which were but thirty in num-
ber, and carried less than two hundred at a time ; yet
"by crossing the river three several times, before day-
break on the morning of the fourteenth, all of his

THE MARCH TO QUEBEC. 197

party, except about one hundred and fifty left at CHAP.
Point Levi, were landed undiscovered, yet without ^,-L.
their ladders, at Wolfe's cove. The feeble band met 1775.
no resistance as they climbed the oblique path to the
Plains of Abraham. Wolfe had come, commanding
the river with a fleet; they, in frail bark canoes,
hardly capable of holding a fourth of their number
at a time ; Wolfe, with a well appointed army of
thousands, they with less than six hundred effective
men or a total of about seven hundred, and those
in rags, barefooted, and worn down with fatigue;
Wolfe with artillery, they with muskets only, and
those muskets so damaged that one hundred were
unfit for service ; Wolfe with unlimited stores of am-
munition, they with spoiled cartridges and a very
little damaged powder.

If it had required weeks for Montgomery with
an army of two thousand men to reduce St. John's,
how could Quebec, a large and opulent town of five
thousand inhabitants, strongly fortified and carefully
guarded, be taken in a moment by five hundred half
armed musketeers ? <c The enemy being apprised of
our coming," says Arnold, " we found it impractica-
ble to attack them without too great risk." In the
course of the day he led two or three hundred men
within sight of the walls, where they gave three huz-
zas of defiance; and in the evening he sent a flag to
demand the surrender of the place. The flag was
not received, and the British would not come out.
For two or three days Arnold encamped about a mile
and a half from town, posting on all its avenues small
guards which actually prevented fuel or refreshments
of any kind being brought in. Yet the invaders

VOL. VIII. 17*

198 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, were not to be dreaded, except for their friends within
' — ^ the walls, whose rising would have offered the only
1775. chance of success; but of this there were no signs.
Arnold then ordered a strict examination to be made
into the state of his ammunition, and as the result
showed no more than five rounds to each man, it was
judged imprudent to run the risk of a battle ; and on
the nineteenth his party retired to Point aux Trem-
bles, eight leagues above Quebec, where they awaited
the orders of Montgomery.

CHAPTER LIV.

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC.

NOVEMBER — DECEMBER,

THE day before Montgomery entered Montreal, CHAP.
Carleton, with more than a hundred regulars and ^~^~L
Canadians, embarked on board some small vessels in 1775

XT

the port to descend to Quebec. He was detained
in the river for several days by contrary winds,
and moreover he found the St. Lawrence, near the
mouth of the Sorel, guarded by continental troops
under Easton. On the seventeenth of November,
Prescott, the brigadier who had so lately treated
Allen with insolent cruelty, surrendered the flotilla
of eleven sail with all the soldiers, sailors, and stores
on board ; but in the darkest hour of the previous
night, Carleton, entering a small boat in the disguise
of a peasant, had been safely paddled through the
islands that lie opposite the Sorel. Touching as a
fugitive at Trois Bivi&res, he arrived on the nine-
teenth at Quebec, where his presence diffused joy and
confidence among the loyal. Thus far he had shown

200 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

€LIVP' great Poverty of resources as a military chief; but his
humane disposition, his caution, his pride, and his
^rmness were guarantees that Quebec would be per-
tinaciously defended. Besides, he had been "Wolfe's
quartermaster general, and had himself witnessed how
much of the success of his chief had been due to the
rashness of Montcalin in risking a battle outside of
the walls.

The rapid success of Montgomery had emboldened
a party in Quebec to confess a willingness to receive
him on terms of capitulation. But on the twenty
second, Carleton ordered all persons who would not
join in the defence of the town, to leave it within four
days ; and after their departure he found himself sup-
ported by more than three hundred regulars, three
hundred and thirty Anglo-Canadian militia, five hun-
dred and forty three French Canadians, four hundred
and eighty five seamen and marines, beside a hundred
and twenty artificers capable of bearing arms.

Montgomery had conquered rather as the leader
of a disorderly band of turbulent freemen, than as
the commander of a disciplined army. Not only had
the troops from the different colonies had their sepa-
rate regulations and terms of enlistment, but the pri-
vates retained the inquisitiveness and self-direction
of civil' life ; so that his authority depended chiefly on
his personal influence and his powers of persuasion.
Now that Montreal was taken and winter was come,
homesickness so prevailed among them that he was
left with no more than eight hundred men to garrison
his conquests, and to go down against Quebec. He
was deserted even by most of the Green Mountain
Boys, who at first were disposed to share his winter

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 201

campaign. The continental congress, which was eager CHAP.
for the occupation of Canada, took no seasonable care — , —
to supply the places of his men as their time of enlist- yjv5*
ment expired.

On the twenty sixth, leaving St. John's under the
command of Marinus Willett of New York, and en-
trusting the government of Montreal to "Wooster of
Connecticut, and in the spirit of a lawgiver who was
to regenerate the province, making a declaration that
on his return he would call a convention of the Cana-
dian people, Montgomery embarked on board three
armed schooners with artillery and provisions and
three hundred troops ; and on the third day of De- Dec.
cember, at Point aux Trembles, made a junction with
Arnold. " The famine-proof veterans," now but six
hundred and seventy five in number, were paraded in
front of the Catholic chapel, to hear their praises
from the lips of the modest hero, who, in animating
words, did justice to the courage with which they had
braved the wilderness, and to their superior style of
discipline. From the public stores which he had
taken, they received clothing suited to the terrible
climate ; and about noon on the fifth, the little army,
composed of less than a thousand American troops,
and a volunteer regiment of about two hundred Cana-
dians, appeared before Quebec, in midwinter, to take
the strongest fortified city in America, defended by
more than two hundred cannon of heavy metal, and
a garrison of twice the number of the besiegers.

Quick of perception, of a hopeful temperament,
and impatient of delay, Montgomery saw at a glance
his difficulties, and yet "thought there was a fair
prospect of success." He could not expect it from a

202 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, siege, for he had no battering train ; nor by investing
— , — - the place, which had provisions for eight months;
Dec.' there could therefore be no hope of its capture but
by storm, and as the engagements of the New Eng-
land men ended with the thirty first of December,
the assault must be made within twenty six days.
He grieved for the loss of life that might ensue, but
his decision was prompt and unchanging. The works
of the lower town were the weakest ; these he
thought it possible to carry, and then the favor of
the inhabitants in the upper town, their concern for
their property, the un warlike character of the gar-
rison, the small military ability of Carleton, offered
chances of victory.

The first act of Montgomery was a demand for
the surrender of the city; but his flag of truce was
not admitted. On the sixth he addressed an extrava-
gant and menacing letter to Carleton, which was sent
by a woman of the country, and of which a copy was
afterwards shot into the town upon an arrow; but
Carleton would hold no communication with him,
and every effort at correspondence with the citizens
failed.

Four or five mortars were placed in St. Roc's, but
the small shells which they threw did no essential in-
jury to the garrison. Meantime a battery was begun
on the heights of Abraham, about seven hundred yards
southwest of St. John's gate. The ground was frozen
and covered with deep snow, so that earth was not to
be had ; the gabions and the interstices of the fas-
cines were therefore filled with snow; and on this
water was poured in large quantities, which froze in-
stantly in the intense cold. On the fifteenth, the

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 203

day after the work was finished, a flag of truce was CHAP.
again sent towards the wall with letters for the gov- — • —
ernor ; but he refused to receive them or "hold any
kind of parley with rebels." Montgomery knew that
Carleton was sincere, and if necessary would sooner
be buried under heaps of ruins than come to terms.
The battery, consisting of but six twelve-pounders
and two howitzers, had been thrown up only to lull
the enemy into security at other points ; it was too
light to make any impression on the walls, while its
embankment was pierced through and through, and
its guns destroyed by the heavy artillery of the for-
tress. Some lives were lost, but the invaders suffered
more from pleurisy and other diseases of the lungs ;
and the smallpox began its ravages.

A faint glimmer of hope still lingered, that the
repeated defiance would induce Carleton to come out ;
but he could not be provoked into making an attempt
to drive off the besiegers. "To the storming we
must come at last," said Montgomery. On the even-
ing of the sixteenth, a council was held by all the
commissioned officers of Arnold's detachment, and a
large majority voted for making an assault as soon
as the men could be provided with bayonets, hatch-
ets, and hand grenades. "In case of success," said
Montgomery, "the effects of those who have been
most active against the united colonies must fall to
the soldiery." Days of preparation ensued, during
which he revolved his desperate situation. His rapid
conquests had filled the voice of the world with his
praise; the colonies held nothing impossible to his
good conduct and fortune ; he had received the order
of congress to hold Quebec, if it should come into his

204 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, hands ; should that fortress be taken the Canadians

^— •« — would enter heartily into the Union and send their

ll)lc deputies to congress. "Fortune," said he, "favors

the brave ; and no fatal consequences are likely to

attend a failure."

One day the general, accompanied by his aide-de-
camp, Macpherson, the pure-minded, youthful enthu-
siast for liberty, went out to meditate on " the spot
where Wolfe had fallen, fighting for England in friend-
ship with America." He ran a parallel in his mind
between the career of Wolfe and his own ; he had lost
the ambition which once sweetened a military life,
and a sense of duty was now his only spring of ac-
tion ; if the Americans should continue to prosper, he
wished to return to the retired life in which he alone
found delight ; but said he, " should the scene change,
I shall be always ready to contribute to the public
safety." And his last message to his brother-in-law
was : " Adieu, my dear Robert ; may your happy
talents ever be directed to the good of mankind."

As the time for the assault drew near, three cap-
tains in Arnold's battalion, whose term of service was
soon to expire, created dissension and showed a muti-
nous disaffection to the service. In the evening of the
twenty third, Montgomery repaired to their quar-
ters, and in few words gave them leave to stand
aside ; " he would compel none ; he wanted with him
no persons who went with reluctance." His words
recalled the officers to their duty, but the incident
hurried him into a resolution to attempt gaining Que-
bec before the first of January, when his legal author-
ity to restrain the waywardness of the discontented
would cease. At sundown of Christmas he reviewed

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 205

Arnold's battalion at Morgan's quarters, and ad- CHAP.
dressed them with spirit ; after which a council of war v^^L
agreed on a night attack on the lower town. For the 1775
following days the troops kept themselves in readi-
ness at a moment's warning. In the interval the in-
tention was revealed by a deserter to the garrison,
so that every preparation was made against a sur-
prise ; two thirds of the men lay on their arms ; in
the upper town, Carleton and others not on duty slept
in their clothes ; in the lower, volunteer pickets kept
watch ; and they all wished ardently that the adven-
turous attempt might not be delayed.

The night of the twenty sixth was clear, and so
cold that no man could handle his arms or scale a
wall. The evening of the twenty seventh was hazy,
and the troops were put in motion ; but as the sky
soon cleared up, the general, who was tender of their
lives, called them back, choosing to wait for the shel-
ter of a favorable night, that is, for a night of clouds
and darkness with a storm of wind and snow.

For the next days the air was serene, and a mild
•westerly wind brightened the sky. On the thirtieth
a snow storm from the northeast set in. But a few
hours more of the old year remained, and with it the
engagement of many of his troops would expire;
Montgomery must act now, or resign the hope of
crowning his career by the capture of Quebec. Or-
ders were therefore given for the troops to be ready
at two o'clock of the following morning; and that
they might recognise one another, each soldier wore
in his cap a piece of white paper, on which some of
them wrote: "LIBERTY OR DEATH."

It was Montgomery's plan to alarm the garrison
VOL. TIII. 18

206 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, at once, along the whole line of their defences.

— v— Colonel James Livingston, with less than two hun-
dred Canadians, was to attract attention by appear-
ing before St. John's gate, on the southwest ; while a
company of Americans under Brown was to feign a
movement on Cape Diamond, where the wall faces
south by west, and from that high ground, at the
proper time, were to fire a rocket, as the signal for
beginning the real attacks on the lower town, under
Arnold from the west and north, under Montgomery
from the south and east.

The general, who reserved for his own party less
than three hundred Yorkers, led them in Indian file
from head quarters at Holland House to Wolfe's
Cove, and then about two miles further along the
shore. The path was so rough that in several places
they were obliged to scramble up slant rocks covered
with two feet of snow, and then, with a precipice on
their right, to descend by sliding down fifteen or
twenty feet. The wind, which was at east by north,
blew furiously in their faces, with cutting hail, which
the eye could not endure ; their constant step wore
the frozen snow into little lumps of ice, so that the
men were fatigued by their struggles not to fall, and
they could not keep their arms dry.

The signal from Cape Diamond being given more
than half an hour too soon, the general with his aide-
de-camps, Macpherson and Burr, pushed on with the
front, composed of Cheesman's company and Mott's ;
and more than half an hour before day they arrived
at the first barrier, with the guides and carpenters.
The rest of the party lagged behind ; and the ladders
were not within half a mile. Montgomery and Chees-

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 207

man were the first that entered the undefended bar- CHAP.
rier, passing on between the rock and the pickets ^r— -
which the carpenters began to saw and wrench away. iffs.
While a message was sent back to hurry up the troops,
Montgomery went forward to observe the path be-
fore him. It was a very narrow defile, falling away
to the river precipitously on the one side, and shut
in by the scarped rock and overhanging cliff on the
other, so that not more than five or six persons could
walk abreast ; a house built of logs and extending
on the south nearly to the river, with loopholes for
musketry and a battery of two three-pounders, in-
tercepted the passage. It was held by a party con-
sisting of thirty Canadian and eight British militia-
men under John Coffin, with nine seamen under Barns-
fare, the master of a transport, as cannoniers. The
general listened, and heard no sound ; and it was after-
wards thought that the guard was not on the alert ;
but lights from lanterns on the plains of Abraham, as
well as the signal rockets, had given the alarm ; and at
daybreak, through the storm, the body of troops was
seen in full march from Wolfe's Cove. At their ap-
proach to the barrier, " a part of the guard was scared
with a panic ;" but Coffin, who during the siege " had
never missed an hour's duty," restored order, and
the sailors stood at their guns with lighted linstocks.
Montgomery waited till about sixty men had
joined him inside of the row of pickets; then exclaim-
ing, " Men of New York, you will not fear to follow
where your general leads ; push on, brave boys ; Que.
bee is ours ! " he pressed forward at double quick time
to carry the battery. As he appeared on a little
rising in the ground, at a distance of fifty yards or less
from the mouths of the cannon, which were loaded

208 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, with grapeshot, Barnsfare discharged them with dead-
*^~^ ly aim. Montgomery, his aid Macpherson, the young
1 775. and gallant Cheesman, and ten others, instantly fell
dead ; Montgomery from three wounds. With him
the soul of the expedition fled. Mott was eager
to go forward ; but some of the men complained that
their arms were wet ; one or more of the officers
thought nothing further could be attempted with
wearied troops and no arm but the bayonet ; fireballs
were thrown by the enemy to light up the scene ; their
musketeers began to fire from the loopholes of the
blockhouse ; and Donald Campbell, who assumed the
command of the Yorkers, encountered the reproach
of ordering an immediate retreat, which was effected
without further loss.

On the northeastern side of the lower town,
Arnold led the forlorn hope, which consisted of more
than twice as many troops as followed Montgomery.
The path along the St. Charles had been narrowed by
masses of ice thrown up from the river ; and the bat-
tery by which it was commanded might have raked
every inch of it with grape shot, while their flank was
exposed to musketry from the walls. As they reached
Palace Gate, the bells of the city were rung, the
drums beat a general alarm, and the cannon began to
play. The Americans ran along in single file, hold-
ing down their heads on 'account of the storm, and
covering their guns with their coats. Lamb and his
company of artillery followed with a fieldpiece on a
sled; the fieldpiece was soon abandoned, but he and
his men took part in the assault.

The first barricade was at the Sault au Matelot, a
jutting rock which left little space between the river

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 209

beach and the precipice. Near this spot Arnold CHAP.
was severely wounded in the leg by a musket ball — ^
and carried off disabled; but Morgan's men, who
formed the van, rushed forward to the portholes and
fired into them, while others, Charles Porterfield the
first, Morgan himself the second, mounted by ladders,
carried the battery, and took its captain and guard
prisoners. But Morgan was at first followed only by
his own company and a few Pennsylvanians. It was
still very dark ; he had no guide ; and he knew
nothing of the defences of the town. The cold was
extreme ; so that the men were hoar with icicles.
Their muskets were made useless by the storm. The
glow of attack began to subside, and the danger of
their position to appear. They were soon joined by
Greene, Bigelow, and Meigs, so that there were at least
two hundred Americans in the town; and they all
fearlessly pressed on in the narrow way to the second
barricade, at the eastern extremity of Sault au Matelot
street, where the defences extended from the rock to
the river. Under the direction of Greene, heroic efforts
were made to carry them. With a voice louder than
the northeast gale, Morgan cheered on his riflemen ;
but though Heth and Porterfield and a few others in
the front files ascended the scaling ladders, it was
only to see on the other side rows of troops prepared
to receive them on hedges of bayonets if they had
leaped down. Here was the greatest loss of life;
some of the American officers fell ; others received
several balls in their clothes ; and the assailants, of
whose arms nine out of ten had been rendered useless
by the storm, were exposed in the narrow street to a
heavy fire from houses on both sides. A retreat was

VOL. VIII. 18*

210 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, thought of; but the moment for it soon went by ;
' — ^ though some few escaped, passing over the shoal ice
1775. on the St. Charles. Near daylight, about two hun-
dred of the Americans withdrew from the streets,
and found shelter in houses of stone, from which they
could fire with better effect. It was then that Hen-
dricks, while aiming his rifle, was shot through the
heart. But the retreat of Campbell, and the cer-
tainty that the other attacks were only feints, left
Carleton free to concentrate all his force against the
party of Arnold. By his orders a sally was now
made from Palace Gate, in the rear of the Americans,
by Captain Laws, with two hundred men; they found
Dearborn's company divided into two parties, each of
which successively surrendered; and then the rem-
nant of the assailants, "the flower of the rebel army,"
" was cooped up " within the town. Morgan pro-
posed that they should cut their way through their
enemies ; but retreat had become impracticable ; and
after maintaining the struggle till the last hope was
gone, at ten o'clock they surrendered. Thus Greene,
Meigs, Morgan, Hendricks, the hardy men who had
passed the wilderness with purposes of conquest, made
for themselves a heroic name, but found their way
only to death or a prison. To the captives Carleton
proved a humane and generous enemy. The loss of
the British was inconsiderable ; that of the Americans,
in killed or wounded, was about sixty; in prisoners,
between three and four hundred.

When the battle was over, thirteen bodies were
found at the place now known as Pres-de-Ville. The
body of Cheesman, whose career had been a brief but
gallant one, had fallen over the rocks. In the path-

THE SIEGE OF QUEBEC. 211

way lay Macpherson, a youth, as spotless as the new- CHAP.
fallen snow which was his winding sheet ; full of genius ^^^
for war, lovely in temper, honored by the affection 1175>
and confidence of his chief ; dear to the army, leaving
not his like behind him. There, too, by his side, lay
Richard Montgomery, on the spot where he fell. At
his death he was in the first month of his fortieth
year. He was tall and slender, well limbed, of a
graceful address, and a strong and active frame. He
could endure fatigue, and all changes and severities of
climate. His judgment was cool, though he kindled
in action, imparting confidence and sympathetic cour-
age. Never himself negligent of duty, never avoiding
danger, discriminating and energetic, he had the
power of conducting freemen by their voluntary love
and esteem. An experienced soldier, he was also well
versed in letters, particularly in natural science. In
private life he was a good husband, brother, and son,
an amiable and faithful friend. The rectitude of his
heart shone forth in his actions, which were habitual] y
and unaffectedly directed by a nice moral sense. He
overcame difficulties which others shunned to encoun-
ter. Foes and friends paid tribute to his worth. The
governor, lieutenant governor, and council of Quebec,
and all the principal officers of the garrison, buried
him and his aide-de-camp, Macpherson, with the
honors of war.

At the news of his death " the whole city of Phil-
adelphia was in tears ; every person seemed to have
lost his nearest relative or heart friend." Congress
proclaimed for him "their grateful remembrance,
profound respect, and high veneration ; and desiring

212

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

°LIVP' to transmft to future ages a truly worthy example of
— ^ patriotism, conduct, boldness of enterprise, insuper-
able perseverance, and contempt of danger and
death," they reared a marble monument "to the glory
of Richard Montgomery."

In the British parliament, the great defenders of
liberty vied with each other in his praise. Barre,
his veteran fellow-soldier in the late war, wept pro-
fusely as he expatiated on their fast friendship and
participation of service in that season of enter-
prise and glory, and holding up the British com-
manders in review, pronounced a glowing tribute to
his superior merits. Edmund Burke contrasted the
condition of the eight thousand men, starved, dis-
graced, and shut up within the single town of Boston,
with the movements of the hero who in one cam-
paign had conquered two thirds of Canada. " I," re-
plied North, " cannot join in lamenting the death of
Montgomery as a public loss. He was brave, he was
able, he was humane, he was generous ; but still he
was only a brave, able, humane, and generous rebel.
Curse on his virtues, they've undone his country.51
" The term of rebel," retorted Fox, " is no certain
mark of disgrace. All the great assertors of liberty,
the saviors of their country, the benefactors of man-
kind in all ages, have been called rebels. We owe
the constitution which enables us to sit in this house
to a rebellion."

So passed away the spirit of Montgomery, with
the love of all that knew him, the grief of the nascent
republic, and the eulogies of the world.

CHAPTER LV.

THE ROYAL GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA INVITES THE SERV-
ANTS AND SLAVES TO RISE AGAINST THEIR MASTERS.

NOVEMBER — DECEMBER,

THE central colonies still sighed for reconciliation;
the tories and the timid were waiting for conirnis- '
si oners; the credit of the continental paper money -Deo.'
languished and declined ; the general congress in De-
cember, while they answered the royal proclamation
of August by threats of retaliation, and a scornful
rejection of allegiance to parliament, professed alle-
giance to the king, and distinguished between their
" resistance to tyranny " and " rebellion ; " but all
the while a steady current drifted the country to-
wards independence. In New Jersey, the regular
colonial assembly, which was still kept in existence,
granted the usual annual support of the royal gov-
ernment. On the fifth of December they resolved
themselves into a committee of the whole, to consider
the draft of a separate address to the king ; but as
that mode of action tended to divide and insulate he

214 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, provinces, Dickinson, Jay, and Wythe were sent by
^-^ the general congress to Burlington, to dissuade from
!775. the measure. Admitted to the assembly, Dickinson,
who still refused to believe that no heed would be
taken of the petition delivered by Richard Penn, ex-
cused the silence of the king, and bade them wait to
find an answer in the conduct of parliament and the
administration. " After Americans were put to death
without cause at Lexington," said he, "had the new
continental congress drawn the sword and thrown
away the scabbard, all lovers of liberty would have
applauded. To convince Britain that we will fight,
an army has been formed, and Canada invaded. Suc-
cess attends us everywhere ; the savages who were to
«/

have been let loose to murder our wives and children
are our friends ; the Canadians fight in our cause ; and
Canada, from whence armies were to overrun us, is
conquered in as few months as it took Britain years ;
so that we have nothing to fear but from Europe,
which is three thousand miles distant. Until this
controversy, the strength and importance of our
country was not known ; united it cannot be con-
quered. The nations of Europe look with jealous eyes
on the struggle ; should Britain be unsuccessful in
the next campaign, France will not sit still. Nothing
but unity and bravery will bring Britain to terms:
she wants to procure separate petitions, which we
should avoid, for they would break our union, and
we should become a rope of sand : rest, then, on your
former noble petition, and on that of United Amer-
ica." "We have nothing to expect from the mercy
or justice of Britain," argued Jay ; " vigor and una-
nimity, not petitions, are our only means of safety."

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 215

Wythe of Virginia spoke for a few minutes to the
same purpose, and the well-disposed assembly of New ^
Jersey conformed to their joint advice. Dec/

Simultaneously with the intrigues to allure New
Jersey into a separate system, Tryon, who, since the
thirtieth of October had had his quarters on board
the armed ship Dutchess of Gordon, in New York
harbor, recommended a similar policy to the inhabit-
ants of New York ; but William Smith, the histo-
rian, who busied himself with opening the plan pri-
vately to members of the provincial congress, met
with the most signal rebuke. Roused by the insidious
proposal, the New York convention, while it disclaimed
the desire to become independent, attributed the exist-
ing discontent to the hostile attempts of the ministry
to execute oppressive acts of the British parliament,
designed for enslaving the American colonies ; on
the motion of John Morin Scott, they rejected the
thought of "a separate declaration as inconsistent
with the glorious plan of American union ; " on mo-
tion of Macdougall, they confirmed the deliberative
powers of the continental congress ; and they per-
fected their organization by establishing a committee
of safety with full executive powers within the col-
ony. The king would receive no communications
from the general congress, and all separate overtures
were at an end.

Meantime France and the thirteen colonies were
mutually attracted towards each other ; and it is not
easy to decide which of them made the first movement
towards an intercourse. The continental congress in
December voted to build thirteen ships of war, thus
founding a navy, which was to be governed by a ma-

216 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, rine committee, consisting of one member from each
— r— - colony; yet as they still would not open their ports,
1£75> they were in no condition to solicit an alliance. But
Dumas, a Swiss by birth, a resident inhabitant of
Holland, the liberal editor of Vattel's work on in-
ternational law, had written to Franklin, his personal
friend, that " all Europe wished the Americans the
best success in the maintenance of their liberty : " on
the twelfth of December the congressional committee
of secret correspondence authorised Arthur Lee, who
was then in London, to ascertain the disposition of
foreign powers; and Dumas, at the Hague, was
charged with a similar commission.

Just then De Bonvouloir, the discreet emissary
of Vergennes, arrived in Philadelphia, and through
Francis Daymon, a Frenchman, the trusty librarian
of the Library Company in that city, was intro-
duced to Franklin and the other members of the
secret committee, with whom he held several confer-
ences by night. " Will France aid us ? and at what
price ? " were the questions put to him. " France,''
answered he, u is well disposed to you ; if she should
give you aid, as she may, it will be on just and
equitable conditions. Make your proposals, and I
will present them." " "Will it be prudent for us to
send over a plenipotentiary?" asked the commit-
tee. " That," replied he, " would be precipitate and
even hazardous, for what passes in France is known
in London; but if you will give me any thing in
charge, I may receive answers well suited to guide
your conduct ; although I can guarantee nothing ex-
cept that your confidence will not be betrayed.''
From repeated interviews De Bonvouloir obtained

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 217

such just views, that his report to the French minis- CHAP.
ter, though confusedly written, is in substance exact. — ^~
He explained that "the Americans hesitated about a 1I75-
declaration of independence, and an appeal to France ;
that the British king had not as yet done them evil
enough ; that they still waited to have more of their
towns destroyed and more of their houses burned, be-
fore they would completely abhor the emblems of
British power ; that a brig was despatched to Nantes
for munitions of war, and an arrangement made for
purchasing the same articles of France by way of St.
Domingo ; that skilful engineers were much wanted ;
that everybody in the colonies appeared to have
turned soldier ; that they had given up the English
flag, and had taken for their devices, a rattlesnake
with thirteen rattles, and a mailed arm holding thir-
teen arrows."

The communications of the French agent to the
secret committee were not without influence on the
proceedings of congress ; in France his letters were to
form the subject of the most momentous deliberation
which had engaged the attention of a French king
for two centuries.

Some foreign commerce was required for the con-
tinuance of the war ; the Americans had no magazine
to replenish their little store of powder, no arsenal
to furnish arms ; their best dependence was on prizes,
made under the pine-tree flag by the brave Manly
and others who cruised in armed ships with commis-
sions from Washington; even flints were obtained
only from captured storeships ; and it was necessary
to fetch cannon from Ticonderoga. The men who
enlisted for the coming year, were desired to bring
TOL. vni. 19

218 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, their own arms ; those whose time expired, were com-
*—« — pelled to part with theirs at a valuation ; for blankets
^e general appealed to the families of New England,
asking one or more of every household ; the villages,
in their town meetings, encouraged the supply of
wood to the camp by voting a bounty from the town
treasuries.

The enlistments for the new army went on slowly,
for the New England men, willing to drive the enemy
from Boston, were disinclined to engagements which
would take them far from home, on wages paid in a
constantly depreciating currency: besides, the con-
tinental bills were remitted so tardily and in such
inadequate amounts that even those wages were not
paid with regularity ; and the negligence threatened
" the destruction of the army." For want of funds
to answer the accounts of the commissary and quar-
termaster, the troops were forced to submit to a
reduced allowance. Washington himself felt keenly
the habitual inattention of congress and its agents ;
and the sense of suffering wrongfully and needlessly,
engendered discontent in his camp. He would have
had the whole army like himself rise superior to every
hardship ; and when there were complaints of un-
fulfilled engagements, angry bickerings about unad-
justed dues, or demands for the computation of pay
by lunar months, he grieved that the New England
men should mar the beauty of their self-sacrificing pa-
triotism by persistent eagerness for petty gains.

The Connecticut soldiers, whose enlistment ex-
pired early in December, were determined to leave
the service. They were entreated to remain till the
end of the year, and were ordered to remain at least

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 219

for ten days, when they should be relieved ; Leon- CHAP.
ard, one of their chaplains, preached to them on the ^— ^
duty of courage and subordination; nevertheless 1^Jc5-
many of " the Connecticut gentry " made the best of
their way to their own firesides; some with their
arms and ammunition. Washington would have had

o

Trumbull make an example of the deserters. Trum-
bull answered : u The pulse of a New England man
beats high for liberty; his engagement in the service
he thinks purely voluntary ; when the time of enlist-
ment is out, he thinks himself not further holden : this
is the genius and spirit of our people." But the inhab-
itants along their homeward road expressed abhorrence
at their quitting the army, and would scarcely furnish
them with provisions ; and the rebuke they met with
in their towns, drove many of them back to the camp.
Others in Connecticut volunteered to take the places
of those who withdrew ; but Washington had, through
the colonial governments, already called out three
thousand men from the militia of Massachusetts, and
two thousand from New Hampshire, who repaired to
the camp with celerity, and cheerfully braved "the
want of wood, barracks, and blankets." In this man-
ner, with little aid from the general congress, Wash-
ington continued the siege of Boston, and enlisted a
new army for the following year, as well as could be
done without money in the treasury, or powder or
arms in store. His ceaseless vigilance guarded against
every danger; the fortifications were extended to
Lechmere's Point ; and every possible landing place
for a sallying party from Boston was secured by in-
trenchments.

The press of New England avowed more and

220 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, more distinctly the general expectation that America
^v~^ would soon form itself into a republic of united colo-
1775. nies. Such was become the prevailing desire of the
army, although Lee still hoped to act a part in bring-
ing about a reconcilement through a change of the
British ministry. This is the real purport of an elab-
orate letter addressed by him to Burgoyne, who was
about to sail for England ; for which he excused him-
self to an American friend by saying : " I am convinced
that you have not virtue enough for independence,
nor do I think it calculated for your happiness ;
besides, I have some remaining prejudices as an
Englishman."

In December, Lee left the camp for ten days to
inspect the harbor of Newport, and plan works for
its defence. His visit, which had no permanent effect,
was chiefly remarkable for his arbitrary conduct in
"administering a very strong oath to some of the
leading tories." After his departure the British ves-
sels of war plundered the islands in Narragansett bay
as before.

Meantime Dunmore, driven from the land of
Virginia, maintained the command of the water by
means of a flotilla, composed of the Mercury of
twenty four guns, the Kingfisher of sixteen, the Otter
of fourteen, with other ships, and light vessels, and
tenders, which he had engaged in the king's service.
At Norfolk, a town of about six thousand inhabitants,
a newspaper was published by John Holt. About
noon on the last day of September, Dunmore, finding
fault with its favoring "sedition and rebellion," sent
on shore a small party, who, meeting no resistance,
seized and brought off two printers and all the

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 221

materials of a printing office, so that lie could publish CHAP.
from his ship a gazette on the side of the king. The «. — ^
outrage, as we shall see, produced retaliation. 1775.

In October, Dunmore repeatedly landed detach-
ments to seize arms wherever he could find them.
Thus far Virginia had not resisted the British by
force; the war began in that colony with the de-
fence of Hampton, a small village at the end of the
isthmus between York and James Rivers. An
armed sloop had been driven on its shore in a very
violent gale ; its people took out of her six swivels and
other stores, made some of her men prisoners, and
then set her on fire. Dunmore blockaded the port ;
they called to their assistance a company of " shirt
men," as the British called the Virginia regulars
from the hunting shirt which was their uniform, and
another company of minute men, besides a body of
militia.

On the twenty sixth Dunmore sent some of the
tenders close into Hampton Roads to destroy the
town. The guard marched out to repel them, and
the moment they came within gunshot, George Nich-
olas, who commanded the Virginians, fired his musket
at one of the tenders. It was the first gun fired in
Virginia against the British : his example was fol-
lowed by his party. Retarded by boats which had
been sunk across the channel, the British on that day
vainly attempted to land. In the following night the
Culpepper riflemen were despatched to the aid of
Hampton, and William Woodford, colonel of the
second regiment of Virginia, second in rank to Pat-
rick Henry, was sent by the committee of safety from
"Willianisburg to take the direction. The next day

VOL. VIII. 19*

222 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, the British, having cut their way through the sunken
— , — boats, renewed the attack ; but the riflemen poured
10?t5' UP°n ^em a heavy fire> killing a few and wound-
ing more. One of the tenders was taken with its ar-
mament and seven seamen ; the rest were with dif-
ficulty towed out of the creek. The Virginians lost
not a man. This is the first battle of the revolution
in the Ancient Dominion • and its honors belonged to
the Virginians.

Nov. While yet a prey to passion after this repulse,
Dunmore was informed that a hundred and twenty or
thirty North Carolina rebels were marching into the
colony to occupy the Great Bridge, which, at a dis-
tance of nine or ten miles from Norfolk, crossed the
Elizabeth river. It rested on each side upon firm
dry ground, which rose like islands above the wide
spreading morasses, and could be approached* only
by causeways ; so that it formed a very strong pass,
protecting the approach to Norfolk by land from
the county of Princess Anne and from a part of the
county of Norfolk. He had twice received detach-
ments from the fourteenth regiment, which had been
stationed at St. Augustine : collecting all of them who
were able to do duty, and attended by volunteers
from Norfolk, Dunmore on the fourteenth of Novem-
ber hastened to the Great Bridge. Finding no Caro-
linians, he marched rapidly to disperse a body of mi-
litia who were assembled at Kemp's Landing, in Prin-
cess Anne. They lay in an ambuscade to receive him,
and fired upon his party from a thicket ; but being in-
ferior in numbers, in discipline, and in arms, they soon
fled, panic struck and in confusion, leaving their com-
mander and six others as prisoners. On his return, he

DUNMOKE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 223

ordered a fort to be built at the Great Bridge on the CHAP.
side nearest Norfolk. ^v-^

Encouraged by "this most trifling success," Dun- 1775.
more raised the king's flag, and publishing a procla-
mation which he had signed on the seventh, he estab-
lished martial law, required every person capable of
bearing arms to resort to his standard, under penalty
of forfeiture of life and property, and declared free-
dom to " all indented servants, negroes, or others, ap-
pertaining to rebels," if they would "join for the re-
ducing the colony to a proper sense of its duty."
The effect of this invitation to convicts and slaves to
rise against their masters was not limited to their
ability to serve in the army : "I hope," said Dun-
more, " it will oblige the rebels to disperse to take
care of their families and property." The men to
whose passions he appealed were either criminals,
bound to labor in expiation of their misdeeds, or bar-
barians, some of them freshly imported from Africa,
with tropical passions seething in their veins, and
frames rendered strong by abundant food and out of
door toil ; they formed the majority of the popula-
tion on tide-water, and were distributed among the
lonely plantations in clusters around the wives and
children of their owners ; so that danger lurked in
every home. The measure was a very deliberate act
which had been reported in advance to the ministry,
and had appeared an " encouraging " one to the king;
it formed a part of a system which Dunmore had
concerted with General Gage and General Howe.
He also sent for the small detachment of regulars sta-
tioned in Illinois and the northwest; he commissioned
Mackee, a deputy superintendent, to raise a regiment

224 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of Indians among the savages of Ohio and the west-
^-v-^ ern border ; he authorized John Connolly to raise a
1775. regiment in the backwoods of Virginia and Pennsyl-
vania ; and he directed these different bodies to march
to Alexandria. At the same time he was himself to
" raise two regiments, one of white people, to be called
the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia regiment ; the other
of negroes, to be called Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian
regiment." Connolly was arrested in Maryland in
November ; and thus the movements at the west were
prevented.

At Dunmore's proclamation a thrill of indignation
ran through Virginia, effacing all differences of party ;
and rousing one strong impassioned purpose to drive
away the insolent power by which it had been put
forth. Instead of a regiment on the king's side from
the backwoods, William Campbell and Gibson were
on the march from Fincastle and West Augusta, with
patriotic rifle companies, composed of " as fine men as
ever were seen." In the valley of the Blue Ridge
the different congregations of Germans, quickened by
the preaching of Muhlenburg, were animated with one
heart, and stood ready at the first summons to take up
arms for the defence of the men of the low country,
regardless of their different lineage and tongue.

The general congress promptly invited Virginia,
as it had invited New Hampshire and South Carolina,
to institute a government of her own ; and this was of
the greater moment, because she was first in wealth,
and numbers, and extent of territory.

" If that man is not crushed before spring," wrote
Washington of Dunmore, " he will become the most
formidable enemy of America. Motives of resent-

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 225

ment actuate his conduct to a degree equal to the CHAP.
total destruction of Virginia. His strength will in-
crease as a snowball by rolling, and faster, if some
expedient cannot be hit upon to convince the slaves
and servants of the impotency of his designs." The
Virginians could plead and did plead that "their
assemblies had repeatedly attempted to prevent the
horrid traffic in slaves, and had been frustrated by
the cruelty and covetousness of English merchants,
who prevailed on the king to repeal their merciful
acts ; that the English encouraged and upheld slavery,
while the present masters of negroes in Virginia
pitied their condition, wished in general to make it
easy and comfortable, and would willingly not only
prevent any more negroes from losing their freedom,
but restore it to such as had already unhappily lost
it ;" and they foresaw that whatever they themselves
might suffer from a rising, the weight of sorrow would
fall on the insurgent slaves themselves.

But, in truth, the cry of Dunmore did not rouse
among the Africans a passion for freedom. To them
bondage in Virginia was not a lower condition of be-
ing than their former one ; they had no regrets for
ancient privileges lost ; their memories prompted no
demand for political changes ; no struggling aspira-
tions of their own had invited Dunmore's interpo-
sition ; no memorial of their grievances had preceded
his offers. What might have been accomplished, had
he been master of the country, and had used an un-
disputed possession to embody and train the negroes,
cannot be told ; but as it was, though he boasted that
they flocked to his standard, none combined to join
him from a longing for an improved condition or even
from ill will to their masters.

226 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. The innumerable affinities which had united the
v^v-^ people with the British government, still retained
1775. great force; a vague dread of taking up arms against
their sovereign pervaded the mind of the common
people ; none had as yet renounced allegiance ; after
the success at Kemp's Landing, nearly a hundred of
the men who were in the field the day before, came
in and took the oath of allegiance which Dunmore
had framed; and in the following three weeks it was
accepted by nearly three thousand : but of these less
than three or four hundred could bear arms, of
which not half so many knew the use. Norfolk was
almost entirely deserted by native Virginians, and
was become the refuge of the Scotch, who, as the fac-
tors of Glasgow merchants, had long regulated the
commercial exchanges of the colony. Loyal to the
crown, they were now embodied as the militia of Nor-
folk. The patriots resolved to take the place.

On the twenty eighth of November the Virginian
forces under Woodford, consisting of his own regi-
ment and five companies of the Culpepper minute-
men, with whom John Marshall, afterwards chief
justice of the United States, served as a lieutenant,
marched to the Great Bridge, and threw up a breast-
work on the side opposite to the British fort. They
had no arms but the musket and the rifle ; the fort
was strong enough to withstand musket-shot ; they
therefore made many attempts to cross the branch on
a raft, that they might attack their enemy in the rear;
but they were always repulsed. Should the fort be
given up, the road to Norfolk was open to the victors ;
in the dilemma between his weakness and his danger,
Dunmore resolved to risk an attempt to fall on the

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 227

Virginians by surprise. . On Friday, the eighth of De- CHAP.
cember, after dark, he sent about two hundred men, — ^~
composed of all that had arrived of the fourteenth
regiment, and of officers, sailors, and gunners from the
ships, mixed with townsmen of Norfolk. They ar-
rived at the Great Bridge in the night, and halted for
rest and refreshment. The Virginians could be ap-
proached only over a causeway of about one hundred
and sixty yards in length, at the end of which was
their breastwork. After the break of day, and be-
fore sunrise, Leslie planted two fieldpieces between
the bridge and the causeway, and gave orders for the
attack ; but the Virginians had just beat the reveille ;
and at the first discharge of the cannon, the bravest
of them, unmindful of order, rushed to the trenches.
The regulars, about one hundred and twenty in num-
ber, led by Fordyce, a captain in the fourteenth, were
met on the causeway by a well-directed fire ; while Ste-
vens, with a party of the Culpepper minute men, posted
on an eminence about a hundred yards to the left, took
them in flank : they wavered ; Fordyce, with a courage
which was the admiration of all beholders, rallied and
led them on, when, struck with many rifle-balls, some
say fourteen, he staggered and fell dead, within a few
steps of the breastwork, or according to one account,
having had his hand upon it. The two companies of
negroes kept out of the way ; so did the loyalists of
Norfolk ; the regulars displayed the conduct of the
bravest veterans ; but discouraged by the fall of their
leader, and disabled by the incessant fire of the Amer-
ican sharpshooters, they retreated, after a struggle of
about fourteen minutes, losing at least sixty-one in
killed and wounded.

228 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. After the firing was over, the Virginians, who lost
— . — not one man, and had but one slightly wounded, ran
*° bring in those of their enemies who needed the sur-
geon's aid. " For God's sake, don't murder us," cried
one of the sufferers who had been taught to fear the
scalpingknife. " Put your arm round my neck," re-
plied the Virginian, lifting him up, and walking
with him slowly and carefully to the breastwork.
When Leslie saw two of the " shirtmen " tenderly re-
moving a wounded soldier from the bridge, he stepped
upon the platform of "the fort, and bowing with great
respect thanked them for their compassion. Fordyce
was buried by the Virginians with all the honors due
from a generous enemy to his unsurpassed gallantry.
A rash adviser urged Woodford to attack the fort
with muskets alone ; but Pendleton had charged him
" to risk the success of his arms as little as possible ; "
and he wisely put aside the proposal.

In the following night, Leslie, dejected by the loss
of his nephew in the fight, abandoned the fort and
retreated to Norfolk. Nothing could exceed the con-
sternation of its Scotch inhabitants : rich factors with
their wives and children, leaving their large property
behind, betook themselves on board ship, in midwin-
ter, with scarcely the necessaries of life. Crowds of
poor people and the runaway negroes were huddled
together in the ships of war and other vessels, desti-
tute of every comfort and even of pure air.

On the eleventh, Robert Howe, of North Caro-
lina arrived at the Great Bridge, and on the four-
teenth he, as the higher officer, took possession of
Norfolk. On the twenty first the Liverpool ship of
war and the brig Maria were piloted into the harbor.

DUNMORE'S JUBILEE TO CONVICTS AND SLAVES. 229

They brought three thousand stand of arms, with CHAP.
which Dunmore had promised to embody negroes — r—
and Indians enough to reduce all Virginia to submis-
sion. Martin of North Carolina despatched a tender
to claim his part of the arms, and a thousand were
made over to him.

The governor sent a flag of truce on shore to in-
quire if he and the fleet might be supplied with fresh
provisions ; and was answered in the negative. Show-
ing his instructions to Belew, the captain of the Liver-
pool, who now commanded the king's ships in the
Chesapeake, the two concurred in opinion, that Nor-
folk was ua town in actual rebellion, accessible to
the king's ships ;" and they prepared to carry out the
king's instructions for such " a case."

TOL. VIII. 20

CHAPTER LVI.

THE NEW TEAE. 1776.

JANUARY, 1776.

CHAP. NEW-YEAR'S day, 1776, was the saddest day that
"—^ ever broke on the women and children then in Nor-
^°^' Warned of their danger by the commander of
the squadron, there was for them no refuge. The
King Fisher was stationed at the upper end of Nor-
folk; a little below her the Otter; Belew, in the
Liverpool, anchored near the middle of the town ;
and next him lay Dunmore ; the rest of the fleet was
moored in the harbor. Between three and four in
the afternoon the Liverpool opened its fire upon the
borough; the other ships immediately followed his
example, and a severe cannonade was begun from
about sixty pieces of cannon. Dunmore then himself,
as night was coming on, ordered out several boats to
burn warehouses on the wharfs; and hailed to Belew
to set fire to a large brig which lay in the dock. All
the vessels of the fleet, to show their zeal, sent great
numbers of boats on shore to assist in spreading the

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 231

flames along the river; and as the buildings were CHAP
chiefly of pine wood, the conflagration, favored by
the wind, spread with amazing rapidity, and soon
became general. Women and children, mothers with
little ones in their arms, were seen by the glare, run-
ning through the shower of cannonballs to get out of
their range. Two or three persons were hit ; and the
scene became one of extreme horror and confusion.
Several times the British attempted to land, and once
to bring cannon into a street ; but they were driven
back by the spirit and conduct of the Americans.
The cannonade did not abate till ten at night ; after
a short pause it was renewed, but with less fury, and
was kept up till two the next morning. The flames,
which had made their way from street to street,
raged for three days, till four fifths, or, as some com-
puted, nine tenths, of the houses were reduced to
ashes and heaps of ruins.

In this manner the royal governor burned and laid
waste the best town in the oldest and most loyal colony
of England, to which Elizabeth had given a name, and
Raleigh devoted his fortune, and Shakespeare and
Bacon and Herbert foretokened greatness ; a colony
where the people of themselves had established the
church of England, and where many were still proud
that their ancestors, in the day of the British com-
monwealth, had been faithful to the line of kings.
On second thought, Dunmore feared he had done too
much, and he insinuated that the " great number of
boats " from his fleet had set fire only to the buildings
nearest the water : but a fire kindled in many places
along the outer row of houses built chiefly of pine,
could extend itself with irresistible fury. Who can

232 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP affirm or who can deny, that mischievous persons on
^ v— shore may not have found amusement in feeding the
1J76- flames? But the American commanders, Howe and

Woodford, certainly made every effort to arrest them ;

and troops without tents would hardly in midwinter

have burned down the houses that were their onlv

»/

shelter.

"When Washington learned the fate of the rich
emporium of his own " country," for so he called Vir-
ginia, his breast heaved with waves of anger and
grief; "I hope,'1 said he, "this, and the threatened
devastation of other places, will unite the whole
country in one indissoluble band against a nation,
which seems lost to every sense of virtue and those
feelings which distinguish a civilized people from the
most barbarous savages."

On the first day of January, 17 7 6, the tri-colored
American banner, not yet spangled with stars, but
showing thirteen stripes of alternate red and white in
the field, and the united red and white crosses of
Saint George and Saint Andrew on a blue ground
in the corner, was unfurled over the new continental
army round Boston, which, at that moment of its
greatest weakness, consisted of but nine thousand six
hundred and fifty men.

On that day free negroes stood in the ranks by the
side of white men. In the beginning of the war they
had entered the provincial army: the first general or-
der, which was issued by Ward, had required a return,
among other things, of "the complexion" of the sol-
diers; and black men, like others, were retained in
the service after the troops were adopted by the con-

THE NEW TEAR. 1776. 233

tinent. We have seen Edward Kutledge defeated in CHAP.
his attempt to compel their discharge ; in October, ^^
the conference at the camp, with Fianklin, Harrison, ij?6-
and Lynch, thought it proper to exclude them from
the new enlistment ; but Washington, at the crisis of
his distress, finding that they were very much dis-
satisfied at being discarded, took the responsibility
of reversing the decision ; and referred the subject
to congress. That body appointed Wythe, Samuel
Adams, and Wilson, to deliberate on the question ;
and on the report of their able committee they
voted, "that the free negroes who had served faith-
fully in the army at Cambridge, might be reenlisted
therein, but no others." The right of free negroes
to take part in the defence of the country having
thus been definitively established by the competent
tribunal, they served in the ranks of the American
armies during every period of the war.

The enlistments were embarrassed by the low state
of Washington's military chest. He could neither pay
off the old army to the last of December, when their
term expired, nor give assurances for the punctual
pay of the militia. At one time in January he had
but about ten thousand dollars at Cambridge; and
that small sum was held in reserve. It would have
been good policy to have paid a large bounty and
engaged recruits for the war; but this measure con-
gress refused to warrant ; and it was left to the gov-
ernment of Massachusetts, with the aid of the rest of
New England, to keep up the numbers of the army
while it remained on her soil. For that end five
thousand of her militia were summoned to the field,
and they came with alacrity.
VOL. vm. 20*

234 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. " The amazing diligence " of Washington had done
^*~^ what history cannot parallel ; he had for six months
1776. together, without powder, maintained a post within
musket-shot of more than twenty hostile British
regiments; he had disbanded one army and re-
cruited another ; and was still without an adequate
number of troops, or a supply of ammunition; and
the arms of his soldiers were poor in quality and
insufficient in number. At such a moment he re-
ceived the special authority of congress to " attack
the troops in Boston, even though it should involve
the destruction of the town ; " and Hancock, who in-
dividually might be the greatest sufferer, wrote to
wish him success : yet the winter was so mild, that
there was no ice to pass on ; and for a bombardment
he was in want of powder; so that he was com-
pelled to disregard the recommendation, and to con-
ceal the cause of his inactivity. Yet he never ad-
mitted the thought of retiring from his post, al-
though the situation of his army gave him many a
wakeful hour when all around him were wrapped
in sleep ; and he often considered how much happier
would have been his lot, if, instead of accepting the
command, he had taken his musket on his shoulder
and entered the ranks. Sometimes his eye would
glance towards his lands on the Ohio ; " in the worst
event," said he, "they will serve for an asylum."
Could he have justified the measure to posterity and
his own conscience, he would gladly have retired at
once to the back woods, even though it had been to
live in a wigwam. If he had not consulted the public
good more than his own tranquillity, he would have
put every thing on the cast of a die, and forced a

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 235

battle at every disadvantage. The world gave him CHAP.
credit for an army of twenty thousand well armed — ^
men; and yet at the moment when Howe was receiv- ivve.
ing reenforcements, he had been left with less than
half that number, including the sick, those on fur-
lough, those on command, and those who were neither
properly armed nor clothed. " For more than two
months past," said he, "I have scarcely emerged from
one difficulty before I have been plunged into an-
other: how it will end, God in his great goodness
will direct ; I am thankful for his protection to this
time."

In June of the preceding year, when Lord North
communicated his proposition as the ultimatum of
British justice, he would have had it received as such
and would have acted accordingly ; on the echo from
England of the battle of Bunker Hill, he saw that
every hope of accommodation was delusive: the new
year brought the king's speech to parliament in No-
vember, and Washington no longer held back his
opinion that independence should be declared. Those
around him shared his resolution ; Greene wrote to
his friend Ward, a delegate from Rhode Island to
the general congress: "The interests of mankind
hang upon that body of which you are a member :
you stand the representative not of America only,
but of the friends of liberty and the supporters of the
rights of human nature in the whole world ; permit
me from the sincerity of my heart, ready at all times
to bleed in my country's cause, to recommend a decla-
ration of independence, and call upon the world and
the great God who governs it, to witness the neces-
sity, propriety, and rectitude thereof. The king," he

236 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, said further, "breathes revenge, and threatens us
— . — • with destruction; America must raise an empire of
1Jan6 Permanen^ Duration, supported upon the grand pillars
of truth, freedom, and religion."

The popular mind was more and more agitated
with a silent, meditative feeling of independence ; like
a jar highly charged with electricity, but insulated.
Their old affection for England remained paramount
till the king's proclamation declared them rebels;
then the new conviction demanded utterance ; and as
the debates in congress were secret, it had no outlet
but the press.

The writer who embodied in words the vague
longing of the country, mixed up with some crude
notions of his own, was Thomas Paine, a literary ad-
venturer, at that time a little under forty years of
age ; the son of a Quaker of Norfolk in England,
brought up in the faith of George Fox and Penn,
the only school in England where he could have
learned the principles which he was now to defend,
and which it seemed a part of his nature to assert.
He had been in America not much more than a year,
but in that time he had cultivated the society of
Franklin, Rittenhouse, Clymer, and Samuel Adams ;
his essay, when finished, was shown to Franklin, to
Rittenhouse, to Samuel Adams, and to Rush ; and Rush
gave it the title of COMMON SENSE.

"The design and end of government," it was
reasoned, "is freedom and security. In the early
ages of the world, mankind were equals in the order
of creation ; the heathen introduced government by
kings, which the will of the Almighty, as declared by
Gideon and the prophet Samuel, expressly disap-

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 237

proved. To the evil of monarchy we have added CHAP.
that of hereditary succession ; and as the first is a les- ^—
sening of ourselves, so the second might put posterity 1J76>
under the government of a rogue or a fool. Nature
disapproves it, otherwise she would not so frequently
turn it into ridicule. England, since the conquest,
hath known some few good monarchs, but groaned
beneath a much larger number of bad ones.

" The most plausible plea, which hath ever been
offered in favor of hereditary succession is, that it
preserves a nation from civil wars ; whereas the whole
history of England disowns the fact. Thirty kings
and two minors have reigned in that distracted king-
dom since the conquest, in which time there have
been no less than eight civil wars and nineteen rebel-
lions. In short, monarchy and succession have laid
not this kingdom only, but the world in blood and
ashes.

" The nearer any government approaches to a re-
public, the less business there is for a king ; in Eng-
land a king hath little more to do than to make war
and give away places.

" Volumes have been written on the struggle be-
tween England and America, but the period of de-
bate is closed. Arms must decide the contest; the
appeal was the choice of the king, and the continent
hath accepted the challenge.

" The sun never shone on a cause of greater worth.
'Tis not the affair of a city, a county, a province, or a
kingdom, but of a continent, of at least one eighth
part of the habitable globe. 'Tis not the concern of
a day, a year, or an age ; posterity are virtually in-
volved in it even to the end of time.

238 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. " But Great Britain has protected us, say some.
— r^ She did not protect us from our enemies on our ac-
ll76- count, but from her enemies on her own account.

Jan.

America would have nourished as much, and probably
more, had no European power had any thing to do
with governing her. • France and Spain never were,
nor perhaps ever will be, our enemies as Americans,
but as the subjects of Great Britain.

" Britain is the parent country, say some ; then the
more shame upon her conduct. But Europe, and not
England, is the parent country of America : this new
world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers
of civil and religious liberty from every part of
Europe ; we claim brotherhood with every European
Christian, and triumph in the generosity of the senti-
ment. Not one third of the inhabitants, even of this
province, are of English descent. The phrase of pa-
rent or mother country applied to England only, is
false, selfish, narrow and ungenerous ; but admitting
that we were all of English descent, Britain, being
now an open enemy, extinguishes every other name.

" Much hath been said of the united strength of
Britain and the colonies, that in conjunction they
might bid defiance to the world. What have we to
do with setting the world at defiance ? Our plan is
commerce, and that, well attended to, will secure us
the friendship of all Europe. I challenge the warm-
est advocate for reconciliation to show a single advan-
tage that this continent can reap by being connected
with Great Britain.

" As Europe is our market for trade, we ought to
form no partial connection with any part of it. It is
the true interest of America to steer clear of European

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 239

contentions, which she never can do, while by her CHAP.
dependence on Britain she is the makeweight in the
scale of British politics.

" Every thing that is right or natural pleads for
separation. Even the distance at which the Almighty
hath placed England and America, is a strong and
natural proof, that the authority of the one over the
other was never the design of heaven. It is not in
the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer Amer-
ica, if she does not conquer herself by delay and
timidity.

" It is repugnant to reason and the universal order
of things, to all examples from former ages, to sup-
pose that this continent can long remain subject to
any external power. The most sanguine in Britain
do not think so. The authority of Great Britain,
sooner or later, must have an end ; and the event
cannot be far off. The business of this continent,
from its rapid progress to maturity, will soon be too
weighty and intricate to be managed with any tolera-
ble degree of convenience by a power so distant from
us, and so very ignorant of us. There is something
absurd in supposing a continent to be perpetually
governed by an island : in no instance hath nature
made the satellite larger than the primary planet.
They belong to different systems ; England to Europe,
America to itself. Every thing short of independence
is leaving the sword to our children, and shrinking
back at a time, when going a little further would
render this continent the glory of the earth. Admit-
ting that matters were now made up, the king will
have a negative over the whole legislation of this
continent. And he will suffer no law to be made

240 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, here but such as suits his purpose. We may be as
^-^ effectually enslaved by the want of laws in America,
1776. as by submitting to laws made for us in England.

" Reconciliation and ruin are nearly related. The
best terms which we can expect to obtain can amount
to no more than a guardianship, which can last no
longer than till the colonies come of age. Emigrants
of property will not come to a country whose form of
government hangs but by a thread. Nothing but a
continental form of government can keep the peace
of the continent inviolate from civil wars.

"The colonies have manifested such a spirit of
good order and obedience to continental government,
as is sufficient to make every reasonable person easy
and happy on that head ; if there is any true cause
of fear respecting independence, it is because no plan
is yet laid down. Let a continental conference be
held, to frame a continental charter, or charter of the
united colonies. But where, say some, is the king of
America ? He reigns above ; in America the law is
king ; in free countries there ought to be no other.

" All men, whether in England or America, con-
fess that a separation between the countries will take
place one time or other. To find out the very time,
we need not go far, for the time hath found us. The
present, likewise, is that peculiar time which never
happens to a nation but once, the time of forming
itself into a government. Until we consent that the
seat of government in America be legally and
authoritatively occupied, where will be our freedom ?
where our property ?

" Nothing can settle our affairs so expeditiously
as an open and determined declaration for indepen-

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 241

dence. It is unreasonable to suppose that France or
Spain will give us assistance, if we mean only to use
that assistance for the purpose of repairing the
breach. While we profess ourselves the subjects of
Britain, we must in the eyes of foreign nations be
considered as rebels. A manifesto published and
despatched to foreign courts, setting forth the mise-
ries we have endured, and declaring that we had
been driven to the necessity of breaking off all con-
nexion with her, at the same time assuring all such
courts of our desire of entering into trade with them,
would produce more good effects to this continent,
than if a ship were freighted with petitions to Britain.

" Every quiet method for peace hath been ineffec-
tual : our prayers have been rejected with disdain;
reconciliation is now a fallacious dream. Bring the
doctrine of reconciliation to the touchstone of nature ;
can you hereafter, love, honor, and faithfully serve
the power that hath carried fire and sword into your
land ? Ye that tell us of harmony, can ye restore to
us the time that is past ? The blood of the slain, the
weeping voice of nature cries, 'tis time to part. The
last chord is now broken ; the people of England are
presenting addresses against us.

" A government of our own is our natural right.
Ye that love mankind, that dare oppose not only
tyranny but the tyrant, stand forth ! Every spot of
the old world is overrun with oppression ; Freedom
hath been hunted round the globe ; Europe regards
her like a stranger; and England hath given her
warning to depart : O ! receive the fugitive, and pre-
pare an asylum for mankind."

The publication of " Common Sense," which was

VOL. VIII. 21

242 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, brought out on the eighth of January, was most op-
^Y^S portune ; the day before, the general congress had
1J76. heard of the burning of Norfolk; on the day itself the
king's speech at the opening of parliament arrived.
" The tyrant !" said Samuel Adams ; " his speech
breathes the most malevolent spirit ; and determines
my opinion of its author as a man of a wicked heart.
I have heard that he is his own minister ; why, then,
should we cast the odium of distressing mankind upon
his minions ? Guilt must lie at his door : divine
vengeance will fall on his head ; and, with the aid of
Wythe of Virginia, the patriot set vigorously to work
to bring on a confederation and independence.

The friends of the proprietary government stood
in the way. The pamphlet of " Common Sense,"
which came suddenly into every one's hands, was
written outside of their influence ; and its doctrines
threatened their overthrow. On the day after its
publication, Wilson, to arrest the rapid development
of opinion, came to congress with the king's speech in
his hand, and quoting from it the words which charged
the colonists with aiming at a separation, he moved
the appointment of a committee to explain to their
constituents and to the world the principles and
grounds of their opposition, and their present inten-
tions respecting independence. He was strongly
supported. On the other hand, Samuel Adams in-
sisted that congress had already been explicit
enough ; and apprehensive that they might get them-
selves upon dangerous ground, he rallied the bolder
members in the hope to defeat the proposal; but in
the ahsence of John Adams even his colleagues, Gush-
ing and Paine, sided with Wilson, who carried the

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 248

vote of Massachusetts as a part of Ms majority. CHAP.
When Cushing's constituents heard of his pusillani- — , —
mous wavering, they elected Elbridge Gerry to his 1J76-
place; at the moment, Samuel Adams repaired for
sympathy and consolation to Franklin. In a free con-
versation, these two great sons of Boston agreed that
confederation must be speedily brought on, even
though the concurrence of all the colonies could not
be obtained. " If none of the rest will join," said
Samuel Adams to Franklin, " I will endeavor to unite
the New England colonies in confederating." u I ap-
prove your proposal," said Franklin, " and if you suc-
ceed, I will cast in my lot among you."

But even in New England the actors who obeyed
the living oracles of freedom wrought in darkness
and in doubt ; to them the formation of a new gov-
ernment was like passing through death to life. The
town of Portsmouth in New Hampshire disavowed
the intention of separating from the parent country ;
the convention of that colony, which was the first to
frame a government of its own, remembered their
comparative weakness, and modestly shrunk from
giving the example of a thorough change : they re-
tained their old forms of a house of representatives
and a council ; they provided no substitute for their
governor who had fled, but merged the executive
power in the two branches of the legislature; and
they authorized the continuance of the new constitu-
tion only during " the unnatural contest with Great
Britain, protesting that they had never sought to
throw off their dependence, and that they would re-
joice in such a conciliation as the continental congress
should approve."

244 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. It was not the hesitancy of New Hampshire alone
— ^ that defeated the plan of an immediate confederation ;
1J76* in the presence of John Adams, who had accepted
for the time the office of chief justice in Massachusetts,
the council in that colony would not concur with its
house of representatives in soliciting instructions from
the several towns on the question of independence,
pretending that such a measure would be precipi-
tate.

The convention of Maryland voted unhesitatingly
to put the province in a state of defence ; but moved
by a sense of the mildness with which their pro-
prietary government had been administered, on the
eleventh day of January they bore their testimony to
the equity of the English constitution, sanctioned no
military operations but for protection, and forbade
their delegates in congress to assent to any proposition
for independence, foreign alliance, or confederation.

Moreover Lord Drummond, who represented a
large proprietary interest in New Jersey, came to
Philadelphia, and exhibited a paper which, as he pre-
tended, had been approved by each of the ministers,
and which promised freedom to America in point of
taxation and internal police, and the restoration of
the charter of Massachusetts. Lynch, a delegate
of South Carolina, who had written to the north that
John Adams should be watched because his intentions
might be wicked, was duped by his arts, and thought
even of recommending his proposals to the considera-
tion of congress. Besides, it was expected by many,
that agents, selected from among the friends of Amer-
ica, would be sent from England with full powers to
grant every reasonable measure of redress.

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 245

It was time for Franklin to speak out, for lie best CHAP.
knew the folly of expecting peace from British com- — ^-
missioners. On the sixteenth his plan of a confede- 1J76.

Jan.

racy was called up, and he endeavored to get a day
fixed for its consideration ; but he was opposed by
Hooper and by Dickinson, and they carried the ques-
tion against him. Four days later, the Quakers of
New Jersey and Pennsylvania, at a meeting of their
representatives in Philadelphia, published their testi-
mony that the setting up and putting down of kings
and governments is God's peculiar prerogative. Yet
the votes of congress showed a fixed determination to
continue the struggle ; twenty seven battalions were
ordered to be raised in addition to those with Wash-
ington; it was intended to send ten thousand men
into Canada ; Arnold, on the motion of Gadsden, was
unanimously appointed a brigadier general ; powder
and saltpetre began to be received in large quantities,
and the establishment of powdermills was successfully
encouraged. The expenditures authorized for the
purposes of the war for the year, were computed at
ten millions of dollars ; and at the same time the sev-
eral colonies lavished away their treasure on special
military preparations.

In New Jersey the letters of the royal governor
were intercepted ; and their tenor was so malignant
that Lord Stirling placed him under arrest. In
Georgia the people were elated with their seeming
security. "Twelve months ago," said they,^ we were
declared rebels, and yet we meet with no opposition ;
Britain may destroy our towns, but we can retire to
the back country and tire her out." On the appear-
ance of a small squadron in the Savannah, Joseph
VOL. YIII. 21*

246 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Habersham, on the eighteenth of January, raised a

* — •r—' party of volunteers, took Sir Joseph Wright prisoner,

1Jan6 anc^ confine(l him under a guard in his own house.

The other crown officers either fled or were seized,

After an imprisonment of more than three weeks, the

governor escaped by night, went by land to Bona-

venture, and was rowed through Tybee Creek to the

Scarborough man-of-war. " Georgia," said he, " is

now totally under the influence of the Carolina peo-

ple ; nothing but force can pave the way for the com-

missioners."

When the Virginia convention, which had been in
session from the first of December, heard of the burn-
ing of Norfolk, and considered that the naval power
of England held dominion over the waters of the
Chesapeake, they resolved to give up its shores to
waste and solitude, promising indemnity to the suf-
ferers. The commanding officer, by their order,
after assisting the inhabitants in removing with their
effects, demolished in Norfolk and its suburbs all
remaining houses which " might be useful to their ene-
mies," and then abandoned the scene of devastation.

For the defence of the rest of Virginia the two
regiments already in service were increased ; and it
was ordained that seven more should be raised. Of
one of these, Hugh Mercer was elected colonel; the
command of another, to be composed of Germans
from the glades of the Blue Ridge, was given to the
Lutheran^ minister, Peter Muhlenburg, who left the
pulpit for the army, and formed out of the men of
Ms several congregations one of the most perfect bat-
talions in the American army.

Colonial dependence had ever been identified

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 247

with restraints on trade in the minds of European CHAP.

T VT

statesmen, who would have regarded an invitation ^~^^
from the colonies to the world to share their com- 1776.
merce as an act of independence; the continental
congress had interfered with the old restraints on
foreign trade as little as the necessity for purchasing
military stores would permit ; they had moreover,
with few exceptions, suspended alike importations
and exportations, so that New England, for example,
could not export fish to Spain, even to exchange it
for powder; the impulse for a world- wide commerce
came from Virginia. On Saturday, the twentieth of
January, on motion of Archibald Gary, her convention
gave its opinion in favor of opening the ports of the
colonies to all persons willing to trade with them,
Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies
excepted, and instructed her delegates in the general
congress to use their endeavors to have such a measure
adopted, so soon as exportation from North America
should be permitted. That this recommendation
should have been left after ten months of war to be
proposed by a provincial convention, is another evi-
dence of the all but invincible attachment of the
colonies to England.

Thus the progress of the war necessarily brought
to America independence in all but the name ; she
had her treasury, her army, the rudiments of a navy,
incipient foreign relations, and a striving after free
commerce with the world. She was self-existent,
whether she would be so or no ; through no other
way would the king allow her to hope for rest.

The declaration of independence was silently but
steadily prepared in the convictions of all the people ;

248 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, just as every spire of grass is impearled by the dews
— Y— ' of heaven, and assists to reflect the morning sun. The
many are more sagacious, more disinterested, more
courageous than the few. Language was their sponta-
neous creation ; the science of ethics, as the word im-
plies, is deduced from the inspirations of their con-
science ; the greatest jurists have perceived that law
itself is necessarily moulded and developed from their
inward nature ; the poet embodies in words their ora-
cles and their litanies ; the philosopher draws ideal
thought from the storehouse of their mind ; the na-
tional heart is the great reservoir of noble resolutions
and of high, enduring designs. It was the common
people, whose craving for the recognition of the unity
of the universe and for a perfect mediator between
themselves and the Infinite, bore the Christian religion
to its triumph over every worldly influence ; it was
the public faith that, in the days of the reformation,
sought abstract truth behind forms that had been
abused, and outward acts that had lost their signifi-
cance; and now the popular desire was once more
the voice of the harbinger, crying in the wilderness.
The people had grown weary of atrophied institutions,
and longed to fathom the mystery of the life of the
public life. Instead of continuing a superstitious
reverence for the sceptre and the throne, as the sym-
bols of order, they yearned for a nearer converse with
the eternal rules of right as the generative principles
of social peace.

The spirit of the people far outran conventions
and congresses. Reid, among Scottish metaphysi-
cians, and Chatham, the foremost of British states-
men, had discovered in COMMON SENSE the criterion of

THE NEW YEAR. 1776. 249

morals and truth ; the common sense of the people CHAP.

LVI

now claimed its right to sit in judgment on the ^-v— -
greatest question ever raised in the political world. 1776.
But here as elsewhere, the decision rose out of the
affections ; all the colonies, as though they had been
but one individual being, felt themselves wounded to
the soul, when they heard and could no longer doubt,
that George the Third was hiring foreign mercenaries
to reduce them to subjection.

CHAPTER LVH.

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS.

NOVEMBER, 1775 — FEBRUARY, 1776.

CLra' HAD the king employed none but British troops,
^^ the war by land against the colonies must have been
of short duration. His army was largely recruited
from American loyalists ; from emigrants driven to
America by want, and too recently arrived to be im-
bued with its principles ; from Ireland and the High-
lands of Scotland ; and from Germany. Treaties were
also made for subsidiary troops.

When Sir Joseph Yorke, the British ambassador
at the Hague, proposed the transfer of a brigade
from the service of the Netherlands to that of his
sovereign, the young stadtholder wrote directly to
his cousin the king of England, to decline what was
desired. He received a reply, renewing and urging
the request. In 1599 the Low Countries pledged to
Queen Elizabeth, as security for a loan, three impor-
tant fortresses which she garrisoned with her own
troops; in 1616 the Dutch discharged the debt, and

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 251

the garrisons were withdrawn from the cautionary CHAP.
towns except an English and a Scottish brigade, which ^^
passed into the service of the confederacy. William
the Third recalled the former ; and inlY49 the privi-
lege of recruiting in Scotland was withdrawn from
the latter, of which the rank and file, now consisting
of more than twenty one hundred men, were of all
nations, though its officers were still Scotchmen or
their descendants. In favor of the loan of the troops,
it was urged, that the officers already owed allegiance
to the British king, and were therefore well suited to
enter his service ; that common interests and intimate
relations existed between the two countries; that the
present occasion offered to the prince of Orange " the
unique advantage and particular honor" of strength-
ening the bonds of close friendship which had been
"more or less enfeebled" by the neutrality of the
United Provinces during the last French war.

In the states general, Zealand and Utrecht con-
sented: the province of Holland objected, that a com-
mercial state should never but from necessity become
involved in any quarrel. Baron van der Capellen
tot den Pol, one of the nobles of Overyssell, the
Gracchus of the Dutch republic, protested against
the measure on principles which were to increase in
strength, and to influence the impending revolution
in Europe. He reasoned that furnishing the troops
would be a departure from the true policy of the
strictest neutrality ; that his country had fruitlessly
sacrificed her prosperity to advance the greatness of
England ; that she had shed rivers of blood under
pretence of establishing a balance of power, and had
only strengthened an empire which was now assuming

252 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, a more dreadful monarchy over the seas than ever
— *~^> had been known; that she would find herself, as for-
merly, engaged in a baleful war with France, her
most powerful neighbor and her natural ally in the
defence of the liberty of commerce ; that a war be-
tween Britain and France would bring advantage to
the navigation of the republic, if she would but main-
tain her neutrality ; that she had never derived any
benefit from a close alliance with England; that, in
the war of succession, which gave to that power the
key to the Mediterranean, she had nothing for her
share but the total waste of her forces and her treas-
ure ; that she had religiously observed her treaties,
and yet England denied her the stipulated freedom
of merchandise in free bottoms, and searched and ar-
bitrarily confiscated her ships. Besides, janizaries
should be hired to subdue the colonists rather than
the troops of a free state. Why should a nation who
have themselves borne the title of rebels and freed
themselves from oppression by the edge of their
swords, employ their troops in crushing what some
were pleased to call a rebellion of the Americans, who
yet were an example and encouragement to all na-
tions, worthy of the esteem of the whole world as
brave men, defending with moderation and with in-
trepidity the rights which God and not the British
legislature gave them as men !

These ideas, once set in motion, were sure to win
the day ; but the states of Overyssell suppressed all
explicit declarations against England; and the states
general, wishing to avoid every appearance of offen-
sive discourtesy, at last consented to lend the bri-
gade, but only on the condition that it never should

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 253

be used out of Europe. This was in fact a refusal ; CHAP.
the brigade was never accepted by the English, who, — ^
during the tardy course of the discussion, had ob-
tained supplies of men from Germany.

That empire had never recovered from the disor-
ganization occasioned by the thirty years' war ; when
military service became a trade, and mercenary troops
took the place of lieges, till the more efficient system
of standing armies superseded the use of adventurers.
In this way the mediaeval liberties disappeared ; in
the great monarchies, the people by their numbers
formed a counterpoise to absolute monarchy: in the
smaller principalities the weight of the commons was
insufficient to bear up against their rulers ; the senti-
ment of patriotism was merged in the obedience of
the soldier, who learned that he had a master, but not
that he had a country ; and electors and landgraves and
reigning dukes assumed the right of engaging in wars
for their personal profit, and hiring out their troops
according to their own pleasure. The custom became
so general that, for the gain of their princes, and pay
and plunder for themselves, German troops were en-
gaged in every great contest that raged from Poland
to Lisbon, from the North Sea to Naples ; and were
sometimes arrayed in the same battle on opposite
sides. At peace the disbanded supernumeraries
lounged about the land, forming an unemployed
body, from which the hope of high wages and booty
could at any time raise up armed bands.

So soon as it became known that the king of

England, unable to supply the losses in his regiments

by enlistments within his own realm, desired to draw

recruits from Germany, crowds of adventurers, eager

VOL. vm. 22

254 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, to profit by his wants, volunteered to procure the
— , — levies he might need. He had scruples about accept-
ing their offers, saying : " The giving commissions
to German officers to get men, in plain English
amounts to making me a kidnapper, which I cannot
think a very honorable occupation ;" but he consented
that a contract should be made with a Hanoverian
lieutenant colonel for raising four thousand recruits in
Germany without loss of time ; he granted also the
use of his electoral dominions and that " assistance and
support of his field marshal which was indispensably
necessary to the execution of the undertaking."

In those days no reciprocal comity restrained the
princes from tempting each other's soldiers to desert ;
and a larger bounty, higher wages, and the undefined
prospect of amassing spoils in the " el dorado " of
America, readily attracted the vagabond veterans of
former wars to the British standard. The kings of
France had long been accustomed, with the consent
of the cantons, to raise troops in Switzerland, and
had used the permission so freely, that the total sum
of their Swiss levies in three hundred years, was
computed at more than a million of men. The Ger-
man diet had prohibited the system; the court of
Vienna was obliged, for the sake of appearances, to
write to the free cities and several of the states of
the empire, that " Great Britain had no more connec-
tion with the empire than Russia or Spain, neither
of which powers was permitted to recruit within its
limits ;" but she was only required to throw gauze
over her design ; her contractor was very soon ready
with a small instalment of a hundred and fifty men ;
and promised rapid success when the enterprise

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 255

should get a little better into train. Moreover the CHAP.

LVIT

prince bishop of Liege and the elector of Cologne con- ^-^
sented to shut their eyes to the presence of English
agents, who also had recruiting stations in Neuwied
and at Frankfort. The undertaking was prohibited
by the laws of nations and of the empire ; the British
ministers therefore instructed their diplomatic repre-
sentative at the small courts to give all possible aid to
the execution of the service, but not officially to im-
plicate his government. In this way thousands of
levies were obtained to fill up British regiments, which
had been thinned by battle, sickness, and desertion.

But the wants of the ministry required more con-
siderable negotiations with German princes. It was
hoped that the duke of Brunswick, if well disposed,
could supply at least three thousand men, and the
landgrave of Hesse Cassel five thousand ; in Novem-
ber, 1775, Suffolk thus instructed Colonel Fauci tt,
the British agent : " Your point is to get as many as
you can ; I own to you my own hopes are not very san-
guine in the business you are going upon ; therefore
the less you act ministerially before you see a reason-
able prospect of succeeding, the better. Get as many
men as you can; it will be much to your credit to
procure the most moderate terms, though expense is
not so much the object in the present emergency as
in ordinary cases. Great activity is necessary, as the
king is extremely anxious ; and you are to send one
of two messengers from each place, Brunswick and
Cassel, the moment you know whether troops can be
procured or not, without waiting for the proposal of
terms."

There was no occasion for anxiety ; more than

256 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, one little prince hurried to offer troops. "I shall
— , — regard it as a favor," wrote the Prince of Waldeck,
" if the king will accept a regiment of six hundred
men, composed of officers and soldiers, who, like their
prince, will certainly demand nothing better than to
find an opportunity of sacrificing themselves for his
majesty." The offer was eagerly accepted.

On the twenty fourth of November, Faucitt, hav-
ing received his instructions at Stade, set off on his
mission ; but the nights were so dark and the roads
so bad, that it required five days to reach Brunswick.
Charles, the reigning duke, was at that time about
sixty three. During the forty years of his rule, the
spendthrift had squandered a loan of twelve millions
of thalers, beside the millions of his revenue, on his
Italian opera, his corps of French dancers, his theatre,
journeys, mistresses, and gaming, his experiments in
alchemy, but most of all on his little army, which
now, in his decrepit age, it was his chief pride to re-
view. Within the last three years, a new prime
minister had improved the condition of his finances;
at the same time Prince Ferdinand, the heir apparent,
had been admitted as co-regent. In 1Y64 Ferdinand
had married Augusta, a sister of George the Third,
receiving with her a dowry of eighty thousand pounds
beside an annuity of eight thousand more, chargeable
on the revenues of Ireland and Hanover. His educa-
tion had been in part confided to Jerusalem, a cler-
gyman who neither had the old fashioned faith, nor
the modern want of it ; and his governor had been
indulgent .to the vices of his youth. From Frederic
of Prussia, his uncle, he adopted not disinterested
nationality, but scepticism, with which he mixed

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 257

up enough, of philanthropic sentiment to pass for a CHAP.
free thinker with ideas of liberalism and humanity. - — ^
Stately in his appearance, a student of gestures and
attitudes before the glass, he was profuse of bows
and compliments, and affectedly polite. The color
of his eye was a most beautiful blue, and its expres-
sion friendly and winning. He himself and those
about him professed the strongest sense of the om-
nipotence of legitimate princes ; he loved to rule, and
required obedience ; his wish was a command. Indif-
ferent to his English wife, he was excessively sensual ;
keeping a succession of mistresses from the second
year of his marriage to his death. He had courage,
and just too much ability to be called insignificant ;
it was his pride to do his day's work properly ; and
he introduced economy into the public administra-
tion. Devoted to pleasure, yet indefatigable in labor,
neither prodigal, nor despotic, nor ambitious, his great
defect was that he had no heart, so that he was not
capable of gratitude or love, nor true to his word,
nor fixed in his principles, nor gifted with insight into
character, nor possessed of discernment of military
worth. He was a good secondary officer, priggishly
exact in the mechanism of a regiment, but wholly
unfit to plan a campaign or lead an army.

On the evening of Faucitt's arrival, he sought a
conference with the hereditary prince, to whom he
bore from the king a special letter. Ferdinand gave
unreservedly his most cordial approbation to the
British proposal, and promised his interposition with
his father in its favor. The reigning duke, although
he regretted to part with troops which were the only
amusement of his old age, in the distressed state of
VOL. VIIT. 22*

258 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, his finances, gave his concurrence with all imaginable

LVII. ,, .,.

— »-~ facility.

It now remained for Faucitt to chaffer with Fer-
rance, the Brunswick minister, on the price of the
troops, which were to be ready early in the spring, to
the number of four thousand infantry and three hun-
dred light dragoons. These last were not wanted, but
Faucitt accepted them, " rather than appear difficult."
Sixty German dollars for each man was demanded as
levy money ; but thirty crowns banco, or about thirty
four and a half of our dollars, was agreed upon.
Every soldier who should be killed, was to be paid
for at the rate of the levy money; and three wounded
were to be reckoned as one killed. The date of the
English pay was the next subject in dispute : Bruns-
wick demanded that it should begin three months
before the march of the troops, but acquiesced in
the advance of two months pay. On the question
of the annual subsidy a wrangling was kept up for
two days; when it was settled at sixty four thou-
sand five hundred German crowns from the date of
the signature of the treaty, and twice that sum for
two years after the return of the troops to their own
country.

Von Riedesel, a colonel in the duke's service, was
selected for the command, and received the rank of a
major general. He was a man of uprightness, honor,
and activity, enterprising, and full of resources ; fond
of his profession, of which he had spared no pains to
make himself master.

During the war, Brunswick furnished altogether
five thousand seven hundred and twenty three merce-
naries ; a number equal to more than one sixth of the

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 259

able-bodied men in the principality. As a conse- CHAP.
quence, two of the battalions destined for the British ^~^
service were a regular force ; the rest, in disregard of
promises, were eked out by undisciplined levies, old
men, raw boys, and recruits kidnapped out of remote
countries.

It is just to inquire if conduct like that of Ferdi-
nand was followed by a happy life and an honorable
death. His oldest son died two years before him ;
his two other sons were idiotic and blind ; his oldest
daughter was married to the brutal prince of Wiir-
temberg, and perished in 1*788. The same intimate
relations, which led George the Third to begin the
purchase of mercenary troops with his brother-in-law,
made him select Ferdinand's younger daughter Caro-
line,— a woman brought up in the lewd atmosphere
of her father's palace, accustomed to the company of
his mistresses, and environed by licentiousness from
her childhood, — to become, at the ripe age of twenty
seven, the wife of the prince of Wales, and eventually
a queen of Great Britain. As to the prince himself,
in a battle where his incompetence as a commander
assisted to bring upon Prussia a most disastrous de-
feat, his eyes were shot away ; a fugitive, deserted by
mistress and friends, he refused to take food, and so
died.

From Brunswick Faucitt hurried to Cassel, where
his coming was expected by one who knew well the
strait to which the British ministry was reduced.
The town rises beautifully at the foot of a well
wooded hill and overlooks a fertile plain. The people
of Hesse preserve the hardy and warlike character of
its ancestral tribe, which the Romans could never van-

'260 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, quish. It was still a nation of soldiers, whose valor

^-^ had been proved in all the battlefields of Europe.

In the former century the republic of Venice had

employed them against the Turks, and they had

taken part in the siege of Athens.

The landgrave, Frederick the Second, was at that
time about fifty six, and had ruled for nearly sixteen
years. He had been carefully educated ; but his na-
ture was coarse and brutish and obstinate. The wife
of his youth, a daughter of George the Second, was
the mildest and gentlest of her race; yet she was
forced to fly from his inhumanity to his own father
for protection. At the age of fifty three he married
again, but lived with his second consort on no better
terms than with his first.

The landgrave had been scrupulously educated in
the reformed church, of which the house of Hesse had
ever proudly regarded itself as a bulwark; but he
piqued himself on having disburdened his mind of
the prejudices of the vulgar ; sought to win Voltaire's
esteem by doubting various narratives in the Bible ;
and scoffed alike at the Old Testament and the New.
In his view, Calvinism had died out even in Geneva ;
and Luther, though commendable for having loved
wine and women, was but an ordinary man ; he there-
fore turned Catholic in 1749, from dislike to the ple-
beian simplicity of the established worship of his
people. He had learnt to favor toleration, to abolish
the use of torture, and to make capital punishments
exceedingly rare ; at the same time he was the coarse
representative of the worst licentiousness of his age ;
fond of splendor and luxurious living ; parading hia
vices publicly, with shameless indecorum. Having

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 261

no nationality, he sought to introduce French modes CRAP.
of life; had his opera, ballet-dancers, masquerades ' — ^
during the carnival, his French playhouse, a cast-off
French coquette for his principal mistress, a French
superintendent of theatres for his librarian. But
nothing could be less like France than his court ; life
in Cassel was spiritless ; " nobody here reads," said
Forster ; " the different ranks are stiffly separated,"
said the historian, Von Miiller. Birth or wealth alone
had influence : merit could not command respect, nor
talent hope for fostering care.

To this man Faucitt delivered a letter from the
British king. General Schlieffen, the minister with
whom he was to conduct the negotiation, prepared him
for unconditional acquiescence in every demand, by
dwelling on the hazard of finding the landgrave in
an unfavorable turn of mind, and describing him " as
most exceedingly whimsical and uncertain in his hu-
mors and disposition;" at the same time he under-
took to promise twelve thousand foot soldiers for ser-
vice in America.

The prince, who would not confess even to his own
mind that he sold his subjects from avarice, professed
a strong desire to force the rebels back to their duty,
and grew so warm and so sanguine that he seemed
inclined, in the cause of monarchy, to head his troops
in person. This zeal augured immoderate demands:
his first extortion was a sum of more than forty thou-
sand pounds for hospital disbursements during the
last war. The demand was scandalous ; the account
had been liquidated, paid, and closed ; but the distress
of the government compelled a reconsideration of the
claim, and the tribute was enforced.

262 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. In conducting the bargain, the landgrave in-
— r^ sisted on adhering to the beaten track of former con-
ventions ; and this predilection for precedents was not
confined to mere formalities, but in every essential
point was attended with an anxiety to collect and ac-
cumulate in the new treaty every favorable stipula-
tion that had separately found its way into any of the
old ones. The levy money appeared to be the same
that was agreed upon with Brunswick ; but as it was
to be paid for the officers as well as for the men, the
Hessian contract had an advantage of twenty per cent.
The master stroke of SchliefFen was the settlement
of the subsidy. In no former convention had that
condition extended over a less period than four years :
the British minister objected to a demand for six, be-
lieving that one campaign would terminate the war ;
the Hessian, therefore, with seeming moderation, ac-
cepted a double subsidy, to be paid from the signa-
ture of the treaty to its expiration. Precedents were
also found for stipulating that the subsidy should be
paid not as by the treaty with Brunswick in German
crowns, but in crowns banco, which made a further
considerable gain to the landgrave ; and as the engage-
ment actually continued in force for about ten years,
it proved very far more onerous than any which Eng-
land had ever before negotiated, affording a clear net
profit to the landgrave on this item alone of five mil-
lions of our dollars.

The taxes paid by the Hessians were sufficient
to defray the pay rolls and all the expenses of the
Hessian army: these taxes it had not been the custom
to reduce ; but on the present occasion, the landgrave,
to give his faithful subjects proof of his paternal in-

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 263

clinations, most graciously suspended from July to tlie CHAP.
time of the return of his troops, one half of the ordi- — <~~
nary contribution to his military chest. The other
half was rigorously exacted.

It was stipulated that the British pay, which was
higher than the Hessian, should be paid into the
treasury of Hesse ; and this afforded an opportunity
for peculation in various ways. The pay rolls, after
the first month, invariably included more persons
than were in the service ; with Brunswick, the price
to be paid for the killed and wounded was fixed ; the
landgrave introduced no such covenant, and seemed
left with the right to exact full pay for every man
who had ever once been mustered into the British
service, whether active or dead.

The British minister urged the indispensable ne-
cessity that the Hessian soldiers should be allowed as
ample and extensive enjoyment of their pay as the
British : u I dare not agree to any express or limited
stipulation on this head," answered Schlieffen, " for
fear of giving offence to the landgrave." " They are
my fellow-soldiers," said the landgrave ; " and do I
not mean to treat them well ? "

The sick and the wounded of the Brunswick
troops were to be taken care of in the British hos-
pitals ; for the Hessians, the landgrave claimed the
benefit of providing a hospital of his own.

The British ministers would gladly have clothed
the mercenary troops in British manufactures ; but
the landgrave would not allow this branch of his
profits to be impaired.

It had been thought in England that the land-
grave could furnish no more than five thousand foot ;

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, but the price was so high, that after contracting for
^— r— ' twelve thousand, he further bargained to supply four
hundred Hessian chasseurs, armed with rifle barrelled
guns ; and then three hundred dismounted dragoons ;
and then three corps of artillery, taking care for
every addition to make a corresponding increase in
the double subsidy.

To escape impressment, his subjects fled into
Hanover ; King George, who was also elector of Han-
over, was therefore called upon "to discourage the
elopement of Hessian subjects in to that country, when
the demand for men to enable the landgrave to fulfil
his engagement with Great Britain was so pressing."

It was also thought essential to march the troops
through the Electorate to their place of embarkation,
for it was not doubted, " if the Hessians were to
march along the left bank of the Weser, through the
territories of Prussia and perhaps half a score of petty
princes, one half of them would be lost on the way
by desertion." The other half went willingly, having
been made to believe that America was the land of
golden spoils, where they would have free license to
plunder, and the unrestrained indulgence of their pas-
sions.

Every point in dispute having been decided ac
cording to the categorical demands of the landgrave,
the treaty was signed on the thirty first day of Jan-
uary. This would have seemed definitive ; but the
payment of the double subsidy was to begin from the
day of the signature of the treaty ; the landgrave,
therefore, put back the date of the instrument to
January the fifteenth.

His troops were among the best in Europe ; their

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 265

chief commander was Lieutenant general Heister, a CHAP.
brave old man of nearly sixty, cheerful in disposition, — <-^
crippled with wounds, of a good understanding, but
without genius for war ; tenacious of authority, but
good natured, bluntly honest, and upright. Next him
stood Lieutenant general Knyphausen, remarkable for
taciturnity and reserve ; one of the best officers in the
landgrave's service, of rare talents in his profession,
with a kindly nature and the accomplishments of a
man of honor.

The four major generals were all of moderate capa-
cities and little military skill. Of the colonels, every
one praised Don op, who commanded the four batta-
lions of grenadiers and the chasseurs ; Hall, Minge-
rode, Wurmb, and Loos, were also highly esteemed ;
four or five others had served with distinction.

The excuse of the British ministry for yielding to
all the exactions of the landgrave, was their eagerness
to obtain the troops early in February. " Often,"
wrote Suffolk, " as I have urged expedition, I must
repeat it once more, nothing is so much to be guarded
against as delay, which will mar the expected advan-
tage." The landgrave freely consented that thirteen
battalions should be prepared to march on the fif-
teenth of February ; but so inefficient was the Brit-
ish ministry, so imperfect their concert, that though
delay involved the loss of a campaign, the admiralty
did not provide transports enough at the time ap-
pointed, and even in March could not tell when they
would all be ready. The first detachment from Bruns-
wick did not sail from England till the fourth of
April, and Riedesel was at Quebec before the last
YOL. vni. 23

266 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, were embarked ; the first division of the Hessians did
— ~ *~~ not clear the British channel till the tenth of May.

The transports were also very badly fitted up ;
the bedding furnished by the contractors was infa-
mously scanty, their thin pillows being seven inches
by five at most, and mattress, pillow, blanket, and
rug, altogether hardly weighing seven pounds. The
clothing of the Brunswick troops was old, and only
patched up for the present ; " the person who exe-
cuted the commission " for purchasing new shoes for
them, in England, sent " fine thin dancing pumps," and
of these the greatest number were too small for use.

The treaty with the hereditary prince of Hesse
Cassel, who was the ruler over Hanau, met with no
obstacle. His eagerness and zeal were not to be de-
scribed ; he went in person round the different baili-
wicks to choose the recruits that were wanted; and
he accompanied his regiment as far as Frankfort on
their way to Helvoetsluys. Conscious of the merit of all
this devotion, he pressed for an additional special sub-
sidy. Professing ostensibly to give an absolute re-
fusal, lest he should wake up similar claims, Suffolk
in fact prepared to grant the demand, or some equiv-
alent, under an injunction of the most absolute se-
crecy. The prince's minister reiterated in his name
a written promise of preserving a discretion without
bounds. " My attachment and most humble respect
to the best of kings, my generous protector and mag-
nanimous support, removes all idea of interest in me,"
wrote the prince himself. ' He wished that all the
ofiicers and soldiers of his regiment might be anima-
ted with an attachment and zeal like his own; and
attempting English, he wrote to Suffolk : " May the

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 267

end they shall fight for, answer to the king's upper CHAP.
contentment, and your laudable endeavors, my Lord, ^-^
be granted by the most happiest issue."

For a few months it was doubted if the prince
of Waldeck could make good his offers ; for his land
was already overtasked, as there were three Wal-
deck regiments in the service of Holland : the states
of the principality had complained of the loss of its
subjects; but the prince still pleaded such most dis-
interested zeal, and vowed so warm an attachment
to the " incomparable monarch " of Britain, that on
the twentieth of April, the treaty with him was closed.
He had no way of getting troops except by force, or
authority, or deceit ; but the village ministers from the
pulpit encouraged the enlistment ; and it was thought
that an effective regiment would soon be ready, pro-
vided in the formation of it " he should not be too
tender of his own subjects." The conscripts were
quieted by promises of great wealth : but to prevent
their deserting, a corps of mounted forest chasseurs
escorted them to Beverungen.

The ruling prince of the house of Anhalt Zerbst,
brother to Catharine, then empress of Russia, him-
self half crazed, living very rarely within his own
dominions, keeping up sixteen recruiting stations
outside of them, in a letter which from " the confu-
sion in his style and in his expressions, could not be
translated," made to England the offer of a regiment
of six hundred and twenty-seven men. He also
wrote directly to George the Third ; but his manner
was so strange that the letter was not thought fit to
be delivered. During that year nothing came of his
proposal.

268 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. The elector of Bavaria expressed to Elliot, the
— , — British minister at Ratisbon, his very strong desire
of a subsidiary engagement : but little heed was given
to this overture, for "the Bavarian troops were
among the worst in Germany ; " and besides, " the
court w^as so sold to Austria and France that the
prince himself thought proper to warn the British
diplomatist against speaking of the proposal to his
own ministers."

On the last day of February, the treaties with
Brunswick and Hesse were considered in the house of
commons. Lord North said : " The troops are wanted ;
the terms on which they are procured, are less than
we could have expected ; the force will enable us to
compel America to submission, perhaps without any
further effusion of blood.*1' He was answered by
Lord John Cavendish : " The measure disgraces Bri-
tain and humiliates the king; it also impoverishes
the country by its extravagance." " Our business
will be effected within the year," replied Cornwall ;
" and if so, of which there is no reason to doubt, the
troops are all had on lower terms than was ever
known before." Lord Irnhani took a broader view :
"The landgrave of Hesse and the duke of Bruns-
wick render Germany vile and dishonored in the eyes
of all Europe, as a nursery of men for those who
have most money. Princes who thus sell their sub-
jects, to be sacrificed in destructive wars, commit the
additional crime of making them destroy much bet-
ter and nobler beings than themselves. The land-
grave of Hesse has his prototype in Sancho Panza,
who said that if he were a prince, he should wish
all his subjects to be blackamoors, so that he could

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 269

turn them into ready money by selling them." A CHAP.
warning voice was raised by Hartley : " You now ^^
set the American congress the example of applying
to foreign powers ; when they intervene, the pos-
sibility of reconciliation is totally cut off." The
third son of the earl of Bute spoke for sanguinary
measures, and contrasted the unrivalled credit of Eng-
land with the weak, uncurrent paper of America.
" The measures of ministers," sai4 James Luttrell, who
had served in America, "are death-warrants to thou-
sands of British subjects, not steps towards regaining
the colonies." George Grenville, afterwards Marquis
of Buckingham, proposed the alternative : " Shall we
abandon America, or shall we recover our sover-
eignty over that country? We had better make
one effort more." Lord George Germain defended
the treaties on the ground of necessity; this Lord
Barrington confirmed, for British recruits could not
be procured on any terms, and the bargain was the
best that could be made. All complaints were inef-
fectual ; the ministers were sustained by their usual
majority.

Five days later they were equally well supported
in the house of lords ; but not without a rebuke from
the Duke of Cumberland, one of the king's brothers,
who said : " I have constantly opposed these oppres-
sive measures ; I heartily concur in reprobating the
conduct of the ministers ; my lords, I lament to see
Brunswickers, who once to their great honor were
employed in the defence of the liberties of the sub-
ject, now sent to subjugate his constitutional liberties
in another part of this vast empire."

The whole number of men furnished in the war
VOL. viii. 23*

270 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, by Brunswick was equal to one twenty seventh part of
— v-l' its collective population ; by the landgrave of Hesse
was equal to one out of every twenty of his subjects, or
one in four of the able bodied men ; a proportionate
conscription in 1776 would have shipped to America
from England and Wales alone an army of more than
four hundred thousand. Soldiers were impressed
from the plough, the workshop, the highway ; no man
was safe from the inferior agents of the princes, who
kidnapped without scruple. Almost every family in
Hesse mourned for one of its members ; light-hearted
joyousness was not to be found among its peasantry;
most of the farm work was thrown upon women,
whose large hands and feet, lustreless eye, and im-
browned and yellowing skin showed that the beauty
of the race suffered for a generation from the avarice
of their prince.

In a letter to Voltaire, the landgrave, announcing
his contribution of troops, expressed his zeal to learn
" the difficult principles of the art of governing
men, and of making them perceive that all which
their ruler does is for their special good." He
wrote also a catechism for princes, in which Voltaire
professed to find traces of a pupil of the king of
Prussia : " Do not attribute his education to me," an-
swered the great Frederick : " were he a graduate
of my school, he would never have turned Catholic,
and would never have sold his subjects to the English
as they drive cattle to the shambles. He a precep-
tor of sovereigns ! The sordid passion for gain is
the only motive of his vile procedure."

From avarice he sold the flesh of his own people
while they were yet alive, depriving many of exist-

BRITAIN ENGAGES FOREIGN TROOPS. 271

ence and himself of honor. In an empire which CHAP.
spoke the language of Luther, where Kant by pro- — <-^~
found analysis, was compelling scepticism itself to
bear witness to the eternal law of duty, where Les-
sing inculcated faith in an ever improving education
of the race, the land of free cities and free thought,
where the heart of the best palpitated with hope for
the American cause, the landgrave forced the ener-
gies of his state to act against that liberty which was
the child of the German forests, and the moral life of
the Germanic nation. And did judgment slumber ?
Were the eyes of the Most High turned elsewhere ?
Or, in the abyss of the divine counsels, was some
great benefit in preparation for lands all so full of ty-
rants, though beyond the discernment of the sordid
princes, whose crimes were to promote the brother-
hood of nations !

CHAPTEK LVHI.

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA.

JANUARY — FEBRUARY, 1YT6.

CHAP THE disbanded Highlanders, who had settled in
i^ii the valley of the Mohawk, were reported as disposed
1776. to rally once more under the king's standard; to
an' prevent their rising, Schuyler at Albany, in January,
17 7 6, following the orders of the general congress,
called out seven hundred of the New York militia,
and sending an envoy in advance to quiet the Mo-
hawks of the Lower Castle, marched upon Johns-*
town, in what was then Try on county. He was joined
on the way by Herkimer and the militia of that dis-
trict, till his force numbered more than two thousand,
and easily overpowered Sir John Johnson and his
party. The Indians, as mediators, entreated the per-
sonal liberty of Johnson, and Schuyler, whose inge-
nuous mind would not harbor the thought, that a man
of rank could break his word of honor, was contented
with exacting his parole to preserve neutrality, and
confine himself within carefully prescribed bounds.

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 273

The quantity of military stores that he delivered up, CHAP.
was inconsiderable ; on the twentieth, at noon, be- * — . — -
tween two and three hundred Highlanders marched l?™-
to the front of the invading force, and grounded
their arms. In the two following days, Herkimer
completed the disarmament of the disaffected, and
secured six Highlanders as hostages for the peace-
able conduct of the rest. Schuyler and his party
were rewarded by the approbation of congress.

After the death of Montgomery, the active com-
mand in Canada was reserved for Schuyler, to whom
it properly belonged. His want of vigorous health,
and the irksomeness of controlling the men of Con-
necticut, had inclined him to leave the army; the
reverses, suffered within his own district, now placed
him in a painful dilemma : he must either risk the
reproach of resigning at the news of disasters, or re-
tain his commission, and in the division of his depart-
ment leave to another the post of difficulty and danger.
Unwilling at such a moment to retire, yet too " weak
and indisposed" to undertake the campaign in Canada,
he continued as before to render auxiliary services.
The general congress acquiesced in his decision, and
invited Washington to propose in his stead an officer
to conduct the perilous warfare on the St. Lawrence.

The position of New York gave great advantage
to the friends of the royal government ; for the Brit-
ish men-of-war were masters of the bay, the harbor,
the East River, and Hudson River below the High-
lands ; neither Staten Island nor Long Island could
prevent the landing of British troops ; the possession
of Long Island would give the command of Man-
hattan Island, which had not as yet accumulated ma-

274 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, terials for defence. In Queen's county, where a large
— . — part of the population was of Dutch descent, and
among> the English there were churchmen and very
many Quakers, the inhabitants, by a vote of more
than three to one, refused to send delegates to the
provincial congress ; and it was only after long de-
lays that the inhabitants of Richmond county made
their election. In West Chester, Morris of Morris-
ania and Van Cortland were unwavering in their
patriotism ; but the Delanceys and Philipse, who
owned vast tracts of land in the county, bent their
influence over their tenants in favor of the king with
so much effect, that the inhabitants were nearly
equally divided. In the city the. popular movement
was irresistible; but a large part of the wealthy
merchants were opposed in any event to a separation
from Britain. The colony of New York, guided in
its policy by men of high ability, courage, and purity,
had pursued with unvarying consistency a system of
moderation, at first from a sincere desire to avoid a
revolution, if it could be done without a surrender of
American rights; and when that hope failed, with
the purpose of making it manifest to all, that the
plan of independence was adopted from necessity.
In this manner only could they stand acquitted of the
guilt of needlessly provoking war, and unite in the
impending struggle the large majority of the people.
It was also obviously wise to delay the outbreak of
actual hostilities till warlike stores could be imported,
and the women and children of a rich and populous
city be removed from danger. This system was main-
tained alike by the prudent and the bold ; by Living-
ston and Jay, by John Morin Scott and Macdougall.

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 2*75

A sort of truce was permitted ; the British men-of- CHAP.
war were not fired upon ; and in return the commerce — , — '-

of the port was not harassed, so that vessels laden
with provisions, to purchase powder in St. Eustatia,
went and came without question. A small party in
the city, insignificant in numbers and in weight of
character, clamored at this forbearance; and with
rash indiscretion would have risked ultimate success
for the gratification of momentary passion. Of these
the most active was Isaac Sears, who, as a son of
liberty, had merited high praise for his fearlessness.
Vexed at his want of influence, impatient at being
overlooked, and naturally inclined to precipitate coun-
sels, he left the city for Connecticut, and returned
with a party of mounted volunteers from that colony,
who rode into the city and rifled the printing house
of the tory Kivington. The committee of New York
and its convention censured the riot, as an unwise in-
fringement of the liberty of the press, and a danger-
ous example to their enemies ; but as the unsolicited
intermeddling of New England men in New York
affairs, without concert with the New York commit-
tee and even without warning, it was resented by the
Dutch, and universally by all moderate men. Jay
and his colleagues were anxious, lest this high insult to
the authority of the New York committee should con-
firm that jealous distrust of the eastern colonies, which
the wise and the virtuous studied to suppress.

Disowned and censured by every branch of the
popular representation of New York, vexed at not
receiving a high appointment in the American navy,
Sears repaired to the camp in Cambridge, and there
found a hearer in Lee, to whom he represented that

276 . AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, the city and colony of New York were in imminent
— -, — ' danger from the tories ; and that large bodies of un-
1 Jan6 Pa^ volunteers from Connecticut would readily march
to disarm them.

Meantime the New York provincial convention,
in spite of many obstacles and delays, met in sufficient
numbers to transact business ; explained to the gen-
eral congress the expediency of delaying the appeal *
to arms in their city till better preparations could be
made ; and requested that body to undertake the dis-
arming of the disaffected on Long Island. All their
suggestions were approved, and made general in their
application. After the report of a committee, con-
sisting of Samuel Adams, William Livingston, and
Jay, the several colonial conventions or committees
were authorized to disarm "the unworthy Americans
who took the part of their oppressors ;" and were
carefully invested with full authority to direct and
control the continental troops who might be em-
ployed in this delicate service. Colonel Nathaniel
Heard of Woodbridge, New Jersey, and Colonel
"Waterbury of Stamford in Connecticut, were then
directed, each with five or six hundred minute men,
to enter Long Island, and disarm every man in
Queen's county who voted against sending deputies
to the New York congress. On second thought, the
march of the minute men from Connecticut was
countermanded and the service assigned to the Jer-
sey men alone, who, before the end of the month,
aided by Lord Stirling's battalion and in perfect har-
mony with the New York committee of safety, ex-
ecuted their commission.

Early in January the commander in chief ascer-

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 277

tained that Clinton was about to embark from Bos- CHAP.
ton, with troops, on a southern expedition, of which — ^
New York was believed to be the object; at the 1-776.
same time Lee, whose claim to " the character of a
military genius and the officer of experience " had not
as yet been even suspected to be " false," desired to
be detached from the army, that he might collect
volunteers in Connecticut to secure New York and
expel the tories, or " crush those serpents before their
rattles were grown ; " and he urged the measure upon
Washington, whether it exceeded his authority or
not. After consulting John Adams, who was then
with the provincial convention at Watertown, and
who pronounced the plan to be practicable, expedient,
and clearly authorized, Washington, uninformed of
the measures already adopted, gave his consent to
the request of Lee, expressly charging him to " keep
always in view the declared intention of congress,"
and to communicate with the New York committee
of safety ; to whom he also wrote, soliciting their co-
operation.

The proposed measure would have been warmly
seconded, had its execution been entrusted to an
officer who respected the civil authority; but Lee
drove on under the sole guidance of his own judg-
ment and self-will. As soon as he arrived in Connec-
ticut, he found that Waterbury, obeying the coun-
termand of the general congress, had disbanded his
regiment ; railing at congress for indecision, and curs-
ing the provincial congress of New York, he forwarded
no communication to the committee of safety of that
colony, while he persuaded the governor and council
of Connecticut not only to reassemble the regiment
VOL. vin. 24

278 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of Waterbury, but to call out another under Ward.

— . — In this manner Lee, who had never commanded so
much as one regiment before he entered the American
army, found himself in the separate command of two.
Following his constant maxim, he usurped authority
which he perfectly well knew did not belong to him,
and appointed Sears assistant adjutant general with
the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The tidings that Lee, with nearly fifteen hundred
men of Connecticut, was advancing upon New York,
without so much as intimating his design to its com-
mittee, or its inhabitants, offended the pride of the
province, and increased a jealousy which afterwards
proved unfavorable to federation. According to the
American principle of the right of resistance, the wish
to resort to force in New York must spring from
within itself, and not be superimposed from abroad :
Washington scrupulously respected the civil author-
ity of each colony, as well as of the congress ; Lee
scoffed at the thought of being rigidly bound by
either ; and his movement seemed to have for its end
to coerce New York, rather than to offer it his co-
operation. The committee of safety, conscious of their
readiness to devote their city as a sacrifice to the
cause of America, despatched a messenger to Lee to
request that the troops of Connecticut might not pass
the border, till the purpose of their coming should be
explained. Lee made a jest of the letter, as " wofully
hysterical." He treated it as a sign of fear; and in
his reply, he declared that " if the ships of war should
make a pretext of his presence to fire on the town,
the first house set in flames by their guns should be
the funeral pile of some of their best friends ; " and

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 279

added, in his rant, that he would " chain one hundred CHAP.
of them together by the neck." — »—'

Both parties appealed to the general congress;
and on motion of Edward Rutledge and Duane,
Harrison, Lynch, and Allen, were sent from that
body with powers of direction. On the first day of
February the three envoys met the committee of
New York, when John Morin Scott said for himself
and his colleagues : " Our duty to our constituents
and their dignity forbid the introduction of troops
without our consent ; but we will always obey the
orders of congress ; " and they were satisfied with the
assurance, that the troops would be under the con-
trol of the committee of the continental congress.

On the fourth, Lee entered the city of New
York, just two hours after Clinton anchored in its
harbor. Troops from the Jerseys and from Connec-
ticut at the same time marched into town, and a
transport, with two companies of British infantry and
some Highlanders, came up to the docks. In the
general consternation, women and children were re-
moved from the city which for seven years to come
was to know no peace ; all the wagons that could be
found were employed in transporting valuable effects;
the flight in winter was attended with peculiar dan-
ger and distress ; the opulent knew not where to find
shelter ; the poor, thrown upon the cold hands of ex-
hausted charity in the interior towns and the Jerseys,
suffered from a series of complicated wants. Both
parties wished to delay extreme measures ; Clinton
pledged his honor that for the present no more British
troops were coming, and said openly that he himself
was on his way to North Carolina. But the work of

280 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, defence was not given up by the Americans ; under the
-^v^ harmonizing influence of the continental committee,
a776. Lee an(j the New York committee held friendly con-
ferences ; the whole people showed a wonderful alac-
rity ; and men and boys of all ages toiled with the
greatest zeal and pleasure. To control the commerce
of the Sound, a fortification was raised at Hellgate ; on
a height west of Trinity church, a battery was erected
fronting the North River ; that part of the old fort
which faced Broadway was torn down ; Lee and Lord
Stirling, crossing to Long Island, marked out the
ground for an intrenched camp, extending from the
Wallabout to Growanus Bay, and spacious enough to
hold four thousand men ; the connection between Long
Island and New York was secured by a battery of
forty guns at the foot of Wall street, and another of
twenty guns a little further to the south. It was
fondly hoped that the proposed fortifications would
prove impregnable ; the ships of war, without firing
a gun, removed to the bay ; and this state of peace
and of confidence confirmed the preconceived notion
of Lee's superior ability. The charm of exercising a
separate command wrought a change in his caprices ;
and he who two months before had scorned the
Americans as unworthy to aspire after independence,
was now loud in praise of the doctrines of " Com-
mon Sense," and repudiated the thought of reconcili-
ation with Britain, unless " the whole ministry should
be condignly punished, and the king beheaded or de-
throned."

His zeal and his seeming success concentred upon
him public confidence. " Canada," said Washington,
" will be a fine field for the exertion of your ad-

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 281

mirable talents, but your presence will be as neces- CHAP.
sary in New York." In like manner Franklin wrote : >— ^
" I am glad you are come to New York ; but I also ll^m
wish you could be in Canada;" and on the nine-
teenth the congress destined him to " that most
arduous service." John Adams, who had counselled
his expedition to New York, wrote to him compla-
cently, " that a luckier or a happier one had never
been projected ;" and added : "We want you at New
York ; we want you at Cambridge ; we want you in
Virginia ; but Canada seems of more importance, and
therefore you are sent there. I wish you the laurels
of Wolfe and Montgomery, with a happier fate."
Elated by such homage, Lee indulged his natural
propensities, and made bold to ask money of the
New York congress; "two thousand dollars at the
least," said he; "if you could make it twenty five hun-
dred it would be more convenient to me ; " and they
allowed him the gratuity. " When I leave this place,"
so he wrote to Washington on the last day of Febru-
ary, the "provincial congress and inhabitants will
relapse into their hysterics ; the men-of-war will re-
turn to their wharfs, and the first regiments from
England will take quiet possession of the town."
Those about him chimed in with his revilings.
"Things will never go well," said Waterbury, "un-
less the city of New York is crushed down by the
Connecticut people ; " and Sears set no bounds to his
contumelious abuse of the committee of New York
and its convention.

On the first of March, after a warm contest among Mar.
the delegates of various colonies, each wishing to have
him where they had most at stake, on the motion of
VOL. vm. 24*

282 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Edward Rutledge, Lee was invested with the com-

I VTTT

^r^> mand of the continental forces south of the Potomac.

1776. "As a Virginian, I rejoice at the change;" wrote
Washington, who had, however, already discovered
that the officer so much courted, was both " violent
and fickle." On the seventh he left New York, but
not without one last indulgence of his turbulent
temper. The continental congress had instructed
him to put the city in the best possible state of
defence ; and this he interpreted as a grant of un-
limited authority. He therefore arrested men at dis-
cretion, and deputed power to Sears to offer a pre-
scribed test oath to a registered number of suspected
persons, and, if they refused it, to send them to Con-
necticut as irreclaimable enemies. To the rebuke of
the New York convention, he answered : " When the
enemy is at our door, forms must be dispensed with ;"
and on the eve of his departure, he gave Ward of
Connecticut the sweeping order, " to secure the
whole body of professed tories on Long Island." The
arbitrary orders were resented by all the New York
delegates as ua high encroachment upon the rights
of the representatives of a free people," and were un-
equivocally condemned and reversed by congress.

Instead of hastening to his new command, Lee
loitered at Philadelphia, till, on the fifteenth, " Rich-
ard Henry Lee and Franklin were directed to request
him to repair forthwith to his southern department."

Jan. The expedition to the Carolinas never met the ap-

proval of Howe, who condemned the activity of the
southern governors, and would have had them avoid
all disputes, till New York should be recovered.
When Lord Dumnore learned from Clinton that Cape

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 283

Fear Kiver was the place appointed for the meeting CHAP.
of the seven regiments from Ireland, he broke out ^ — '
into angry complaints, that no heed had been paid to jan. *
his representations, his sufferings, and his efforts ; that
Virginia, " the first on the continent for riches, power,
and extent," was neglected ; and the preference given
to " a poor, insignificant colony," where there were no
pilots, nor a harbor that could admit half the fleet,
and where the army, should it land, must wade for
many miles through a sandy pine barren before it
could reach the inhabited part of the country.

But Martin, who had good reason to expect the
arrival of the armament in January or early in Feb-
ruary, was infatuated with the hope, that multitudes,
even in the county of Brunswick, would revolt " from
their new-fangled government ; " and " his unwearied,
persevering agent," Alexander Maclean, after a care-
ful computation of the numbers that would flock to
the king's standard from the interior, brought writ-
ten assurances from the principal persons to whom
he had been directed, that between two and three
thousand men, of whom about half were well armed,
would take the field at the governor's summons.
Under this encouragement he was sent again into the
back country, with a commission dated the tenth
of January, authorizing Allan Macdonald of Kings-
borough, and eight other Scots of Cumberland and
Anson, and seventeen persons who resided in a belt
of counties in middle Carolina and in Rowan, to raise
and array all the king's loyal subjects, and to march
with them in a body to Brunswick by the fifteenth
of February. Donald Macdonald, then in his sixty

284 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

fifth year, was to command the army as brigadier ;
next him in rank was Donald Macleod.

^e ^rst return to Martin represented that the
loyalists were in high spirits ; that their force would
amount even to six thousand men ; that they were
well furnished with wagons and horses ; and that by
the twentieth or twenty fifth of February at furthest
they would be in possession of Wilmington, and
within reach of the king's ships. On receiving their
commission, William Campbell, Neil MacArthur, and
Donald Macleod issued circular letters, inviting all
their associates to meet on the fifth of February at
Cross Creek, or, as it is now called, Fayetteville. At
the appointed time all the Scots appeared, and four
only of the rest. The Scots, who could promise no
more than seven hundred men, advised to await the
arrival of the British troops ; the other royalists, who
boasted that they could bring out five thousand, of
whom five hundred were already embodied, prevailed
in their demand for an immediate rising. But the
Highlanders, whose past conflicts were ennobled by
their courage and fidelity to one another, whose sor-
rows, borne for generations with fortitude, deserved
at last to find relief, were sure to keep their word:
from a blind instinct of kindred, they took up arms
for a cause in which their traditions and their affec-
tions had no part ; while many of the chiefs of the
loyalists shrunk from danger to hiding places in
swamps and forests. Employing a few days to collect
his army, which was composed chiefly of Highlanders
and remnants of the old Regulators, Macdonald, on
the eighteenth, began his march for Wilmington, and
at evening his army, of which the number was very

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 285

variously estimated, encamped on the Cape Fear river, CHAP.
four miles below Cross Creek. — r~*~

On that same day Moore, who, at the first menace IJTG.
of danger, took the field at the head of his regiment,
and lay in an intrenched camp at Kockfish, was joined
by Lillington, with one hundred and fifty minute men
from Wilmington, by Kenon with two hundred of the
Duplin militia, and by Ashe with about a hundred
volunteer independent rangers; so that his number
was increased to eleven hundred.

On the nineteenth the royalists were paraded,
with a view to assail Moore on the following night ;
but his camp was too strong to be attempted ; and at
the bare suspicion of such a project, two companies
of Cotton's corps ran off with their arms. On that
day Donald Macdonald, their commander, sent Donald
Morrison with a proclamation, prepared the month
before by Martin, calling on Moore and his troops to
join the king's standard, or to be considered as ene-
mies. Moore made answer instantly, that "neither
his duty nor his inclination permitted him to accept
terms so incompatible with American freedom ; " and
in return, he besought Macdonald not to array the
deluded people under his command, against men who
were resolved to hazard every thing in defence of the
liberties of mankind. " You declare sentiments of
revolt, hostility, and rebellion to the king and to the
constitution," was Macdonald's prompt answer ; 'c as
a soldier in his majesty's service, it is my duty to con-
quer, if I cannot reclaim, all those who may be hardy
enough to take up arms against the best of masters."

But knowing that Caswell, at the head of the gal-
lant minute men of Newbern, and others to the num-

286 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CLVIL' ^er °^ s*x or eigkt hundred, was marching through
— , — Duplin county, to effect a junction with Moore, Mac-
3p7h5' donald became aware of the extremity of his danger;
cut off from the direct road along the Cape Fear, he
resolved to leave the army at Rockfish in his rear,
and by celerity of movement, and crossing rivers at
unexpected places, to disengage himself from that
larger force, and encounter the party with Caswell
alone. Before marching, he urged his men to fidelity,
expressed bitter scorn of " the base cravens who had
deserted the night before ; " and continued : " If any
amongst you is so faint-hearted as not to serve with
the resolution of conquering or dying, this is the time
for such to declare themselves." The speech was
answered by a general huzza for the king ; but from
Cotton's corps about twenty men laid down their
arms. The army then marched to Fayetteville, em-
ployed the night in crossing the Cape Fear, sunk
their boats, and sent a party fifteen miles in advance
to secure the bridge over South River. This the
main body passed on the twenty first, and took the
direct route to Wilmington. On the day on which
they effected the passage, Moore detached Lillington
and Ashe to reenforce Caswell, or, if that could not
be effected, to occupy Moore's Creek bridge.

On the following days the Scots and Regulators
drew near to Caswell, who perceived their purpose,
and changed his own course the more effectually to
intercept their march. On the twenty third they
thought to overtake him, and were arrayed in the or-
der of battle, eighty able-bodied Highlanders, armed
with broadswords, forming the centre of the army ;
but Caswell was already posted at Corbett's Ferry,

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 287

and could not be reached for want of boats. The CHAP.
royalists were in extreme danger ; but at a point six — , — '
miles higher up the Black River a negro succeeded in
raising for their use a broad shallow boat; and while
Maclean and Fraser, with a few *men, a drum and a
pipe, were left to amuse Caswell, the main body of
the loyalists crossed Black River near what is now
Newkirk Bridge.

On the twenty fifth Lillington, who had not as
yet been able to join Caswell, took post with his small
party on the east side of the bridge over Moore's
Creek. On the afternoon of the twenty sixth, Caswell
reached its west side, and raising a small breastwork
and destroying a part of the bridge, awaited the
enemy, who on that day advanced within six miles of
him. A messenger from the loyalists, sent to his
camp under the pretext of summoning him to return
to his allegiance, brought back word that he had
halted upon the same side of the river with them-
selves, and could be attacked with advantage ; but
the wise Carolina commander, who was one of the best
woodmen in the province, as well as a man of supe-
rior ability, had no sooner misled his enemy, than
lighting up fires and leaving them burning, he crossed
the creek, took off the planks from the bridge, and
placed his men behind trees and such slight intrench-
ments as the night permitted to be thrown up.

The loyalists, expecting an easy victory, unani-
mously agreed that his camp should be immediately
assaulted. His force at that time amounted to a
thousand men, consisting of the Newbern minute men,
of militia from Craven, Johnson, Dobbs, and "Wake
counties, and the detachment under Lillington. The

288 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, army under Macdonald, who was himself confined to
v— , — • his tent by illness, numbered between fifteen and six-
1776. teen hundred. At one o'clock in the morning of the

Feb.

twenty seventh, the loyalists, commanded by Donald
Macleod, began theif march ; but it cost so much time
to cross an intervening morass, that it was within an
hour of daylight before they reached the western
bank of the creek. There they had expected to find
Caswell encamped ; they entered the ground in three
columns without resistance, for Caswell and all his
force had taken post on the opposite side. The Scots
were now within less than twenty miles of Wilming-
ton ; orders were directly given to reduce the columns,
and for the sake of concealment to form the line of
battle within the verge of the wood ; the rallying cry
was, " King George and broadswords ; " the signal for
the attack, three cheers, the drum to beat and the
pipes to play. It was still dark ; Macleod, who led
the van of about forty, was challenged at the bridge
by the Carolina sentinels, asking: u Who goes there?"
He answered : " A friend." — " A friend to whom ? " — •
" To the king." Upon this the sentinels bent them-
selves down with their faces towards the ground.
Macleod then challenged them in Gaelic, thinking
they might be some of his own party who had crossed
the bridge ; receiving no answer, he fired his own
piece, and ordered those with him to fire. Of the
bridge that separated the Scots and the Carolinians,
nothing had been left but the two logs, which had
served as sleepers ; only two persons therefore could
pass at a time. Donald Macleod and John Campbell
rushed forward and succeeded in getting over ; High-
landers who followed with broadswords, were shot

BRITAIN BEATS UP FOR RECRUITS IN AMERICA. 289

down on the logs, falling into the deep and muddy CHAP.
water of the creek. Macleod, who was greatly — ^
esteemed for his valor and his worth, was mortally ll7,6-
wounded ; and yet he was seen to rise repeatedly from
the ground, flourishing his sword and encouraging his
men to come on, till he received twenty six, or as some
say thirty six balls in his body. Campbell also was
shot dead. It was impossible to furnish men for the
deadly pass, and in a very few minutes the assailants
fled in irretrievable despair. The Americans had but
three wounded, one only mortally ; of their opponents,
about thirty, less than fifty at most, were killed and
mortally wounded, most of them while passing the
bridge. The routed fugitives could never be rallied ;
during the following day the aged Macdonald, their
general, and many others of the chief men, were
taken prisoners ; amongst the rest, Macdonald of
Kingsborough and one of his sons, who were at first
confined in Halifax jail and afterwards transferred
to Reading in Pennsylvania. Thirteen wagons, with
complete sets of horses, eighteen hundred stand of
arms, one hundred and fifty swords, two medicine
chests just received from England, a box containing
fifteen thousand pounds sterling in gold, fell to the
victors ; eight or nine hundred common soldiers were
taken, disarmed, and dismissed.

A generous zeal pervaded all ranks of people in
every part of North Carolina; in less than a fort-
night more than nine thousand four hundred men had
risen against the enemy ; and the coming of Clinton
inspired no terror. They knew well the difficulty
of moving from the sea into their back country, and
almost every man was ready to turn out at an hour's
YOL. YIII. 25

290 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, warning. Moore, under orders from the council, dis-
^v-^ armed the Highlanders and Regulators of the back
country, and sent the ringleaders to Halifax jail.
Virginia offered assistance, and South Carolina would
gladly have contributed relief; but North Carolina
had men enough of her own to crush the insurrection
and guard against invasion ; and as they marched in
triumph through their piny forests, they were per-
suaded that in their own woods they could win an
easy victory over British regulars. Martin had prom-
ised the king to raise ten thousand recruits ; the
storeship, with their ten thousand stands of arms and
two millions of cartridges, was then buffeting the
storms of the Atlantic ; and he could not supply a
single company. North Carolina remained confident,
secure, and tranquil ; the terrors of a fate like that of
Norfolk could not dismay the patriots of "Wilming-
ton ; the people spoke more and more of indepen-
dence ; and the provincial congress, at its impending
session, was expected to give an authoritative form to
the prevailing desire.

CHAPTER LIX.

BOSTON DELIVERED.

FEBRUARY — MARCH, 17T6.

IN February, 17 76, the commander in chief of CHAP.
the American army found himself supplied with only si^L
money enough to answer claims antecedent to the me.
last day of December ; his want of powder was still
so great as to require the most careful concealment.
Congress had strangely lavished its resources on the
equipment of a navy ; leaving him in such dearth of
the materials of war, that he was compelled to look for
them in every direction, and at one time had even asked
if something could be spared him from the hoped-for
acquisitions of Montgomery. Having no permanent
army, and unable to enlist for the year a sufficient
number of soldiers to defend his lines, he was obliged
to rely for two months on the service of three regiments
of militia from Connecticut, one from New Hampshire,
and six from Massachusetts ; but at the same time,
with all the explicitness and force that his experience,
his dangers, and his trials could suggest, he set be-

292 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, fore congress the ruinous imperfections of their mili-
— ^ taiy system. To the vast numbers of mercenary
^ro°Ps ^kat were to come over in spring to reenforce
his enemy, he could indulge no hope of opposing any
thing better than fleeting bands of undisciplined men,
ill-clad, and poorly armed. In this dark period his
own spirit never drooped. Once when the bay,
west of Boston, was frozen over, he would have led
his army across the ice into the town, if the spirit of
the soldiers and the advice of the officers had left
him room to hope success ; but ever holding it indis-
pensable to make a bold attempt against the British,
he persevered in his purpose to break up their
"nest" and drive them out of Boston, though he had
in reserve but one hundred barrels of powder.

The army in Boston consisted of nearly eight
thousand rank and file, beside officers and the com-
plements of the ships of war. The young men who
held commissions, were full of ingenious devices to
amuse the common soldiers and to relieve the weari-
someness of their own hours. The Old South meet-
ing house was turned into a riding school for the
light dragoons; Faneuil Hall became a playhouse,
where the officers appeared as actors on the stage ;
they even attempted balls and planned a masquerade.
The winter was mild ; so that navigation was not in-
terrupted, and provisions were imported in abun-
dance from Ireland and England, from Barbados and
Antigua. Thus they whiled away the time in their
comfortable quarters, without a thought of danger,
awaiting early summer, and large re enforcements,
preparatory to their removal to New York.

The possession of Dorchester Heights would give

BOSTON DELIVERED. 293

Washington the command of Boston and of a large CHAP.
part of the harbor. HI supplied as he was with pow- ^r^
der, and having no resource for artillery but in the ^J,6*
captures made from the enemy by privateers and the
cannon which had been dragged overland from Lake
George, he still made the necessary arrangements to
occupy the position, in the hope to bring the enemy
out and force them to offer battle. To that end the
council of Massachusetts, at his request, called in the
militia of the nearest towns. The engineer employed
to devise and superintend the works was Rufus Put-
nam ; and the time chosen for their erection was the
eve of the anniversary of " the Boston massacre." To Mar.
harass the enemy and divert attention, a heavy can-
nonade and bombardment of the town was kept up
during the two previous nights. Soon after candle-
light on the fourth of March, the firing was renewed
with greater vehemence than before from Cobble Hill,
now Somerville, from Lechmere's Point, now East
Cambridge, and from a battery in Roxbury, and was
returned with such zeal by the British, that a continued
roar of cannon and mortars was heard from seven
o'clock till daylight. As soon as it had begun, Wash-
ington proceeded to take possession of the Heights of
Dorchester. All the requisite dispositions, including
the method of baffling an attack, had been deliberate-
ly considered, and prepared with consummate skill ;
every thing was ready ; every man knew his place,
his specific task, and the duty of executing it with
celerity and silence. A party of eight hundred went
in advance as a guard ; one half of them taking post
on the height nearest Boston ; the other at the eastern-
most point, opposite the castle. They were followed
VOL. VHI. 25*

294 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, by carts with intrenching tools, #nd by the working
^ — party of twelve hundred under the command of
1 ? 7 e • Thomas, an officer whose great merit on this occasion
is the more to be remembered from the shortness of
his career. The ground, for eighteen inches deep,
was frozen too hard to yield earth for the defences ;
but the foresight of the chief had amply provided
substitutes ; a train of more than three hundred carts,
easily drawn by oxen over the frozen marshes,
brought bundles of screwed hay to form a cover
for Dorchester Neck where it was exposed to a
raking fire, and an amazing quantity of gabions and
fascines and chandeliers for the redoubts. The
drivers, as they goaded on their cattle, suppressed
their voices; the westerly wind carried all sound
away from the town. Washington perceived with
delight that his movement was unobserved, and that
the ceaseless noise of artillery alone attracted atten-
tion. The hours, as they flew by, were the most
eventful of his life ; after nine months of intolerable
waiting, a crisis was at hand, but every thing was
prepared to ensure his success; and as he raised the
intrenchments of American independence on the
heights of Dorchester, he had a happiness of mind till
then unknown to him during the siege. The night,
though cold, was not severely so ; the temperature
was the fittest that could be for out-door work ; the
haze that denotes a softening of the air hung round
the base of the ridge ; above him, the moon, which
that morning had become full, was shining in cloud-
less lustre ; at his side, hundreds of men toiled in
stillness at the frozen ground with an assiduity that
knew nothing of fatigue ; the three hundred teams

BOSTON DELIVERED. 295

were all at the same time in motion, going backwards CHAP.
and forwards, some three, some four times ; beneath ^ —
him, in the town, lay the British general, indifferent

_ , ,

to the incessant noise of cannon, never dreaming of an
ejectment from his comfortable winter quarters; the
army that checkered the quiet place with martial
show, reposed without special watchfulness or fear ;
the crowd of ships in the fleet rode proudly in the
spacious harbor, motionless except as they turned on
their moorings with the tide, unsuspicious of peril;
the wretched, unarmed inhabitants of Boston, emaci-
ated from want of wholesome food, pining after free-
dom, as yet little cheered by hope, trembled lest their
own houses should be struck in the tumult, which
raged as if heaven and earth were at variance ; the
common people that were left in the villages all
around, chiefly women and children, driven from
their beds by the rattling of their windows and the
jar of their houses, could watch from the hill-tops the
flight of every shell that was thrown, and waited for
morning with wonder and anxiety. In England the
ministry trusted implicitly the assurances of Howe,
that he " was not under the least apprehensions of
any attack from the rebels ; " the king expected that
after wintering in Boston, and awaiting reenforce-
ments, he would, in May or in the first week of June,
sail for New York ; the courtiers were wishing Bos-
ton and all New England sunk to the very bottom of
the sea.

At about three in the morning the working party
was relieved ; but the toil was continued with unre-
mitted energy, so that in one night strong redoubts,
amply secure against grapeshot and musketry, crowned

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

296

CFixP' eac^ °^ ^e ^wo kiHs > an abattis constructed of trees,
— — felled in the neighboring orchards, protected the foot
*Mar °^ ^e ridge ; the top was surmounted by barrels, filled
with earth and stones, which, as the hill sides were
steep and bare of trees and bushes, were, in case of an
attack, to be rolled down against the assailing columns.
" Perhaps there never was so much work done in so
short a space of time." Some time after daybreak
on the morning of the fifth, the British from Boston
beheld with astonishment and dismay the forts which
had sprung up in a night. At the discovery the
batteries on both sides ceased to play, and a fearful
quiet prevailed. Howe, as he saw the new intrench-
ments loom in imposing strength, reported that " they
must have been the employment of at least twelve
thousand men ;" and some of his officers acknowledged,
that the sudden appearance recalled the wonderful
stories in eastern romances of enchantment and the
invisible agency of fairy hands. The British general
found himself surpassed in military skill by officers
whom he had pretended to despise. One unexpected
combination, concerted with faultless ability, and sud-
denly executed, had in a few hours made his position
untenable. His army at that time was well supplied
with provisions from vessels which were constantly
coming into port; the Americans, on the contrary,
were poorly cared for and poorly paid : the British
had abundance of artillery; the Americans had al-
most no large guns that were serviceable : the Brit-
ish had a profusion of ammunition ; the Americans
scarce enough to supply their few cannon for six or
eight days ; and yet the British had no choice but to
dislodge the New England farmers or retreat. Left

BOSTON DELIVERED. 297

very much to himself, Howe knew not what to pro-
pose ; neither Burgoyne nor Clinton was with him to
share his responsibility. "If they retain possession
of the heights," said Admiral Shuldham, " I cannot
keep a ship in the harbor." A council of war was
called, and it was determined to assault the Amer-
icans. Washington had provided for the contin-
gency ; and had the British made a vigorous sally
against the party at Dorchester, the Americans had
floating batteries and boats ready to carry four thou-
sand men into Boston. All day long the neighboring
hills which commanded a view of the scene, were
crowded with spectators, who watched the bustle,
hurry, and alarm in the town. Twenty four hundred
men were detailed and put under the command of
Lord Percy to make the attack; but the men were
pale and dejected ; they shared the general consterna-
tion and remembered Bunker Hill ; and Percy showed
no heart for an enterprise, which Howe himself con-
fessed to be hazardous. When they were seen to en-
ter the boats, the Americans on the heights, who
now expected an immediate attack, kindled with joy
in their confidence of repelling them victoriously.
Washington said : " Remember, it is the fifth of
March, a day never to be forgotten ; avenge the
death of your brethren ; " and the words, as they flew
from mouth to mouth, inflamed still more the courage
of his soldiers. But they were doomed to disappoint-
ment ; the British sallying party and Percy, who did
not intend to attempt scaling the heights till after
nightfall, were borne in the transports to the castle ;
in the afternoon a violent storm of wind came up
from the south, and about midnight blew with such

298 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, fury that two or three vessels were driven on shore;
— r^ rain fell in torrents on the morning of the sixth ; so
1UQ' that the movement against the American lines was
still further delayed, till it became undeniably evi-
dent, that the attempt must end in the utter ruin of
the British army. "If we had powder," said Wash-
ington, " I would give them a dose they would not
well like." Their hostile appearances subsided;
Howe called a second council of war, and its mem-
bers were obliged to advise the instant evacuation of
Boston.

When the orders for that evacuation were issued,
the loyal inhabitants and the royalists who had fled
to the town for refuge, were struck with sudden hor-
ror and despair, as though smitten by a thunderbolt
out of a clear sky. Their error had grown from
their confidence in the overwhelming force of the
British power, which was to have been able to ravage
the country in undisputed triumph, and restore them
to the safe enjoyment of their possessions. Some of
them were wretched time-servers, whose loyalty was
prompted by the passion for gain and advancement ;
others were among the wealthiest and most upright
persons in the colony, who, from the principle of
honor, had left their homes, their fortunes, and even
their families, to rally round the standard of their
sovereign. Now the condition of the army was so
desperate, that there was no time even to propose a
capitulation for their safety, and the best that their
sovereign could offer them was a passage in crowded
transports from the cherished land of their nativity
to the inhospitable shores of Nova Scotia, where they
must remain, cut off from all that is dearest and

BOSTON DELIVERED. 299

pleasantest in life ; condemned to hopeless inferiority CHAP.
in a dreary place of exile ; foregoing for the future — ^
the pride and joy of healthful activity; exchanging
the delight of a love of country for a paralyzing,
degrading sentiment of useless loyalty ; beggared in
their sympathies as well as in their fortunes ; doomed
to depend on the scanty charities, grudgingly doled
out, of a monarch for whom they had surrendered
every thing, and to find how hard are the steps of
the great men's houses, at which needy suppliants
must ever renew their importunities.

The greatest disgrace to the arms of the British
was the manifest confession of their inability to pro-
tect their friends, who had risked every thing in
their cause. Who could now put trust in their
promises ? On the eighth, Howe, through the select-
men of Boston, wished to come to an understanding
with Washington that the town should be spared,
provided he might be suffered to leave it without
molestation. The unauthenticated proposal could
meet with no reply from the American commander
in chief, who continued to strengthen his lines, drew
nearer and nearer to his enemy, and used his artillery
sparingly only from want of ammunition. On the
night following the ninth, a strong detachment be-
gan a fort on Nook Hill, which commanded Boston
Neck; but some of the men having imprudently
lighted a fire, the British, with their cannon and mor-
tars, were able to interrupt the work; and yet as
Washington did not abandon his design, Howe was
compelled to hasten his embarkation. In November
he had given as a reason for not then changing the
scene of the war, that he had not transports enough

300 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, to remove his troops : now he had a larger force and
— v^- fewer transports. He pretended that he went from
Boston f°r refreshment ; but in point of quarters it
could be no great refreshment, to go from one of the
largest towns in America to one of the least, where
the troops were in part kept on shipboard, stived up
one upon another, in part encamped on ground deeply
covered with snow ; where the officers and refugees,
many of whom were almost penniless, suffered every
extortion, and paid sixfold price for the meanest shel-
ter over their heads ; and where he found less forage
and provisions for the king's troops than he left be-
hind him, at Boston, for Washington's army.

He gave out that his object was the strengthening
of Halifax ; but on the third of the preceding Decem-
ber, 1775, he had written home, that "that place was
in perfect security." He offered the excuse that he
wanted an opportunity for the exercise of his troops
in line ; and was it for that end that troops, whose
destination was New York, were carried six hundred
miles out of their way, as though there had been no
place for parade but in Nova Scotia? A chosen
British army, with chosen officers, equipped with
every thing essential to war, sent to correct revolted
subjects, to chastise a resisting town, to assert the
authority of the British parliament, after being im-
prisoned for many tedious months in the place they
were to have punished, found no refuge but on board
the fleet.

In these very hours the confidence of the ministry
was at its point of culmination ; they had heard of the
safety of Quebec ; they had succeeded in engaging
more than twenty thousand German mercenaries and

BOSTON DELIVERED. 301

recruits, and they would not hearken to a doubt of CHAP.
speedily crushing the rebellion. On the morning of ^~-
the fourteenth of March, the British secretary of state 1 776.
listened to a speech from Thayendanegea, otherwise
named Joseph Brant, a full-blooded Mohawk, of the
Wolf Tribe, the chosen chief of the confederacy of the
Six Nations, who had crossed the great lake to see
King George ; to boast that the savages, " his breth-
ren," had offered the last year to prevent the invasion
of Canada; and to complain that the white people
had given them no support. " Brother," so the Mo-
hawk chief addressed Germain, " we hope to see these
bad children, the New England people, chastised.
The Indians have always been ready to assist the
king." And Germain replied : " Continue to mani-
fest attachment to the king; and be sure of his majes-
ty's favor." George and his ministers promised them-
selves important aid from the Iroquois and North-
western warriors. "Unconditional submission" was
now the watchword of Germain ; and when on the
evening of the same day the Duke of Grafton at-
tempted once more, in the house of lords, to plead
for conciliation, the gentle Dartmouth approved
sending over " a sufficient force to awe the colonies
into submission ;" Hillsborough would " listen to no
accommodation, short of the acknowledgment of the
right of taxation and the submission of Massachusetts
to the law for altering its charter ;" and Mansfield
ridiculed the idea of suspending hostilities, and
laughed moderating counsels away. The ministers
pursued their rash policy with such violence and such
a determination to brave all difficulties, that it was

evident they followed a superior will, which demand-
VOL. vm. 26

302 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, ed implicit obedience. In the laying waste which was
^v— ^ proposed, New England was to be spared the least.
1776. The second night after this last effort in the Brit-

\ti

ish parliament to restrain the impetuous arrogance
of the ministry had been defeated with contemptuous
scorn, Washington gained possession of Nook Hill,
and with it the power of opening the highway from
Roxbury to Boston. At the appearance of this
work, the British retreated precipitately ; the army,
about eight thousand in number, and more than eleven
hundred refugees, began their embarkation at four in
the morning ; in less than six hours they were all put
on board one hundred and twenty transports ; Howe
himself, among the last to leave the town, took pas-
sage with the admiral in the Chatham ; before ten
they were under way; and the citizens of Boston,
from every height and every wharf, could see the
fleet sail out of the harbor in a long line, extending
from the castle to Nantasket Roads.

But where were Thacher, and Mayhew, and Dana,
and Molineux, and Quincy, and Gardner, and War-
ren ? Would that they, and all the martyrs of Lex-
ington and Bunker Hill, had lived to gaze on the
receding sails !

Troops from Roxbury at once moved into Boston,
and others from Cambridge crossed over in boats.
Everywhere appeared marks of hurry in the flight of
the British ; among other stores, they left behind them
two hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, of which one
half were serviceable ; twenty five hundred chaldrons
of sea coal ; twenty five thousand bushels of wheat ;
three thousand bushels of barley and oats; one hun-
dred and fifty horses ; bedding and clothing for sol-

BOSTON DELIVERED. 303

diers. Nor was this all ; several British storeships CHAP.
consigned to Boston, and ignorant of the retreat, ^-^i*
successively entered the harbor without suspicion, and l^76-
fell into the hands of the Americans ; among them
the ship Hope, which, in addition to carbines, bayon-
ets, gun-carriages, and all sorts of tools necessary for
artillery, had on board more than seven times as
much powder as Washington's whole stock when his
last movement was begun.

On the next day, Washington ordered five of his
best regiments to march under Heath to New York.
On the twentieth, the main body of the army made its
entry into Boston ; alive with curiosity to behold the
town which had been the first object of the war, the
immediate cause of hostilities, the place of arms de-
fended by Britain at the cost of more than a million
pounds sterling, and which the continent Jiad con-
tended for so long. Except one meeting-house and a
few wooden buildings which had been used for fuel,
the houses had been left in a good condition. When,
two days later, all restrictions on intercourse with the
town were removed, and the exiles and their friends
streamed in, all hearts were touched at "witnessing
the tender interviews and fond embraces of those who
had been long separated." For Washington, crowded
welcomes ^and words of gratitude hung on the falter-
ing tongues of the liberated inhabitants ; the select-
men of Boston addressed him in their name : " Next
to the divine power we ascribe to your wisdom,
that this acquisition has been made with so little
effusion of human blood ; " and the chief in reply paid
a just tribute to their unparalleled fortitude.

When the quiet of a week had revived ancient

304 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, usages, Washington attended the Thursday lecture,
which had been kept up from the days of Winthrop and
Wilson, an(i all rejoiced with exceeding joy at seeing
this New England Zion once more a quiet habitation ;
they called it "a tabernacle that should never be
taken down, of which not one of the stakes should ever
be removed, nor one of the cords be broken ; " and as
the words were spoken, it seemed as if the old cen-
tury was holding out its hand to the new, and the
puritan ancestry of Massachusetts returning to bless
the deliverer of their children.

On the twenty ninth, the two branches of the
legislature addressed him jointly, dwelling on the
respect he had ever shown to their civil constitution,
as well as on his regard for the lives and health of all
under his command. " Go on," said they, " still go
on, approved by heaven, revered by all good men,
and dreaded by tyrants ; may future generations, in
the peaceful enjoyment of that freedom, which your
sword shall have established, raise the most lasting
monuments to the name of Washington." And
the chief, in his answer, renewed his pledges of " a
regard to every provincial institution." When* the
continental congress, on the motion of John Adams,
voted him thanks, and a commemorative medal of
gold, he modestly transferred their praises to the men
of his command, saying: "They were, indeed, at
first a band of undisciplined husbandmen ; but it is,
under God, to their bravery and attention to duty,
that I am indebted for that success which has pro-
cured me the only reward I wish to receive — the
affection and esteem of my countrymen."

New England was always true to Washington ; the

BOSTON DELIVERED. 305

whole mass of her population, to the end of the war CHAP.
and during all his life, heaved and swelled with sym- — ^
pathy for his fortunes; he could not make a sign to
her for aid, but her sons rose up to his support ; nor
utter advice to his country, but they gave it reverence
and heed.

And never was so great a result obtained at so
small a cost of human life. The putting the British
army to flight was the first decisive victory of the in-
dustrious middling class over the most powerful repre-
sentative of the mediaeval aristocracy ; and the whole
number of New England men killed in the siege after
Washington took the command was less than twenty;
the liberation of New England cost altogether less
than two hundred lives in battle ; and the triumphant
general, as he looked around, enjoyed the serenest
delight, for he saw no mourners among those who
greeted his entry after his bloodless victory.

Within the borders of four New England states,
permanent peace with self-government was from this
time substantially confirmed. And who now, even
in the mother land of Massachusetts, does not rejoice
at this achievement of a people which so thoroughly
represented the middling class of the civilized
world ? How had they shown patience as well as
fortitude ! How long they waited, and when the
right moment came, how promptly they rose ! How
they responded to the inward voice which bade them
claim freedom as a birthright, and dread an acqui-
escence in its loss as a violation of the peace of the
soul! Pious and contented, frugal, laborious, and
affluent; their rule for the government of conduct

was not the pride of chivalry, but the eternal law of

26*

306 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. duty. Lovers of speculative truth, struggling earn-
>^v— ' estly to solve the problem of the universe, in 'an age
°f materialists, they cherished habitually a firm faith
in the subjection of all created things to the rule of
divine justice, and their distinguishing career was one
of action ; the vigor of their will was never paralyzed
by doubt ; they were cheered by confidence in the
amelioration of the race, and embraced in their affec-
tions the world of mankind. This wonderful people
set the example of public schools for all their children,
with a degree of perfection which the ancient mother
country yet vainly strives to rival ; and in their town
governments they revealed the secret of republics.
None knew better than they how to combine the
minute discharge of the every day offices of life with
large, and ready, and generous sympathies ; sometimes
soaring high and far in the daring of their enterprise,
and sometimes following with painful assiduity even
the humblest calling that promised lawful and honest
gain; but always the advocates of disinterested be-
nevolence as the true creed of a nation. The men of
this century have crowned Bunker Hill, from which
divine, triumphant hope attended their fathers in
their retreat, with a monument whose summit greets
the ray of morning, and catches the eye of the
mariner, homeward bound. Around that spot how
all is changed ! A wealthy town rises over the
pastures which the British columns wet with their
blood ; the city of Boston covers compactly its old
soil and fills the bay, and encroaches on the sea with
its magazines, and workshops, and dwellings; the
genius of commerce, rapidly effacing every landmark
of the siege, has already levelled the site of Wash-

BOSTON DELIVERED. 307

ington's last fort ; the overflowing population extends CHAP
itself into the adjacent country ; the rivers, as they
fall and flow on, are made to toil for man ; restless in-
telligence teaches, in countless factories, new beneficial
applications of the laws of nature ; railroads diverge
into the heart of the continent ; ships that are among
the largest and fleetest that ever were constructed,
leave the harbor to visit every quarter of the globe ;
the neighboring college has grown into a university,
true to the cause of good learning, of science, and free
inquiry ; in the happy development of its powers,
New England has calmed the passions that were
roused by oppression, and, tranquilly enjoying inde-
pendence, breathes once more affection for its mother
country, peace to all nations, and good will to man.

CHAPTER LX.

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE.
..FEBRUARY — APRIL, 1776.

CLX.P< ^N ^e nin^n day °f February Jolin Adams re-
sumed his seat in congress, with. Elbridge Gerry for a
c°Heague> m place of the feeble Gushing, and with
instructions from his constituents to establish liberty
in America upon a permanent basis. His nature was
robust and manly ; now he was in the happiest mood
of mind for asserting the independence of his country.
He had confidence in the ability of New England to
drive away their enemy ; in Washington, as a brave
and prudent commander; in his wife, who cheered
him with the fortitude of womanly heroism ; in the
cause of his country, which seemed so bound up with
the welfare of mankind, that Providence could not
suffer its defeat; in himself, for his convictions were
clear, his will fixed, and his mind prepared to let his
little property and his life go, sooner than the rights
of his country.

Looking into himself he saw weaknesses enough ;
but neither meanness, nor dishonesty, nor timidity.

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 309

His overweening self-esteem was his chief blemish; CHAP.
and if he compared himself with his great fellow ^-*^>
laborers, there was some point on which he was supe- l? 7 6 •
rior to any one of them ; he had more learning than
Washington, or any other American statesman of his
age ; better knowledge of liberty as founded in law
than Samuel Adams; clearer insight into the con-
structive elements of government than Franklin ; more
power in debate than Jefferson ; more courageous man-
liness than Dickinson ; more force in motion than Jay ;
so that, by varying and confining his comparisons, he
could easily fancy himself the greatest of them all.
He was capable of thinking himself the centre of any
circle, of which he had been no more than a tangent ;
his vanity was in such excess that in manhood it some-
times confused his judgment and in age bewildered
his memory ; but the stain did not reach beyond the
surface ; it impaired the lustre, not the hardy integrity
of his character. He was humane and frank, gen-
erous and clement ; yet he wanted that spirit of love
which reconciles to being outdone. He could not
look with complacency on those who excelled him, and
regarded another's bearing away the palm as a wrong
to himself; he never sat placidly under the shade of a
greater reputation than his own, and could try to jos-
tle aside the presumptuous possessor of recognised
superiority ; but his envy, though it laid open how
deeply his self-love was wounded, had hardly a tinge
of malignity, and never led him to derelictions for the
sake of revenge. He did his fame injustice when, later
in life, he represented himself as suffering from perse-
cutions on account of his early zeal for independence ;
he was no weakling to whine about injured feelings ; he

310 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, went to his task, bright, and cheery, and brave ; he
^-^ was the hammer and not the anvil; and it was for
others to fear his prowess and to shrink under his
blows. His courage was unflinching in debate and
everywhere else; he never knew what fear is; and
had he gone into the army as he once longed to do,
he would have taken there the virtues of temperance,
decision, and intrepidity. To his latest old age his
spirit was robust, buoyant, and joyous; he saw ten
times as much pleasure as pain in the world ; and
after his arm quivered and his eye grew dim, he was
ready to begin life anew and fight its battle over again.
In his youth he fell among sceptics, read Boling-
broke's works five times through, and accustomed him-
self to reason freely and think boldly ; he esteemed
himself a profound metaphysician, but only skimmed
the speculations of others ; though at first destined
to be a minister, he became a rebel to Calvinism,
and never had any very fixed religious creed ; but for
all that he was a stanch man of New England, and
his fond partiality to its people, its institutions, its
social condition, and its laws, followed him into con-
gress and its committees, and social life, tinctured his
judgment, and clinched his prepossessions; but the
elements in New England that he loved most, were
those which were eminently friendly to universal cul-
ture and republican equality. A poor farmer's son,
bent on making his way in the world, at twenty
years old beginning to earn his own bread, pinched
and starved as master of a stingy country school, he
formed early habits of order and frugality, and
steadily advanced to fortune ; but though exact in his
accounts, there was nothing niggardly in his thrift,

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 311

and his modest hospitality was prompt and hearty. CHAP.
He loved homage, and it made him blind; to those •> — <^
who flattered him he gave his confidence freely,
and often unwisely ; and while he watched the gen-
eral movement of affairs with comprehensive sagacity,
he was never a calm observer of individual men.
He was of the choleric temperament: though his
frame was compact and large, yet from physical or-
ganization he was singularly sensitive ; could break
out into uncontrollable rage, and with all his acqui-
sitions, never learned to rule his own spirit ; but his
anger did not so much drive him to do wrong, as to
do right ungraciously. No man was less fitted to
gain his end by arts of indirection ; he knew not how
to intrigue, was indiscreetly talkative, and almost
thought aloud; whenever he sought to win an un-
certain person to his support, his ways of courtship
were uncouth, so that he made few friends except by
his weight of character, ability, public spirit, and in-
tegrity, was unapt as the leader of a party, and never
appeared so well as when he acted from himself.

Hating intolerance in all its forms, an impassioned
lover of civil liberty, as the glory of man and the
best evidence and the best result of civilization, he,
of all men in congress, was incomparable as a dogma-
tist ; essentially right-minded ; loving to teach with
authority ; pressing onward unsparingly with his ar-
gument ; impatient of contradiction ; unequalled as a
positive champion of the right. He was the Martin
Luther of the American revolution, borne on to utter
his convictions fearlessly by an impulse which for-
bade his acting otherwise. He was now too much in

312 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

earnest, and too much elevated by the greatness of
• — his work, to think of himself; too anxiously desiring
a^' ^° Disparage those who gave it. In the fervor of
his activity, his faults disappeared. His intellect and
public spirit, all the noblest parts of his nature, were
called into the fullest exercise, and strained to the
uttermost of their healthful power. Combining more
than any other, farness of sight and fixedness of belief
with courage and power of utterance, he was looked
up to as the ablest debater in congress. Preserving
some of the habits of the lawyer, he was redundant
in words and cumulative in argument; but his warmth
and sincerity kept him from the affectations of a
pedant or a rhetorician. Forbearance was no longer
in season ; the irrepressible talent of persevering, pe-
remptory assertion was wanted; the more he was
borne along by his own vehement impulses the bet-
ter ; now his country, humanity, the age, the hour,
demanded that the right should be spoken out , his
high excitement had not the air of passion, but ap-
peared, as it was, the clear perception of the sublimity
of his task. When, in the life of a statesman, were
six months of more importance to the race, than these
six months in the career of John Adams?

On resuming his seat, he found a change in the
delegation of South Carolina. That province had
sent to Philadelphia a vessel not larger than a pilot
boat, for Gadsden, who held the highest rank in theii
army : at the risk of capture, the patriot embarked
in January ; fought his way through the ice in the
Delaware, and against headwinds at sea ; escaped the
British cruisers only by running the small craft in

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 313

which he sailed upon the sands of North Carolina, CHAP.
and continuing his journey through Georgetown to ^_^
Charleston by land, encouraged all who came round
him on the way to demand independence. To aid in
forming a new government, the elder Rutledge had
preceded him, leaving the delegation from their col-
ony to suffer from the absence of its strongest will
and its clearest mind. Chase of Maryland kept al-
ways in zeal and decision far ahead of the moderate
among his friends ; but that province had, for the time,
like Pennsylvania, yielded to proprietary influences ;
and its convention looked with distrust upon John
Adams as biassed in favor of revolution by the office
of chief justice of Massachusetts, to which he had
unexpectedly been chosen. Yet while the members
of congress stammered in their utterance, they listened
with disgust to "Wilson, when, on the thirteenth of
February, he presented a very long, ill written
draught of an address to their constituents, in which
they were made to disclaim the idea of renouncing
their allegiance ; and its author, perceiving that the
majority relished neither its style nor its doctrine,
thought fit to allow it to subside without a vote.

On the sixteenth the great measure of enfran-
chising American commerce was seriously considered.
" Open your ports," said a member ; " your trade will
then become of so much consequence that foreigners
will protect you." " In war," argued Wilson, " trade
should be carried on with greater vigor than ever,
after the manner of the United Provinces in their
struggle against Spain. The merchants themselves
must judge of the risks. Our vessels and our seamen
are all abroad ; and unless we open our ports, will
VOL. vin. 27

314 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

*

CHAP, not return." Sherman wished first to secure a pro-

IjX. *

" — » — • tective treaty with a foreign power. Harrison said
more explicitly: "We have hobbled on under a fatal
attachment to Great Britain ; I felt that attachment
as much as any man, but I feel a stronger one to my
country. Wythe now took the lead. In him a vig-
orous intellect was obedient to duty ; a learned and
able lawyer, he also cultivated poetry and letters ; not
rich, he was above want ; in his habits he was as ab-
increase his store ; in his habits of life he was as ab-
stemious as an ascetic; his manners had the frolic mirth-
fulness of innocence. Genial and loving, overflowing
with charity and benevolence, he blended the gentle-
ness of human kindness with sincerity in his conduct,
and indomitable firmness in his convictions of right.
From 17Y4 his views coincided with those of Jeffer-
son, and his dovelike sweetness of temper, his trans-
parent artlessness, his simplicity of character, his legal
erudition and acuteness, added persuasion to his words,
as he drew attention to the real point at issue : " It is
too true our ships may be taken unless we provide a
remedy ; but we may authorize vessels to arm, and we
may give letters of marque and reprisal. We may
also invite foreign powers to make treaties of com-
merce with us ; but before this measure is adopted,
it is to be considered in what character we shall treat ?
As subjects of Great Britain? As rebels ? No : we
must declare our selves a free people." With this ex-
planation he moved a resolution, " That the colonies
have a right to contract alliances with foreign pow-
ers." "This is independence," said an objector. The
question whether the resolution should be consider-
ed, was decided in the affirmative by seven colonies

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 315

against five ; but nothing more was determined. The CHAP.
debate on opening the ports was then continued ; but — , —
seven weeks of hesitation preceded its decision.

On the day of this discussion the assembly of
Pennsylvania formed a quorum. It required of
Joseph Reed, who had been chosen a member in the
place of Mifflin, the oath of allegiance to King George ;
in a few days, the more wary Franklin, who thus far
had not taken his seat in so loyal a body, sent in his
resignation, under a plea of age, and was succeeded
by Rittenhouse.

On the nineteenth, Smith, the provost of the col-
lege in Philadelphia, delivered before congress, the
Pennsylvania assembly, and other invited bodies, a
eulogy on Montgomery ; when, two days later, Wil-
liam Livingston moved a vote of thanks to the
speaker, with a request that he would print his ora-
tion, earnest objections were raised, " because he had
declared the sentiments of the congress to be in favor
of continuing in a state of dependence." Livingston
was sustained by Duane, Wilson, and Willing ; was
opposed by Chase, John Adams, Wythe, Edward Rut-
ledge, Wolcott, and Sherman; and at last the motion
was withdrawn.

Yet there still prevailed a disinclination to grap-
ple with the ever recurring question which required
immediate solution. The system of short enlistments
appeared to Washington so fraught with danger, that,
unasked by congress and even against their resolves,
he forced his advice upon them ; and on the twenty
second they took into consideration his importunate
protest against the policy of raising a new army for
each campaign. The system, of which the hazard was

316 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, incalculable, had precipitated the fate of Montgom-
— , — ery, had exposed his own position to imminent peril.
Successive bodies of raw recruits could not form a
well disciplined army, or perform the service of vet-
erans; their losses were always great while becoming
inured to the camp; it was their nature to waste
arms, ammunition, camp utensils, and barracks ; disci-
pline would be relaxed for the sake of inducing a
second enlistment ; the expense of calling in militia
men, of whom at every relief two must be paid for
the service of one, was enormous. The trouble and
perplexity of disbanding one army and raising another
at the same instant, and in the presence of an enemy
were, as he knew, " such as it is scarcely in the power
of words to describe, and such as no man who had
experienced them once would ever undergo again."
He therefore proposed that a large bounty should be
offered and soldiers enlisted for the war.

The obvious wisdom of the advice and the solem-
nity with which it was enforced, arrested attention ;
and Samuel Adams proposed to take up the question
of lengthening the time -of enlistments, which had
originally been limited from the hope of a speedy
reconciliation. Some members would not yet admit
the thought of a protracted war ; some rested hope on
Buckingham and Chatham ; some wished first to as-
certain the powers of the coming commissioners ; some
wished to wait for an explicit declaration from France ;
from the revolution of 1688 opposition to a standing
army had been the watchword of liberty ; the New
England colonies had from their beginning been de-
fended by their own militia ; in the last French war,
troops had been called out only for the season. " En-

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 317

listment for a long period," said Sherman, " is a state CHAP.
of slavery ; a rotation of service in arms is favorable — Y—^
to liberty." "I am in favor of the proposition to 1Z7b6-
raise men for the war," said John Adams ; " but not
to depend upon it, as men must be averse to it, and
the war may last ten years." Congress was not in a
mood to adopt decisive measures ; and the touching
entreaties of the general were passed by unheeded.
England was sending over veteran armies; and they
were to be met by soldiers engaged only for a year.

The debate branched off into a discussion on the
pay of officers, respecting which the frugal statesmen
of the north differed from those of the south ; John
Adams thought the democratic tendency in New Eng-
land less dangerous than the aristocratic tendency
elsewhere ; and Harrison seemed to insinuate that* the
war was a New England war. But it was becoming
plain that danger hung over every part of the coun-
try ; on the twenty seventh, the five middle colonies
from New York to Maryland were therefore consti-
tuted one military department, the four, south of the
Potomac, another ; and on the first of March, six new
generals of brigade were appointed. In the selection
for Virginia there was difficulty : Patrick Henry had
been the first colonel in her army ; but the committee
of safety did not favor his military ambition, and the
prevailing opinion recalled him to civil life ; in the judg-
ment of Washington, "Mercer would have supplied the
place well ; " but he was a native of Scotland ; so the
choice fell upon Andrew Lewis, wliose courage Wash-
ington did not question, but who still suffered from
" the odium thrown upon his conduct at Kanawha,"
where he had lingered in his camp, while the officers

VOL. viii. 27*

318 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and men, whom he sent forth, with fearless gallantry
and a terrible loss of life, shed over Virginia a lustre
^a^ reacned to Tennessee and Kentucky. Congress
soon repented of its election ; and in less than a year
forced Lewis to resign, by promoting an officer of very
little merit over his head.

To meet the expenses of the war, four millions of
dollars in bills were ordered to be struck; which,
with six millions already issued, would form a paper
currency of ten millions. A few days later a commit-
tee of seven, including Duane and Robert Morris, was
appointed on the ways and means of raising the sup-
plies for the year, over and above the emission of
bills of credit ; but they never so much as made a re-
port. Another committee was appointed, continued,
and enlarged, and their labors were equally fruitless.
Congress had neither credit to borrow nor power
to tax.

An officious and unauthorized suggestion from
Lord Drummond to send a deputation to England in
quest of " liberal terms founded in equity and can-
dor," could claim no notice ; the want of supplies,
which was so urgent that two thousand men in Wash-
ington's army were destitute of arms and unable to
procure them, led to an appeal in a different direc-
tion; and Silas Deane, — a graduate of Yale College,
at one time a schoolmaster, afterwards a trader; re-
puted in congress to be well versed in commercial
affairs ; superficial, yet able to write and speak read-
ily and plausibly ; wanting deliberate forecast, accu-
rate information, solidity of judgment, secrecy, and
integrity ; — finding himself left out of the delegation
from Connecticut, whose confidence he never pos-

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE., 319

sessed, solicited and received from the committee of CHAP.
secret correspondence an appointment as commercial
commissioner and agent to France. That country, the
committee instructed him to say, " is pitched upon
for the first application, from an opinion that if we
should, as there is appearance we shall, come to a
total separation with Great Britain, France would be
the power whose friendship it would be fittest for us
to obtain and cultivate." The announcement was
coupled with a request for clothing and arms for
twenty five thousand men, a hundred fieldpieces, and
a suitable quantity of ammunition.

This was the act of a committee ; congress was
itself about to send commissioners to Canada, and
their instructions, reported by John Adams, Wythe,
and Sherman, contained this clause : " You are to de-
clare, that it is our inclination that the people of
Canada may set up such a form of government as
will be most likely in their judgment to produce
their happiness." This invitation to the Canadians
to form a government without any limitation of time,
was, for three or four hours, resisted by Jay and others,
on the ground that it "was an independency;" but
the words were adopted, and they foreshadowed a
similar decision for each one of the United Colonies.

Congress had received the act of parliament pro-
hibiting all trade with the thirteen colonies, and
confiscating their ships and effects as if they were
the ships and effects of open enemies. The first in-
stinct was to retaliate ; and on the sixteenth of
March a committee of the whole considered the pro-
priety of authorizing the inhabitants of the colonies
to fit out privateers. Again it appeared that there

320 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, were those who still listened to the hope of relief
*— Y-^- through Buckingham, or of redress through the royal
1776. commissioners, though the act of parliament confer-
red on them no power but to pardon. On the other
hand, Franklin wished that the measure should be
preceded by a declaration of war, as of one inde-
pendent nation against another. The question was
resumed on the eighteenth ; and after an able debate,
privateers were authorized to cruise against ships and
their cargoes belonging to any inhabitant, not of Ire-
land or the West Indies, but of Great Britain, by the
vote of all New England, New York, Virginia, and
North Carolina, against Pennsylvania and Maryland.
The other colonies were not sufficiently represented
to give their voices.

On the nineteenth, Wythe, with Jay and Wilson,
was appointed to prepare a preamble to the resolu-
tions. Wythe found himself in a minority in the
committee ; and when, on the twenty second, he pre-
sented their report, he moved an amendment, charg-
ing the king himself with their grievances, inasmuch
as he had "rejected their petitions with scorn and
contempt." This was new ground : hitherto congress
had disclaimed the authority of parliament, not alle-
giance to the crown. Jay, Wilson, and Johnson op-
posed the amendment, as effectually severing the king
from the thirteen colonies forever ; it was supported
by Bichard Henry Lee, who seconded it, by Chase,
Sergeant of New Jersey, and Harrison. At the end
of four hours Maryland interposed its veto, and thus
put off the decision for a day; but on the twenty
third the language of Wythe was accepted.

The question of opening the ports, after having

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 321

been for months the chief subject of deliberation, was CHAP.
discussed through all the next fortnight. One kind — ^
of traffic which the European maritime powers still 1776.
encouraged, was absolutely forbidden, not from po-
litical reasons merely, but from a conviction of its
unrighteousness and cruelty ; and without any limita-
tion as to time, or any reservation of a veto to the
respective colonies, it was resolved, " that no slaves
be imported into any of the thirteen United Colonies."
The vote was pregnant with momentous consequences.
From the activity of the trade in the preceding years,
the negro race had been gaining relatively upon the
white ; and as its power consists in the combined force
of its numbers and its intelligence, it might in some
part of the continent have endangered the supre-
macy of the white man ; but he was sure to increase
more rapidly than the negro, now that the continent
was barred against further importations of slaves.
The prohibition made moreover a revolution in the
state of the black men already in America ; from
a body of laborers, many of them barbarians, per-
petually recruited and increased from barbarous Afri-
can tribes, they were transformed into an insulated
class, living in a state of domesticity, dependent for
culture, employment, and support on a superior race ;
and it was then the prevailing opinion, especially in
Virginia, that the total prohibition of the slave trade
would, at no very distant day, be followed by univer-
sal emancipation.

The first who, as far as appears, suggested that
negroes might be emancipated and a " public provision
be made to transport them to Africa, where they
might probably live better than in any other country,"

322 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, was Samuel Hopkins, of Rhode Island, a divine, who
— A- taught that, " through divine interposition, sin is an
1776. advantage to the universe;" a firm believer in the
coming of the millennium ; a theorist of high ideal
conceptions, who held virtue to require more than
disinterested love, a love that is willing to make a
sacrifice of itself. Writing in a town which had
grown rich by the slave trade, he addressed a long
and elaborate memorial to the members of the conti-
nental congress, "entreating them to be the happy
instruments of procuring and establishing universal
liberty to white and black, to be transmitted down to
the latest posterity." His elaborate argument in due
time had influence with some of them in their respec-
tive states, but after diligent search I cannot find
that the document met with any notice whatever
from the continental congress, which scrupulously re-
served to the several colonies the modification of their
internal policy. In several of them, especially in
Massachusetts, in New Jersey, and in Pennsylvania,
opinion was fully formed against slavery, so that on
a declaration of independence it would surely be
speedily abolished ; but the opportunity of calm legis-
lation was waited for.

Letters to members of congress expressed appre-
hension lest the attempt to raise the slaves against
their masters in Virginia should be followed by
severity against the negro ; but no member of con-
gress of any other colony interposed with his advice
or his opinions ; and it is the concurrent testimony of
all, that the Virginians conducted themselves towards
the unfortunate race with moderation and tenderness,
and while their wrath at Dunmore swelled with a

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 323

violence which overwhelmed their internal divisions, CHAP.
and made them well nigh unanimous for indepen- ^^>
dence, it did not turn against the blacks, of whom
even the insurgents, when taken captive, were treated
with forbearance.

The slave trade having been denied to be a legiti-
mate traffic, and branded as a crime against humanity,
at last, on the sixth day of April, the thirteen colonies
threw open their commerce to all the world, " not
subject to the king of Great Britain." In this manner
the colonial system was swept away forever from the
continent, and the flag of every nation invited to its
harbors. The vote abolished the British custom-
houses, and instituted none in their stead. Absolute
free trade took the place of hoary restrictions ; the
products of the world could be imported from any
place in any friendly bottom, and the products of
American industry in like manner exported, without
a tax.

This virtual declaration of independence, made
with no limitation of time, brought the conflict be-
tween the congress and the proprietary government
of Pennsylvania to a crisis, which presaged internal
strife and a war of party against party. On the
twenty eighth of February, the committee of corre-
spondence of Philadelphia, against the wish of Joseph
Reed, their chairman, resolved to call a convention
of the people. This was the wisest measure that
could have been proposed ; and had Dickinson, Mor-
ris, and Reed, like Franklin, Clymer, and Mackean,
joined heartily in its support, no conflict could have
ensued, except between determined royalists and the
friends of American liberty. The proprietary inter-

324

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, est, by the instinct of self-preservation, repelled the
.— v — • thought of independence, wished for delay, and made
1JT76. no concessions but from fear of being superseded by
the people. And how could an assembly of men, who
before entering on their office took the vow of alle-
giance to the king, guide a revolution against his
sovereignty, or be fitly entrusted with the privilege
of electing delegates to the continental congress?
And at a time when all rightful power was held to
be derived from the people, was it proper for a gov-
ernment emanating from the king and having a de-
cided royalist at its head, to assume the reform of
civil institutions for the people of Pennsylvania ?

But the fear of a convention gave the assembly
such a start, that the committee of correspondence
were persuaded to suspend its call. In the assembly
the party of resistance must rely chiefly on Dickin-
son, Morris, and Reed. But the logical contradiction
in the mind of Dickinson, which had manifested itself
in the Farmer's Letters, still perplexed his conduct.
His narrow breast had no room for the large counsels
of true wisdom ; and he urged upon every individual
and every body of men over whom he had any influ-
ence the necessity of making terms of accommodation
with Great Britain. In this way he dulled the resent-
ment of the people, and paralyzed the manly impulse
of self-sacrificing courage. The royalists shored up
his declining importance, and, in their name, Inglis of
New York, for a time rector of Trinity church and
afterwards bishop of Nova Scotia, one of the bitterest
of partisans, publicly burned incense to his "native
candor, his unbounded benevolence, his acknowledged
humanity, his exalted virtue, as the illustrious de«

THE FIRST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 325

fender of the constitution against the syren form of CHAP.
independence."

Kobert Morris, an Englishman "by birth and in
part by education, was a merchant of vast designs,
and was indefatigable in the pursuit of gain ; but he
brought to the American cause courage and weight
of character, " a masterly understanding, an open tem-
per, and an honest heart." With union, he had " no
doubt that the colonies could at their pleasure choose
between a reconciliation and total independence ; "
and he opposed the latter, because he thought its agi-
tation only tended to produce division, of which he
dreaded "even the appearance ;" but if the liberties
of America could not otherwise be secured, he was
ready to renounce the connection with Great Britain
and fight his way through.

Reed, whose influence was enhanced by his pos-
session of the intimate confidence of Washington, had
neither the timidity of Dickinson nor the positiveness
of Morris, and he carried into public affairs less pas-
sion than either. His heart sent out no tendrils to
bind him closely to a party; he willingly left the
outline of his opinions indistinct ; and was led by his
natural temper to desire a compromise between ex-
tremes. His wife was an Englishwoman, but she
nobly encouraged him by her unaffected attachment
to the American cause. His love for his rising and
dependent family made him the more anxious to
avoid a lee shore, and keep where there was room to
tack and change. Elected as the candidate of the
ardent patriots, his principles were naturally thought
to militate against reconciliation ; but in this they
were much misunderstood : it was his judgment that
VOL. vin. 28

326 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, the happiness and prosperity of America would best
^ — be promoted by dependence. In the hope of suf-
^en^ concessions from England, he wished therefore
to maintain the constituted proprietary assembly, to
prevent the call of a popular convention, and to delay
an irrevocable decision.

To check the popular movement, it was neces-
sary to enlarge the representation, raise several bat-
• talions, and reverse the instructions to the Penn-
sylvania delegates. The assembly sat with closed
doors, and all its proceedings manifest a good under-
standing with the proprietary and his friends. A bill
for the increase of the popular representation by
seventeen new members, of whom four were to be
allowed to Philadelphia, was brought in by a com-
mittee of which Dickinson and Reed were the prin-
cipal members; and the ayes and noes on the ques-
tion of its adoption were ostentatiously put on record,
making their omission on all other occasions the more
significant. The act received the sanction of the pro-
prietary governor, and the first day of May was ap-
pointed for the new elections. The house consented
to raise three battalions ; but the proposal to extend
conditionally the period of enlistment to the end of
1777, was carried by the casting vote of the speaker.
For answering the exigencies of the province, eighty
five thousand pounds were ordered by the house to
be forthwith struck in bills of credit. Then, on the
sixth of April, after a long debate, of which there is
no report, the house, just before its adjournment, de-
cided by a great majority not to alter the instructions
given at its last sitting to the delegates for the prov-
ince in congress, and they were once more enjoined

THE FIEST ACT OF INDEPENDENCE. 327

to dissent from and utterly reject any proposition CHAP.
that might lead to a separation from the mother — ^
country, or a change of the proprietary government. 1 776.

This was the result which Dickinson desired;
the support of the assembly of Pennsylvania soothed
the irritation that attended his defeats in congress ;
but Morris was uneasy ; " Where," he asked, " where
are these commissioners ? If they are to come, what
is it that detains them ? It is time we should be on
a certainty."

Duane of New York, who like Robert Morris was
prepared for extreme measures, if the British propo-
sition should prove oppressive or frivolous, like Mor-
ris still desired delay. " I expect little," said he,
" from the justice, and less from the generosity of ad-
ministration ; but the interest of Great Britain may
compel her ministers to offer us reasonable terms ;
while commissioners are daily looked for, I am un-
willing that we should by any irrevocable measure
put it out of our power to terminate this destructive
war ; I wait for the expected propositions with pain-
ful anxiety."

Of this waiting for commissioners Samuel Adams
made a scorn. His words were : " Is not America
already independent ? Why not, then, declare it ? Be-
cause, say some, it will forever shut the door of recon-
ciliation. But Britain will not be reconciled, except
upon our abjectly submitting to tyranny, and asking
and receiving pardon for resisting it." " Moderate gen-
tlemen are nattering themselves with the prospect of
reconciliation when the commissioners that are talked
of shall arrive. But what terms are we to expect
from them that will be acceptable to the people of

328 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. America ? Has the king of Great Britain ever yet
^^ discovered the least degree of that princely virtue —
1776. clemency? It is my opinion that his heart is more
obdurate and his disposition towards the people of
America is more unrelenting and malignant, than was
that of Pharaoh towards the Israelites in Egypt."
" No foreign power can consistently yield comfort to
rebels, or enter into any kind of treaty with these
colonies, till they declare themselves independent."
Yet Dickinson and others, among whom were found
William Livingston of New Jersey, and the elder
Laurens of South Carolina, wished to make no such
declaration before an alliance with the king of
France.

CHAPTER LXI.

TURGOT AND VERGENNES.

MARCH — APRIL, 17T6.

FOR a whole year the problem of granting aid to CHAP.
the American insurgents had under all its aspects been - — ^-
debated in the cabinet of the king of France, and had
not yet found its solution. Louis the Sixteenth was a
bigot to the principle of regal power; but George
the Third wanted, in his eyes, the seal of legitimacy :
his sense of right, which prompted him to keep good
faith with the English, was confused by assertions that
the British ministry was capable of breaking the ex-
isting peace without a warning, if it could thus win
the favor of the people, or votes in parliament : he
disliked to help rebels ; but these rebels were colo-
nists, and his kingdom could recover its share in the
commerce of the world only by crushing the old colo-
nial system, from which France had been shut out.
He had heard and had read very much on the sub-
ject, but without arriving at a conclusion. His min-
isters were irreconcilably divided. Vergennes pro-
VOL. vin. 28*

330 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, moted the emancipation of America with resoluteness

T YT

and prudence, remaining always master of himself, and
alwa}7S mindful that he was a subordinate in the cabi-
net of which he was in truth the stay and the guide.
As minister of foreign affairs, he employed French
diplomacy to bring in a steady current of opinion and
statements that would supersede the necessity of his
advice, which was given so tardily and so calmly, that
it seemed to flow not from himself but from his at-
tachment to monarchy and to France. The quiet and
steady influence of his department slowly and imper-
ceptibly overcame the scruples of the young and in-
experienced prince, whose instincts were dull, and
whose reflective powers could not grasp the question.
Sartine, the minister of the marine, and St. Germain,
the new secretary of war, who had been called from
retirement and poverty to reform the abuses in the
French army, sustained the system of Vergennes.
On the other side, Maurepas, the head of the cab-
inet, was for peace, though his frivolity and desire to
please left his opinions to the control of circum-
stances. Peace was the wish of Malesherbes, who
had the firmness of sincerity, yet was a man of medi-
tation and study rather than of action ; but Turgot,
who excelled them all in administrative ability, and
was the ablest minister of finance that ever served a
Bourbon, was immovable in his opposition to a war
with Britain.

The faithful report from Bonvouloir, the French
agent at Philadelphia, reached Vergennes in the very
first days of March ; and furnished him an occasion
for bringing before the king with unusual solemnity
these " considerations : "

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 331

" The position of England towards its colonies in CHAP.
North America, and the possible and probable con- — ^

sequences of the contest, whatever its issue may be, -
have beyond a doubt every claim to the most serious
attention of France and Spain. Whether they should
desire the subjection or the independence of the Eng-
lish colonies, is problematical; on either hypothesis
they are menaced with danger, which human forecast
can perhaps neither prevent nor turn aside.

" If the continuation of the civil war may be re-
garded as infinitely advantageous to the two crowns,
inasmuch as it will exhaust the victors and the van-
quished, there is, on the other hand, room to fear,
first, that the English ministry, feeling the insuf-
ficiency of its means, may stretch out the hand of
conciliation ; or, secondly, that the king of England,
after conquering English America, may use it as an
instrument to subjugate European England; or, third-
ly, that the English ministry, beaten on the continent
of America, may seek indemnity at the expense of
France and Spain, to efface their shame and to con-
ciliate the insurgents by offering them the commerce
and supply of the isles ; or, fourthly, that the colonists,
on attaining independence, may become conquerors
from necessity, and by forcing their excess of produce
upon Spanish America, destroy the ties which bind
our colonies' to their metropolis.

"These different suppositions can almost equally
conduct to war with France and Spain; on the first,
because England will be tempted, by the large force
she has prepared, to make the too easy conquests,
of which the West Indies offer the opportunity ; on
the second, because the enslavement of the metropo-

332 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, lis can be effected only by flattering the national

^ — ' hatred and jealousy; on the third, through the neces-

1^76. sity of the ministry to divert the rage of the English

people by a useful and brilliant acquisition, which

would be the prize of victory, or the compensation

for defeat, or the pledge of reconciliation.

" The state of the colonies of the two nations is
such, that, with the exception of Havana, perhaps no
one is in a condition to resist the smallest part of the
forces which England now sends to America. The
physical possibility of the conquest is, therefore, too
evident : as to the moral probability of an invasion,
which would be unprovoked and contrary to public
faith and to treaties, we should abuse ourselves strange-
ly by believing the English susceptible of being held
back by such motives. Experience has but too well
proved, that they regard as just and honorable what-
ever is advantageous to their own nation or destructive
to their rivals. Their statesmen never calculate the
actual amount of ill which France does them, but the
amount of ill which she may one day be able to do
them. The opposition seem to have embraced the
same general maxims; and the ministry may seize the
only way of extricating themselves from their embar-
rassment by giving up the reins to Chatham, who,
with Shelburne, Sandwich, Richmond, and Wey-
mouth, may come to terms with the Americans, and
employ the enormous mass of forces put in activity,
to rectify the conditions of the last treaty of peace,
against which they have ever passionately protested.
Englishmen of all parties are persuaded that a pop-
ular war against France or an invasion of Mexico
would terminate, or at least allay, their domestic dis-

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 333

sensions, as well as furnish resources for the extin- CHAP.
guishment of their national debt. • — , — •

" In the midst of so many perils, the strong love 1 776.
of peace, which is the preference of the king and the
king of Spain, seems to prescribe the most measured
course. If the dispositions of these two princes were
for war, if they were disposed to follow the impulse of
their interests and perhaps of the justice of their cause,
which is the cause of humanity, so often outraged by
England, if their military and financial means were
in a state of development proportionate to their sub-
stantial power, it would, without doubt, be necessary
to say to them, that Providence has marked out this
moment for the humiliation of England, that it has
struck her with the blindness which is the surest pre-
cursor of destruction, and that it is time to avenge
upon her, the evils which since the commencement of
the century she has inflicted on those who have had
the misfortune to be her neighbors or her rivals. It
would then be necessary not to neglect any of the
means suited to render the next campaign as animated
as possible and procure advantages to the Americans ;
and the degree of passion and exhaustion would deter-
mine the moment to strike the decisive blows, which
would make England step back into the rank of
secondary powers, ravish from her the empire which
she claims in the four quarters of the world, and de-
liver the universe from a greedy tyrant who is bent
on absorbing all power and all wealth. But this is
not the point of view chosen by the two monarchs ;
and their part appears under actual circumstances to
limit itself, with one exception, to a circumspect but
active foresight.

334

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP.
LXI.

1776,
Mar.

" Care must be taken to avoid being compromised,
and not to provoke the ills which it is wished to pre-
vent ; yet we must not flatter ourselves, that the most
absolute and the most rigorous inaction will guarantee
us from suspicion. The continuance of the war for at
least one year is desirable for the two crowns. To
that end the British ministry must be maintained in
the persuasion that France and Spain are pacific, so
that it may not fear to embark in an active and
costly campaign ; whilst on the other hand the cour-
age of the Americans might be kept up by secret
favors and vague hopes, which would prevent an ac-
commodation, and assist to develop ideas of independ-
ence. The evils which the British will make them
suffer, will imbitter their minds ; their passions will
be more and more inflamed by the war ; and should
the mother country be victorious, she would for a
long time need all her strength to keep down their
spirit ; so that she would never dare to expose herself
to their efforts for the recovery of their liberty in
connection with a foreign enemy.

" If all these considerations are judged to be as true
and as well grounded as they are probable, we ought
to continue with dexterity to tranquillize the English
ministry as to the intentions of France and Spain.
It will also be proper for the two monarchies to ex-
tend to the insurgents secret aid in military stores
and money, without seeking any return for it be-
yond the political object of the moment; but it would
not comport with the dignity or interest of the king
to treat with the insurgents, till the liberty of Eng-
lish America shall have acquired consistency.

" It is at all times useful and proper, in this mo-

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 335

ment of public danger it is indispensable, to raise the CHAP.
effective force of the two monarchies to the height ' — ^
of their real power ; for of all conjectures which cir-
cumstances authorize, the least probable is, that peace
can be preserved, whatever may be the issue of the
present war between England and her colonies.

"Such are the principal points of view which
this important problem admits of, and which have
been simply indicated to the wisdom and penetration
of the king and of his council."

This discussion of America was simultaneous with
the passionate opposition of the aristocracy of France
to the reforms of Turgot. The parliament of Paris
had just refused to register the royal edicts which
he had wisely prepared for the relief of the peasants
and the mechanics of the kingdom. " Ah," said the
king, as he heard of its contumacy, "I see plainly
there is no one but Turgot and I, who love the
people ; " and the registration of the decrees was car-
ried through only by the extreme exercise of his
prerogative against a remonstrance of the aristocracy,
who to the last resisted the measures of justice to the
laboring classes, as " confounding the nobility and the
clergy with the rest of the people."

The king directed Vergennes to communicate his
memorial on the colonies to Turgot, whose written
opinion upon it was required. Vergennes obeyed,
recommending to his colleague secrecy and celerity,
for Spain was anxiously waiting the determination of
the court of France. Turgot took more than three
weeks for deliberation, allowed full course to his
ideas, and on the sixth of April gave the king this Apr.
advice :

336 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. " Whatever may or ought to "be the wish of the
— , — two crowns, nothing can arrest the course of events
which sooner or later will certainly bring about the
absolute independence of the English colonies, and, as
an inevitable consequence, effect a total revolution in
the relations of Europe and America. Of all the sup-
positions that can be made on the event of this war,
the reduction of these colonies by England presents
to the two crowns the perspective of the most lasting
quiet. The Anglo-American enthusiasts for liberty
may be overwhelmed by force, but their will can
never be broken. If their country is laid waste, they
may disperse themselves among the boundless back-
woods, inaccessible to a European army, and from
the depths of their retreats be always ready to trou-
ble the English establishments on their coasts ; while
England would lose all the advantages that she has
thus far derived from America in peace and war. If
it is reduced without a universal devastation, the
courage of the colonists will be like a spring which
remains bent only so long as an undiminished press-
ure weighs it down. If my view is just, if the com-
plete success of the English ministry would be the
most fortunate result for France and Spain, it follows
that the project of that ministry is the most extrava-
gant that could be conceived ; and that very few per-
sons will doubt.

"Should the English government, after painful
and costly efforts, fail in its hostile plans against the
colonies, it will hardly be disposed at once to multi-
ply its enemies, and form enterprises for compensa-
tion at the expense of France and Spain, when it will

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 337

have lost the point of support which could alone have CHAP.
made success probable.

" The present war will probably end in the abso-
lute independence of the colonies, and that event will
certainly be the epoch of the greatest revolution in
the commerce and politics not of England only but of
all Europe. From the prudent conduct, the courage,
and intelligence of the Americans, we may augur that
they will take care, above all things, to give a solid
form to their government, and as a consequence they
will love peace and seek to preserve it.

"The rising republic will have no need of con-
quests to find a market for its products ; it will have
only to open its harbors to all nations. Sooner or
later, with good will or from necessity, all European
nations who have colonies will be obliged to leave
them an entire liberty of trade, to regard them no
more as subject provinces, but as friendly states, dis-
tinct and separate, even if protected. This the in-
dependence of the English colonies will inevitably
hasten. Then the illusion which has lulled our poli-
ticians for two centuries, will be dispelled ; it will be
seen that power founded on monopoly is precarious
and frail, and that the restrictive system was useless
and chimerical at the very time when it dazzled the
most.

"When the English themselves shall recognise
the independence of their colonies, every mother
country will be forced in like manner to exchange
its dominion over its colonies for bonds of friendship
and fraternity. If this is an evil, there is no way of
preventing it, and no course to be taken but resigna-
tion to the absolute necessity. The powers which

VOL. Mil. 29

338 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, shall obstinately resist, will none the less see their
-^ — - colonies escape from them, to become their enemies
i 776. instead of their allies.

"The yearly cost of colonies in peace, the enor-
mous expenditures for their defence in war, lead to
the conclusion that it is more advantageous for us to
grant them entire independence, without waiting for
the moment when events will compel us to give them
np. This view would not long since have been scorned
as a paradox and rejected with indignation. At pres-
ent we may be the less revolted at it, and perhaps it
may not be without utility to prepare consolation for
inevitable events. Wise and happy will be that na-
tion which shall first know how to bend to the new
circumstances, and consent to see in its colonies allies
and not subjects. When the total separation of
America shall have healed the European nations of
the jealousy of commerce, there will exist among men
one great cause of war the less, and it is very difficult
not to desire an event which is to accomplish this
good for the human race. In our colonies we shall
save many millions, and if we acquire the liberty of
commerce and navigation with all the northern con-
tinent, we shall be amply compensated.

" The position of Spain with regard to its Amer-
ican possessions will be more embarrassing. Unhap-
pily she has less facility than any other power to quit
the route that she has followed for two centuries,
and conform to a new order of things. Thus far
she has directed her policy to maintaining the multi-
plied prohibitions with which she has embarrassed
her commerce. She has made no preparations to sub-
stitute for empire over her American provinces a fra-

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 339

ternal connection founded on the identity of origin, CHAP.

• • /» lj.X.1*

language, and manners, without the opposition of ^r—
interests; to offer them liberty as a gift instead of
yielding it to force. Nothing is more worthy of the
wisdom of the king of Spain and his council than
from this present time to fix their attention on the
possibility of this forced separation, and on the meas-
ures to be taken to prepare for it.

" It is a very delicate question to know, if we can
underhand help the Americans to ammunition or
money. There is no difficulty in shutting our eyes on
their purchases in our ports ; our merchants are free
to sell to any who will buy of them ; we do not dis-
tinguish the colonists from the English themselves ;
but to aid the Americans with money would excite in
the English just complaints.

" The idea of sending troops and squadrons into
our colonies for their security against invasion, must
be rejected as ruinous, insufficient, and dangerous.
We ought to limit ourselves to measures of caution,
less expensive, and less approaching to a state of hos-
tility ; to precipitate nothing unless the conduct of
England shall give us reason to believe that she really
thinks of attacking us.

" In combining all circumstances, it may certainly
be believed that the English ministry does not desire
war, and our preparations ought to tend only to the
maintenance of peace. Peace is the choice of the
king of France and the king of Spain. Every plan
of aggression ought to be rejected, first of all from
moral reasons. To these are to be added the reasons
of interest, drawn from the situation of the two pow-
ers. Spain has not in its magazines the requirements

540 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, for arming ships of war, and cannot in time of need

~~v— ' assemble a due number of sailors, nor count on the

1776. ability and experience of its naval officers. Her

finances are not involved, but they could not suffice

for years of extraordinary efforts.

"As for us, the king knows the situation of his
finances; he knows that in spite of economies and
ameliorations already made since the beginning of his
reign, the expenditure exceeds the receipts by twenty
millions ; the deficit can be made good only by an
increase of taxes, a partial bankruptcy, or frugality.
The king from the first has rejected the method of
bankruptcy, and that of an increase of taxes in time
of peace ; but frugality is possible, and requires noth-
ing but a firm will. While the king found his finances
involved, he found his army and navy in a state of
weakness that was scarcely to have been imagined,
For a necessary war resources could be found ; but
war ought to be shunned as the greatest of misfor-
tunes, since it would render impossible, perhaps for
ever, a reform, absolutely necessary to the prosperity
of the state and the solace of the people."

Turgot had been one of the first to foretell and to
desire the independence of the colonies, as the means
of regenerating the world ; his virtues made him wor-
thy to have been the fellow laborer of Washington ;
but as a minister of France, with the superior sagacity
of integrity in its combination with genius, he looked
at passing events through the clear light, free from
refraction or distortion.

The public mind in France applied itself to im-
proving the condition of the common people ; Chas-
tellux, in his work on public felicity, which was just

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 341

then circulating in Paris, with the motto ISTEVER CHAP.
DESPAIR, represented as " the unique end of all gov- • — ,-— >
ernment and the universal aim of all philosophy, the 1 7 7 6.
greatest happiness of the greatest number ; " Turgot,
by his earnest purpose to restrain profligate expendi-
ture and lighten the grievous burdens of the laboring
classes, seemed called forth by Providence to prop
the falling throne and hold back the nobility from the
fathomless chaos towards which they were drifting.
Yet he could look nowhere for support but to the
king, who was unenlightened, with no fixed principle,
and, therefore, naturally inclined to distrust. Males-
herbes, in despair, resolved to retire. Maurepas, who
professed, like Turgot, a preference for peace, could
not conceive the greatness of his soul, and beheld in
him a dangerous rival, whose activity and vigor ex-
posed his own insignificance to public shame. The
keeper of the seals, a worthless man, given up to in-
temperance, greedy of the public money, which, with-
out a change in the head of the treasury, he could not
get either by gift or by embezzlement, nursed this
jealousy; and setting himself up as the champion of
the aristocracy, he prompted Maurepas to say to the
king that Turgot was an enemy to religion and the
royal authority, disposed to annihilate the privileges
of the nobility and to overturn the state.

Sartine had always supported the American policy
of Vergennes, and had repeatedly laid before the king
his views on the importance and utility of the French
colonies, and on the condition of India. " If the navy
of France," said he, "were at this moment able to act,
France never had a fairer opportunity to avenge the
unceasing insults of the English. I beseech your ma-
VOL. vni. 29*

342 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, jesty to consider that England by its most cherished
v^— ' interests, its national character, its form of gov-
1775. ernment, and its position, is and always will be the
true, the unique, and the eternal enemy of France*
Sire, with England no calculation is admissible but
that of her interests and her caprices ; that is, of the
harm that she can do us. In 1755, at a time of per-
fect peace, the English attacked your ships, proving
that they hold nothing sacred. "We have every
reason to fear, that whatever may be the issue of their
war with the insurgents, they will take advantage of
their armament to fall upon your colonies or ports.
Your minister would be chargeable with guilt, if he
did not represent to your majesty the necessity of
adopting the most efficacious measures, to parry the
bad faith of your natural enemies."

These suggestions were received with a passive
acquiescence; the king neither comprehended nor
heeded Turgot's advice, which was put aside by Ver-
gennes as speculative and irrelevant. The correspond-
ence with Madrid continued ; Grimaldi, the Genoese
adventurer, who still was minister for foreign affairs,
complained of England for the aid it had rendered
the enemies of Spain in Morocco, in Algeria, and
near the Philippine Isles, approved of sending aid
clandestinely to the English colonies, and in an auto-
graph letter, despatched without the knowledge even
of the ambassadors of the two courts, promised to
bear a part of the expense, provided the supplies
could be sent from French ports in such a manner
that the participation of the catholic king could be
disavowed. When, on Friday the twenty sixth of
April, the French ministry held a conference with the

TURGOT AND VERGENNES. 343

Spanish ambassador, to consider the dangers that me- CHAP.
naced the two kingdoms and the necessity of pre- — ^
paring for war, neither Turgot nor Malesherbes was
present. Vergennes was left to pursue his own policy
without obstruction, and he followed the precedent set
by England during the troubles in Corsica. After a May.
year's hesitation and resistance, the king of France,
early in May, informed the king of Spain that he had
resolved, under the name of a commercial house, to
advance a million of French livres, about two hundred
thousand dollars, towards the supply of the wants
of the Americans ; the Catholic king, after a few
weeks' delay, using the utmost art to conceal his act,
assigning a false reason at his own treasury for de-
manding the money, and admitting no man in Spain
into the secret of its destination except Grimaldi, re-
mitted to Paris a draft for a million more as his
contribution. Beaumarchais, who was trusted in the
American business and in eighteen months had made
eight voyages to London, had been very fretful, as
if the scheme which he had importunately urged
upon the king had been censured and rejected. " I
sat long in the pit," so Vergennes defended himself,
" before I took a part on the stage ; I have known men
of all classes and of every temper of mind ; in general,
they all railed and found fault ; and yet I have seen
them in their turn commit the errors which they had
so freely condemned ; for an active or a passive princi-
ple, call it as you will, brings men always towards a
common centre. Do not think advice rejected, be-
cause it is not eagerly adopted ; all slumber is not a
lethargy." The French court resolved to increase its

344 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, subsidy, which was to encourage the insurgents to
v— *-^ persevere; and in early summer, Beaumarchais an-
1776. nounced to Arthur Lee, at his chambers in the Tern-

AT & v

pie, that he was authorized to promise the Americans
assistance to the amount of two hundred thousand
louis d'ors, nearly one million of dollars.

CHAPTER LXIL

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLESTAS AND RHODE ISLAOTX

FEBRUARY — MAY, 1TT6.

THE American congress needed an impulse from CHAP.
the resolute spirit of some colonial convention, and an ^-^-
example of a government springing wholly from the 1JT6-
people. Massachusetts had followed closely the forms
of its charter ; New Hampshire had deviated as little
as possible from its former system ; neither of the two
had appointed a chief executive officer. On the
eighth of February the convention of South Carolina,
by Drayton, their president, presented their thanks to
John Rutledge and Henry Middleton for their ser-
vices in the American congress, which had made its
appeal to the King of kings, established a navy, treas-
ury, and general post-office, exercised control over com-
merce, and granted to colonies permission to create
civil institutions, independent of the regal authority.

The next day Gadsden arrived, and in like manner
heard the voice of public gratitude ; in return, he
presented the standard which was to be used by the

346 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. American navy, representing in a yellow field a rat-
^^ tlesnake of thirteen full-grown rattles, coiled to strike,
1~Fob with the motto: DON'T TEEAD ON ME. When, on the
tenth, the report on reforming the provincial govern-
ment was considered, and many hesitated, Gadsden
spoke out not only for the new constitution, but for
the absolute independence of America. The senti-
ment came like a thunderbolt upon the members, of
whom the majority had thus far refused to contem-
plate the end towards which they were irresistibly
impelled. One member avowed his willingness to
ride post by day and night to Philadelphia, in order
to assist in reuniting Great Britain and her colonies ;
another heaped the coarsest abuse upon the author of
Common Sense : but meanwhile the criminal laws
could not be enforced for want of officers ; public and
private affairs were running into confusion ; the immi-
nent danger of invasion was proved by intercepted
letters; so that necessity compelled the adoption of
some adequate system of rule.

While a committee of eleven was preparing the
organic law, Gadsden, on the thirteenth, began to act
as senior officer of the army. Measures of defence
were vigorously pursued, companies of militia called
down to Charleston, and the military forces augment-
ed by two regiments of riflemen. In the early part
of the year Sullivan's Island was a wilderness ; near
the present fort, the wet ground was thickly covered
with myrtle, live oak, and palmettos ; there, on the
Mar. second of March, William Moultrie was ordered to
take the command, and complete a fort large enough
to hold a garrison of a thousand men. The colony,
which had already issued one million one hundred

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLINAS. 347

and twenty thousand pounds of paper money, voted CHAP.
an additional sum of seven hundred and fifty thou- ^^i
sand pounds. 17r76-

. T Mar.

A strong party in the provincial congress, under
the lead of Rawlins Lowndes, endeavored to postpone
the consideration of the form of government reported
by the committee ; but the nearness of danger would
not admit of delay ; and the clauses that were most
resisted, were adopted by a vote of about four to
three. But when, on the twenty first of March, they
received the act of parliament of the preceding De-
cember, which authorized the capture of American
vessels and property, they gave up the hope of recon-
ciliation ; and on the twenty sixth, professing a desire
of accommodation with Great Britain, even " though
traduced and treated as rebels," asserting "the good
of the people to be the origin and end of all govern-
ment," and enumerating with clearness and fulness
the unwarrantable acts of the British parliament, the
implacability of the king, and the violence of the
officers bearing his commission, they established a
constitution for South Carolina. The executive power
was intrusted to a president, who was endowed with
a veto on legislation, and who was also commander in
chief ; the congress then in session resolved itself into
a general assembly till their successors should be
elected by the people in the following October ; the
numerous and arbitrary representation which had
prevailed originally in the committee of 1774 and
had been continued in the first and second congress
of 1775, without respect to numbers or property, was
confirmed by the new instrument, so that Charleston
kept the right of sending thirty members ; the old

348 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, laws prescribing the qualifications of the electors and
— ^ the elected were continued in force; a legislative
1776- council of thirteen was elected by the general assem-
bly out of their own body ; the general assembly and
the legislative council elected jointly by ballot the
president and vice president ; the privy council of
seven was composed of the vice president, three
members chosen by ballot by the assembly, and
three by the legislative council; the judges were
chosen by ballot jointly by the two branches of the
legislature, by whose address they might be removed,
though otherwise they were to hold office during good
behavior.

On the twenty seventh John Eutledge was chosen
president ; Henry Laurens, vice president ; and Wil-
liam Henry Dray ton, chief justice. On accepting
office, Rutledge addressed the general assembly :
" To preside over the welfare of a brave and gener-
ous people is in my opinion the highest honor any
man can receive ; I wish that your choice had fallen
upon one better qualified to discharge the arduous
duties of this station ; yet in so perilous a season as
the present, I will not withhold my best services. I
assure myself of receiving the support and assistance
of every good man in the colony ; and my most fer-
vent prayer to the omnipotent Ruler of the universe
is, that, under his gracious providence, the liberties of
America may be forever preserved."

On the twenty eighth the oaths of office were ad-
ministered : then, to make a formal promulgation of
the new constitution, the council and assembly, pre-
ceded by the president and vice president, and the

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLINAS. 349

sheriff bearing the sword of state, walked out in a CHAP.
solemn procession from the State-house to the Ex- ^^1,

change, in the presence of the troops and the militia
of South Carolina, whose line extended down Broad
street and along the bay ; the people, as they crowded
with transport round the men whom they had chosen
to office, whom they had raised to power from among
themselves, whom they for any misconduct conld dis-
place, whom they knew, and loved, and revered, gazed
on the new order with rapture and tears of joy.

Early in April the legislative bodies, while they Apr
declared that they still earnestly desired an accommo-
dation with Great Britain, addressed the president :
" Conscious of our natural and unalienable rights, and
determined to make every effort to retain them, we
see your elevation, from the midst of us, to govern.
this country, as the natural consequence of unpro-
voked, cruel, and accumulated oppressions. Chosen
by the suffrages of a free people, you will make the
constitution the great rule of your conduct ; in the
discharge of your duties under that constitution we
will support you with our lives and fortunes."

The condition of South Carolina was peculiar ; a
large part of its population was British by birth ; and
many of the herdsmen and hunters in the upper coun-
try had not been on the continent more than ten
years ; they had taken no part in the movements of
resistance ; had sent no gifts to the poor of Boston, no
pledges to Massachusetts. At least one half of the
inhabitants were either inert and unmoved, or more
ready to take part with the king than with the insur-
gents. When the planters who were natives of the

VOL. VIII. 30

350 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

°Lxn ' c°l°ny> risked their fortunes, the peace of their fami-
lies, and their lives, from sympathy with a distant

1]Jf' c°l°ny w^h which they had no similarity of pursuits,
no considerable commerce, and no personal intimacies,
they had in their rear a population still attached to the
crown as well as hostile Indian tribes ; in their houses
and on their estates numerous bondsmen of a different
race; along the sea an unprotected coast, indented
by bays, and inlets, and rivers. But their spirit rose
with danger : in words penned by Drayton and Cotes-
worth Pinckney, the assembly condemned the British
plan of sending commissioners to treat with the several
colonies, as a fraudulent scheme for subverting their
liberties by negotiations, and resolved to communicate
with the court of Great Britain only through the
continental congress.

When, on the eleventh of April, they closed their
session, Rutledge, knowing well that the wished-for
accommodation with Great Britain could never be
obtained, and willing to sacrifice every temporal hap-
piness to establish and perpetuate the freedom of
Carolina, cheered them on towards the consciousness
of having formed an independent republic.

" On my part," said he, " a most solemn oath has
been taken for the faithful discharge of my duty ; on
yours, a solemn assurance has been given to support
me therein. Thus, a public compact between us
stands recorded. I shall keep this oath ever in mind;
the constitution shall be the invariable rule of my
conduct ; our laws and religion, and the liberties of
America, shall be maintained and defended to the ut-
most of my power : I repose the most perfect con-
fidence in your engagement. And now, gentlemen,

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLINAS. 351

let me entreat that if any persons in your several CHAP.
parishes and districts are still strangers to the nature ^^
and merits of the dispute between Great Britain and 1!76*
the colonies, you will explain it to them fully and
teach them, if they are so unfortunate as not to know,
their inherent rights. Relate to them the various un-
just and cruel statutes which the British parliament
have enacted, and the many sanguinary measures to
enforce an unlimited and destructive claim. The en-
deavors to engage barbarous nations to imbrue their
hands in the innocent blood of helpless women and
children, and the attempts to make ignorant domes-
tics subservient to the most wicked purposes, are acts
at which humanity must revolt.

" Show your constituents, then, the indispensable
necessity which there was for establishing some mode
of government in this colony; the benefits of that
which a full and free representation has established ;
and that the consent of the people is the origin, and
their happiness the end of government. Let it be
known that this constitution is but temporary, till an
accommodation of the unhappy differences between
Great Britain and America can be obtained, and that
such an event is still desired. Disdaining private in-
terest and present emolument, when placed in compe-
tition with the liberties of millions, and seeing no
alternative but unconditional submission, or a defence
becoming men born to freedom, no man who is worthy
of life, liberty, or property, will hesitate about the
choice. Although superior force may lay waste our
towns and ravage our country, it can never eradicate
from the breasts of free men those principles which
are ingrafted in their very nature. Such men will

352 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, do their duty, neither knowing nor regarding conse-
^^ quences ; but trusting that the Almighty arm, which
1T76- has "been so signally stretched out for our defence,
will deliver them in a righteous cause.

" The eyes of the whole world are on America ;
the eyes of every other colony are on this ; a colony,
whose reputation for generosity and magnanimity is
universally acknowledged. I trust it will not be
diminished by our future conduct ; that there will be
no civil discord here ; and that the only strife amongst
brethren will be, who shall do most to serve and to
save an injured country."

The word which South Carolina hesitated to pro-
nounce, was uttered by North Carolina. That col-
ony, proud of its victory over domestic enemies, and
roused to defiance by the presence of Clinton, the
British general, in one of their rivers, met in congress
at Halifax on the fourth of April, on the eighth ap-
pointed a select committee, of which Harnett was the
head, to consider the usurpations and violences of the
British parliament and king, and on the twelfth, after
listening to its report, unanimously " empowered their
delegates in the continental congress to concur with
the delegates of the other colonies in declaring inde-
pendency and forming foreign alliances." At the
same time they reserved to their colony the sole
right of forming its own constitution and laws.

North Carolina was the first colony to vote an ex-
plicit sanction to independence ; South Carolina won
from all patriots equal praise by her " virtuous and
glorious example of instituting a complete govern-
ment." When, on the twenty third of April, the
courts of justice were opened w^th solemnity at

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLINAS. 353

V

Charleston, the chief justice, after an elaborate deduc CHAP.
tion, charged the grand jury in these words : " The ^^
law of the land authorizes me to declare, and it is my 1^76
duty to declare the law, that George the Third, king
of Great Britain, has abdicated the government, that
he has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience
to him.

" It has been the policy of the British authority
to cramp and confine our trade so as to be subser-
vient to their commerce, our real interest being ever
out of the question; the new constitution is wisely
adapted to enable us to trade with foreign nations,
and thereby to supply our wants at the cheapest
markets in the universe ; to extend our trade infinitely
beyond what has ever been known; to encourage
manufactures among us ; and to promote the happi-
ness of the people, from among whom, by virtue and
merit, the poorest man may arrive at the highest dig-
nity. Oh, Carolinians ! happy would you be under
this new constitution, if you knew your happy state.

" True reconcilement never can exist between
Great Britain and America, the latter being in subjec-
tion to the former. The Almighty created America
to be independent of Britain ; to refuse our labors in
this divine work, is to refuse to be a great, a free, a
pious, and a happy people ! "

The great abilities of Rutledge were equal to the
office which he had fearlessly accepted; order and
method grew at once out of the substitution of a sin-
gle executive for committees ; from him the officers
of the regiments as well as of the militia, derived their
commissions; to prepare for the British army and

VOL. VIII. 30*

354 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, naval squadron which were known to be on the way,
^^ the mechanics and laborers of Charleston, assisted by
l]Jr £rea^ Immbers of negroes from the country, were em-
ployed in fortifying the town. When in April, un-
der the orders of the continental congress, the veteran
Armstrong arrived to take the command of the army,
he found little more to do than receive the hospitali-
ties of the inhabitants.

Mar. The designs against the Carolinas left Virginia
free from invasion. Lee, on his arrival at Williams-
burg, took up his quarters in the palace of the gov-
ernor ; querulous as ever, he praised the provincial
congress of New York as " angels of decision" com-
pared with the Virginia committee of safety. Yet his
APr- reputation ensured deference to his advice ; and at
his instance, directions were given for the removal of
all inhabitants from the exposed parts of Norfolk and
Princess Anne counties ; an inconsiderate order which
it was soon found necessary to mitigate or rescind.

Letters, intercepted in April, indicated some con-
cert of action on the part of Eden, the governor of
Maryland, with Dunmore : Lee, though Maryland was
not within his district, and in contempt of the regu-
larly appointed committee of that colony, directed
Samuel Purviance, of the committee of Baltimore, to
seize Eden without ceremony or delay. The inter-
ference was resented as an insult on the authority
which the people had constituted ; the Maryland com-
mittee, even after the continental congress directed
his arrest, still avoided a final rupture with British
authority, and suffered their governor to remain at
liberty on his parole.
May. The spirit of temporizing showed itself still more

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLINAS. 355

clearly in Philadelphia. The moderate men, as they CHAP.
were called, who desired a reconciliation with Great ^-r^>
Britain upon the best terms she would give, but 1^76-
at any rate a reconciliation, held many meetings to
prepare for the election of the additional burgesses
who were to be chosen in May ; and when the day
of election came, the friends of independence carried
only Clymer ; the moderate men, combining with the
proprietary party, the officers of the provincial govern-
ment, the avowed tories, and such of the Roman Cath-
olics as could not control their antipathy to the Pres-
byterians, elected the three others. The elections in
the country were also not wholly unfavorable to the
interests of the proprietary. Yet as independence
was become inevitable, the result only foreboded a
bitter internal strife. Neither was the success of the
proprietary party a fair expression of public opinion :
the franchise in the city was confined to those pos-
sessing fifty pounds ; Germans, who composed a large
part of the inhabitants of' the province and were
zealots for liberty, were not allowed to give their
votes unless they were naturalized, and could not be
naturalized without taking the oath of allegiance to
the king ; moreover, of the natives of Pennsylvania,
many hundreds of the warmest patriots had been car-
ried by their public spirit to the camp on the Hud-
son, and even to Canada ; leaving power in the hands
of the timid who remained at home.

The despondency and hesitation of the assembly
of Pennsylvania was in marked contrast with the for-
titude of Rhode Island, whose general assembly, on
the fourth day of May, passed an act discharging the
inhabitants of that colony from allegiance to the king

356 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of Great Britain. The measure was carried in the

LXIJ.

— . — upper house unanimously, and in the house of depu-
6> ^es' W^ere sixty were present, with but six dissen-
tient voices. The overturn was complete; the act
was at once a declaration of independence, and an
organization of a self-constituted republic. Its first
exercise of independent power authorized its dele-
gates in congress to join in treating with any prince,
state, or potentate for the security of the colonies.
It also directed them to favor the most proper meas-
ures for confirming the strictest union; yet at the
same time they were charged "to secure to the col-
ony, in the strongest and most perfect manner, its
present established form and all powers of govern-
ment, so far as they relate to its internal police and
the conduct of its own affairs, civil and religious."

The interest of the approaching campaign centred
in New York, to which place "Washington had re-
paired with all his forces that were not ordered to
Canada. At New York the British government de-
signed to concentrate its strength, in the hopes of
overwhelming all resistance in one campaign. Mean-
time the British general, who had fled from Boston so
precipitately that he had been obliged to remain sev-
eral days in ISTantasket Road, to adjust his ships for
the voyage, was awaiting reinforcements at Halifax ;
and during the interval he was willing that the at-
tempt on the Southern colonies should be continued.
That expedition had been planned in October by the
king himself, " whose solicitude for pursuing with
vigor every measure that tended to crush the present
dangerous rebellion in the colonies, excited in him the
most exemplary attention to every object of ad van-

THE EXAMPLE OF THE CAROLINAS. 357

tage." But delays, as usual, intervened. The instruc- CHAP.
tions to Clinton were not finished till December, nor — —
received by him till May. He was to issue a proclama- ^ ™-
tion of pardon to all but " the principal 4nstigators and
abettors of the rebellion, to dissolve the provincial
congresses and committees of safety, to restore the
regular administration of justice, to arrest the persons
and destroy the property of all who should refuse
to give satisfactory tests of their obedience." From
North Carolina he might proceed at his own choice
either to Virginia or to South Carolina, in like man-
ner, " to seize the persons and destroy the property
of rebels wherever it could be done with effect." In
South Carolina he was to attack and reduce Charles-
ton, as a prelude to the fall of Savannah, and to the
restoration of the whole of the sea-coast to the king's
government.

The fleet and transports, designed to act under
Clinton, did not leave Cork harbor till February;
they were scattered by a storm soon after going to
sea ; for two weeks they met constant and most violent
adverse gales ; they long continued to be delayed by
contrary winds ; and not till the third of May, after a
passage of more than eighty days, did Sir Peter Par-
ker, Cornwallis, and such ships as kept them com-
pany, enter Cape Fear Kiver. Most of the transports
had arrived before them.

All joined " to lament the fatal delays." "What
was to be done with the formidable armament, was
the first question for deliberation. Clinton inclined
to look into the Chesapeake, which would bring him
nearer New York; but Lord William Campbell earn-
estly urged upon Sir Peter Parker an attack on

358 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Charleston; and as intelligence was received, "that
^-^- the works erected by the rebels on Sullivan's Island
wkicn was *ne key to the harbor, were in an imper-
fect and unfinished state, Clinton was induced to ac-
quiesce in the proposal of the commodore to attempt
the reduction of that fortress by a sudden attack,"
to be followed up by such other immediate efforts as
might be invited by "a moral certainty of rapid

success."

With these purposes, the British prepared to re-
tire from North Carolina ; but Martin, before leaving
his government, sent a party to burn the house of
Hooper, a delegate in the continental congress ; Corn-
wallis, with nine hundred men, — it was his first ex-
ploit in America, — landed in Brunswick county, and
with a loss of two men killed and one taken prisoner,
burned and ravaged the plantation of the North Car-
olina brigadier, Robert Howe; and Sir Henry Clinton,
in conformity with his instructions from the king, is-
sued his proclamation on the fifth of May, against
committees and congresses, and inviting the people
" to appease the vengeance of an incensed nation," of-
fered pardon to all who would submit, except Robert
Howe and Cornelius Harnett.

CHAPTER LXm.

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE.

MAY, 1TT6.
HOPE still rested on the royal commissioners for CHAJP

•

restoring peace ; but the British ministers knew noth-
ing Of that great science of government which studies
the character, innate energies, and dispositions of a
people. The statesman, like others, can command
nature only by obeying her laws ; he can serve man
only by respecting the conditions of his being ; he can
sway a nation only by penetrating what is at work
in the mind of its masses, and taking heed of the
state of its development ; any attempt in that day to
produce in Britain republics like those of New Eng-
land, could have brought forth nothing but anarchy
and civil war ; the blind resolve to conform American
institutions to the pattern of the British aristocracy,
led to a revolution.

In its policy towards America, Britain was at war
with itself; its own government was distinguished
by being a limited one ; and yet it claimed for the

360 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, king in parliament unlimited power over the colonies.

^r^. Sandwich was impatient of all restraints on their ad-
niinistration ; he desired to exercise over them noth-
ing short of a full and absolute authority, and regret-
ted that the government was cramped by the cry of
liberty, with which no chief executive power was
troubled except that of England.

Had conciliation been designed, the commissioners
would have been despatched long before; but the
measure which had for its object the pacification of
English opinion, was suffered to drag along for more
than a year, till the news that Howe had been driven
from Boston burst upon the public, and precipitated
the counsels of the ministry.

The letters patent for the commissioners, which
were issued on the sixth of May, conferred power on
Lord Howe and General Ho we, jointly and severally,
to grant pardons to such as should give early proofs
of their sincere abhorrence of their defection from
loyalty and should duly sue for mercy. The two
points in controversy were the right of taxation, and
the repeal of the changes in the charter of Massachu-
setts. Lord North, when he relapsed into his natural
bias towards justice, used to say publicly that the right
of taxation was abandoned ; Germain always asserted
that it was not. The instructions to the commission-
ers were founded upon the resolution of the twentieth
of February, 1775 ; which the colonies had solemnly
declared to be insufficient. The parliamentary change
in the charter of Massachusetts was to be enforced ;
and secret instructions required that Connecticut and
Rhode Island should be compelled, if possible, to ac-
cept analogous changes ; so that not only was uncon

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. 361

ditional submission required, but in the moment of CHAP.

T YTTT

victory other colonial charters were still further to be ^^-
violated, in order to carry out the system which the
king had pursued from the time of the ministry of
Bute. Lord Howe wished well to the Americans,
kept up his friendly relations with Chatham, and
escaped the suspicion of a subservient complicity with
the administration. It was said by his authority, that
he would not go to America unless he had powers to
treat on terms of conciliation ; he refused to accept a
civilian as his colleague, and though his brother was
named with him in the commission, he insisted on the
power of acting alone ; but if his sincerity is left un-
irnpeached, it is at the expense of his reputation for
discernment ; for the commission for restoring peace
was a delusion. The ministers had provided forces,
amounting to about forty thousand men ; sufficient, as
they thought, to beat down the insurrection; and
they were resolved, as masters of events, to employ
their army with unrelenting firmness.

The friends of liberty in England had never been
so desponding. The budget for the year included an
additional duty on newspapers, which Lord North did
not regard as a public benefit, but rather as " a species
of luxury that ought to be taxed." Debate in the
house of commons brought no result : Fox, who joined
calmness of temperament to sweetness of disposition,
and, as his powers unfolded themselves, gave evidence
of a genial sagacity that saw beyond parliamentary
strife the reality of general principles, vainly strug-
gled to keep up the courage of his political friends.
A pamphlet, written with masterly ability by Richard
Price, on LIBERTY, which he defined to be a govern-

VOL VIII. 31

362 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, ment of laws made by common consent, won for its

I XTTI

^^ author the freedom of the city of London, and was
widely circulated through the kingdom, and the con-
tinent of Europe, especially Germany. His masterly
plea for America was unavailing ; but his tract gained
peculiar importance from his applying to the actual
condition of the representation of his own country,
the principle on which America justified her resist-
ance. "The time may come," said he, "when a gen-
eral election in Britain will be nothing but a general
auction of boroughs."

Carrying the war into the heart of English politics
and society, he raised the cry for the reform in parlia-
ment, which was never to be hushed, and transferred
English opinion to the side of America for the sake
of that liberty which was of all things dearest to the
English nation.

But what hope was there of reform in England ?
It was the vices of its ruling classes which prepared
reform by forcing independence on America. Or how
could France at that time offer liberty a home ? " For
my part," said Chastellux, "I think there can be
neither durable liberty nor happiness but for nations
who have representative governments." " I think so
too," said the octogenarian Voltaire. " The right of
self-administration," said Malesherbes to Louis the Six-
teenth, as he threw up his ministry in despair, " be-
longs to every community; it is a natural right, the
right of reason. The surest, the most natural method
is for a kin^ to consult the nation itself."

o

Turgot, like Malesherbes, believed in the impre-
scriptible rights of man to the free use of his powers;
and wished also that the executive chief should profit

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. 363

by the counsels of the collected wisdom of the na- CHAP.

" t .LXIII.

tion ; but he now stood without any support in the ^ —
cabinet; and his want of influence had appeared in
the discussions on America. One of two things must
therefore follow ; either Turgot must become all pre-
vailing and establish his system, or go into private
life. Maurepas, roused by jealousy, insinuated to the
right-minded king, that discontent pervaded France,
and that it had Turgot alone for its object; that it
was not best to wait for his resignation, for he might
give as his reason for the act that he was hindered in
the accomplishment of good. On the twelfth of May
he was therefore dismissed, as one who was not suited
to his place. For a moment the friends of the people
had a beautiful and a peaceful dream ; but it soon
passed away, leaving the monarchy of France to sway
and fall, and the people to be awakened by the ex-
ample of the western world. The new minister of
finance was De Clugny ; a passionate and intemperate
rogue, a gamester, and a debauchee, who at once con-
ciliated support by giving out that he would do noth-
ing disagreeable to the farmers general of the revenue.
" To what masters, ye great gods, do ye give up the uni-
verse ! " exclaimed Condorcet. In parting with Males-
herbes, the king discarded his truest personal friend ;
in Turgot, French monarchy lost its firmest support,
the nobility its only possible saviour ; but for America
the result was very different ; no one was left in the
cabinet who was able to restrain the government from
yielding to the rising enthusiasm for America. So
tangled is the web of history ! The retirement of the
two men who were the apostles of liberty pushed

364 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP forward the cause of human freedom, though by ir-

1 T T

* — ' — • regular and disorderly movements.

1-Zr76m In the early part of the century Leibnitz had
found traces of the opinions of Epicurus and Spinoza
in the books that were most in vogue, and in the
men of the great world who were the masters of
affairs, and he had foretold in consequence a general
overturn in Europe. " The generous sentiment which
prefers country and the general good to life," he said,
" is dying out ; public spirit is no more in fashion,
and has lost the support of good morals and true re-
ligion; the ruling motive in the best is honor, and
that is a principle which tolerates any thing but base-
ness, does not condemn shedding a deluge of blood
from ambition or caprice, and might suffer a Heros-
tratus or a Don Juan to pass for a hero ; patriotism is
mocked at, and the well-intentioned, who speak of
what will become of posterity, are answered by saying
that posterity may see to that. If this mental epi-
demic goes on increasing, providence will correct
mankind by the revolution which it must cause."

But men had more and more given the reins to
brutal passions; and throwing off the importunate
fear of an overruling providence, no longer knew of
any thing superior to humanity, or more godlike than
themselves. " What distinguishes man," said Aristotle,
" is the faculty of recognizing something higher and
better than himself." The eighteenth century refused
to look for any thing better; the belief in the divine
reason was derided like the cowering at spectres and
hobgoblins ; and the worship of humanity became the
prevailing idolatry. Art was commissioned to gratify
taste ; morality had for its office to increase pleasure ;

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. 365

forgetting that the highest liberty consists in being CHAP.
forced by right reason to choose the best, men cher-
ished sensualism as a system, and self-indulgence was
the law of courts and aristocracies. A blind, unrea-
soning, selfish conservatism, assumed that creative
power was exhausted ; that nature had completed her
work, and that nothing was to be d6*ne but to keep
things as they were ; not knowing that this concep-
tion is at war with nature herself and her eternal or-
der, men substituted for true conservatism, which looks
always to the action of moral forces, the basest form
of atheism and the most hopeless theory of despotic
power.

The age had ceased to wrestle with doubt, and
accepted it not with anguish as the despair of reason,
but with congratulation and pride. To renounce the
search for eternal truth passed for wisdom ; the notion
that there can be no cognition of the immutable and the
divine, the shallow infidelity which denies the beauti-
ful, the true, and the good, was extolled as the perfec-
tion of enlightened reason, the highest end of intel-
lectual striving. The agony of questioning was over ;
men cherished no wish for any thing beyond appear-
ances and vain show. The prevailing philosophy in
its arrogance was proud of its chains. It not only de-
rided the infinite in man, but it jeered at the thought
that man can commune with the infinite. It scoffed
at all knowledge that transcends the senses, limited
itself to the inferior lessons of experience, and rejected
ideas which are the archetypes of things for ideas
which were no more than pictures on the brain; de-
throning the beautiful for the agreeable; the right
VOL. vm. 31*

366 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, for the useful ; the true for the seeming ; knowing
— , — ' nothing of a universal moral government, referring
1776. every thing to the self of the individual. Hume
brought this philosophy of materialism to the test,
and applying doubt to its lessons, laid bare its corrup-
tion. His profound and searching scepticism was the
bier on which ft was laid out in state; where. all the
world might come and see that it really was no more.
But while he taught the world that it led to nothing-
ness, he taught nothing in its stead.

It was the same in practical life. Hume might
oppose the war with America, because it threatened
to mortgage all the revenues of the land in England ;
but ever welcome at the Bourbon palace and accept-
able to George the Third, he had professed to prove
that tyrants should not be deposed, that the eutha-
nasia of the British constitution would be absolutism.
Scepticism like this could not build up a common-
wealth or renovate the world ; there must be a new
birth in philosophy, or all is lost in the world of re-
flection ; in political life there is no hope of improve-
ment, but from that inborn faith in the intelligent,
moral, and divine government of the world, which
always survives in the masses. Away, then, with
the system of impotent doubt, which teaches that
Europe cannot be extricated from the defilements of
a selfish aristocracy or despotism, that the British
constitution, though it may have a happy death, can
have no reform. Let scepticism, the wandering no-
mad, that intrudes into every field only to desecrate
and deny, strike her tents and make way for a people
who have power to build up the house of humanity,
because they have faith in eternal truth and trust in

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. 367

that higher foresight, which over all brings forth bet- CHAP.
ter things out of evil and out of good. - — , —

The day on which George the Third sealed the
instructions to his commissioners, congress decided to
take no measures for their reception until previous
application should be made ; voted to issue ten mil-
lions of dollars in bills of credit for the purpose of
carrying on the war for the current year; and took
into consideration the proposition of John Adams,
that "each one of the United Colonies, where no gov-
ernment sufficient to the exigencies of their affairs
had as yet been established, should adopt such gov-
ernment, as would, in the opinion of the representa-
tives of the people, best conduce to the happiness and
safety of their constituents and of America." This
last was the decisive measure which he had advised
twelve months before, and which the timid had kept
back in order still to petition and negotiate ; with full
knowledge of the importance of the movement, it
was now resisted through two successive days, but on
the tenth of May triumphed over all procrastinators.
John Adams, Edward Rutledge, and Richard Henry
Lee were then appointed to prepare a preamble to
the resolution. Lee and Adams were of one mind ;
and on the following Monday they made their report.
Recalling the act of parliament which excluded the
Americans from the protection of the crown, the king's
neglect to return any answer whatever to their peti-
tion, the employment of the whole force of the king-
dom, aided by foreign mercenaries, for their destruc-
tion, they declared that it was "absolutely irrecon-
cilable with reason and good conscience for the people
of these colonies now to take the oaths and affirma-

368 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, tions necessary for the support of any government
^-^ under the crown of Great Britain, and that it was
1776. necessary that the exercise of every kind of authority
under the crown should be totally suppressed, and all
the powers of government exerted under the author-
ity of the people of the colonies for the preservation
of their peace and their defence against their ene-

mies."

These words, of which every one bore the impress
of John Adams, implied a complete separation from
Britain, a total, absolute independence of the parlia-
ment, the crown, and the nation. It was also a blow
dealt directly against the proprietary governments,
especially that of Pennsylvania, whose members of
assembly had thus far continued to take the oaths and
affirmations, which reason and conscience were now
invoked to condemn. Duane sounded the alarm ; the
preamble, in his view, openly avowed independence
and separation ; but before changing the government
of the colonies, he wished to wait for the opinions of
the inhabitants, who were to be followed and not
driven on. After causing the instructions from New
York to be read, he showed that the powers conferred
on him did not extend so far as to justify him in
voting for the measure without a breach of trust ; and
yet, if the averments of the preamble should be con-
firmed, he pledged New York to independence. Sher-
man argued, that the adoption of the resolution was
the best way to procure the harmony with Great
Britain, which New York desired. Mackean, who
represented Delaware, thought the step must be
taken, or liberty, property, and life be lost. " The
first object of New York," said Samuel Adams, " is

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. 369

the establishment of their rights. Our petitions are CHAP.
answered only by fleets, and armies, and myrmidons v^v^-'
from abroad. The king has thrown ns out of his pro- 1776.
tection ; why should we support governments under
his authority ? " Floyd of New York was persuaded,
" that it could not be long before his constituents
would think it necessary to take up some more stable
form of government than what they then exercised ;
that there were little or no hopes of commissioners
coming to treat of peace ; and that therefore America
ought to be in a situation to preserve her liberties
another way." " This preamble contains a reflection
upon the conduct of some people in America," inter-
posed Wilson, referring to the assembly of Pennsyl-
vania, which so late as February had required oaths of
allegiance of Reed and Rlttenhouse. " If the pream-
ble passes," he continued, " there will be an immediate
dissolution of every kind of authority in this province;
the people will be instantly in a state of nature. Be-
fore we are prepared to build the new house, why
should we pull down the old one ? " The delegates
of Pennsylvania declined to vote on the question;
those of Maryland announced, that, under their in-
structions, they should consider their colony as unrep-
resented, until they should receive the directions of
their principals who were then sitting at Annapolis.
The measure proved " a piece of mechanism to work
out independence ;" overruling the hesitation of the
moderate men, the majority adopted the preamble, and
ordered it to be published. " The gordian knot," said
John Adams, " is cut ; " and as he ruminated in soli-
tude upon the lead which he had assumed in summon-
ing so many populous and opulent colonies to rise

370 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, from the state of subjection into that of independent
republics, the great events which were rapidly ad-
vanc^nS» elevated him above the weaknesses of human
passions and filled his mind with awe. Many of those
who were to take part in framing constitutions for
future millions, turned to him for advice. He recalled
the first principles of political morals, the lessons in-
culcated by American experience, and the example
of England. Familiar with the wise and eloquent
writings of those of her sons who had treated of lib-
erty, and combining with them the results of his own
reflections, he did not shrink from offering his ad-
vice. He found the only moral foundation of govern-
ment in the consent of the people ; yet he counselled
respect for existing rules, and to avoid opening a
fruitful source of controversy, he refused to promote
for the present any alteration, at least in Massachu-
setts, in the qualifications of voters. "There is no
good government," he said, " but what is republican ;
for a republic is an empire of laws and not of men ; "
and to constitute the best of republics, he enforced
the necessity of separating the executive, legislative,
and judicial powers. The ill use which the royal gov-
ernors had made of the veto power did not confuse
his judgment ; he upheld the principle that the chief
executive magistrate ought to be invested with a
negative upon the legislature. To the judges he
wished to assign commissions during good behavior ;
and to establish their salaries by law ; but to make
them liable to impeachment and removal by the
grand inquest of the colony.

The republics of the ancient world had grown out
of cities, so that their governments were originally

THE WAY TO RESTORE PEACE. 371

municipalities ; to make a republic possible in the CHAP.
large territories embraced in the several American ^ — '
colonies, where the whole society could never be as- 1776.
sembled, power was to be deputed by the many to a
few, who were to be elected by suffrage, and were in
theory to be a faithful miniature portrait of the
people. Nor yet should all power to be entrusted to
one representative assembly. The advocates of a per-
fect unity in government favored the concentration of
power in one body, for the sake of an unobstructed
exercise of the popular will ; but John Adams taught,
what an analysis of the human mind and the examples
of history through thousands of years unite to confirm,
that a single assembly is liable to the frailties of a
single individual ; to passionate caprices ; and to a self-
ish eagerness for the increase of its own importance.
" If the legislative power," such were his words just as
the American constitutions were forming, " if the legis-
lative power is wholly in one assembly and the execu-
tive in another, or in a single person, these two powers
will oppose and encroach upon each other, until the
contest shall end in war, and the whole power, legis-
lative and executive, be usurped by the strongest."

These are words to be inscribed on the memory
and hearts of every convention that would constitute
a republic ; yet, at that time, there was not one mem-
ber of the continental congress who applied the prin-
ciple to the continental congress itself. Hawley of
Northampton, had advised an American parliament
with two houses of legislature ; but John Adams saw
no occasion for any continental constitution except a
congress which should contain a fair representation of
the colonies, and confine its authority sacredly to war,

372 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, trade, disputes between colony and colony, the post-
— > — office, and the unappropriated public lands.
]_7 76. In the separate colonies, he urged that all the
youth should be liberally educated, and all men be
required to keep arms and to be trained to their use.
A country having a constitution founded on these
principles, diffusing knowledge among the people, and
inspiring them with the conscious dignity becoming
freemen, would, " when compared with the regions of
monarchical or aristocratical domination, seem an Ar-
cadia or an Elysium."

CHAPTER LXIV.

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE RIGHTS OF MAN.

MAY — JUNE, 1T76.

ON the sixth day of May forty-five members of CHAP.
the house of burgesses of Virginia, met at the capitol —• — •
in "Williamsburg pursuant to their adjournment ; but
as they were of the opinion that the ancient constitu-
tion had been subverted by the king and parliament
of Great Britain, they dissolved themselves unani-
mously, and thus the last vestige of the king's author-
ity passed away.

The delegates of Virginia, who on the same morn-
ing assembled in convention, were a constituent and
an executive assembly. They represented the oldest
and the largest colony, whose institutions had been
fashioned on the model recommended by Bacon, and
whose inhabitants for nearly a hundred and seventy
years had been eminently loyal, and had sustained the
church of England as the establishment of the land.

Its people, having in their origin a perceptible but
never an exclusive influence of the cavaliers, had sprung
VOL. YIII. 32

374 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, mainly from adventurers, who were not fugitives for
— ^ conscience' sake, or sufferers from persecution, or pas-
1J76' sionate partisans of monarchy. The population had
been recruited by successive infusions of Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians; Huguenots, and the descendants of
Huguenots ; men who had been so attached to Crom-
well or to the republic, that they preferred to emi-
grate on the return of Charles the Second ; Baptists,
and other dissenters ; and in the valley of Virginia
there was already a very large German population.
Beside all these, there was the great body of the back-
woodsmen, rovers from Maryland and Pennsylvania,
not caring much for the record of their lineage.

The territory for which the convention was to
act was not a limited one like that of Sparta or At-
tica; beginning at the ocean, it comprised the great
bay of the Chesapeake, with its central and southern
tributaries ; the beautiful valleys on the head springs
of the Roanoke and along the whole course of the
Shenandoah ; the country beyond the mountains, in-
cluding the sources of the Monongahela and the
Cumberland river, and extending indefinitely to the
Tennessee and beyond it. Nor that only; Virginia
insisted that its jurisdiction stretched without bounds
over all the country west and northwest of a line two
hundred miles north of Old Point Comfort, not granted
to others by royal charters ; and there was no one to
dispute a large part of this claim except the province
of Quebec under an act of parliament which the con-
tinental congress had annulled. For all this wide re-
gion, rich in soil, precious minerals, healing springs,
forests, convenient marts for foreign commerce, the
great pathways to the west, more fertile, more spa-

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 375

cious than all Greece, Italy, and Great Britain, than CHAP.
any region for which it had ever been proposed to — ^
establish republican liberty, a constitution was to be \7.7 6-

J-> May.

framed.

It has been discussed, whether the spirit that now
prevailed was derived from cavaliers, and whether
it sprung from the inhabitants on tide water, or was
due to those of the uplands ; the answer is plain : the
movement in Virginia proceeded from the heart of
Virginia herself, and represented the magnanimity
of her own people. It did not spring, it could not
spring from sentiments generated by the by-gone loy-
alty to the Stuarts. The Ancient Dominion had with
entire unanimity approved the revolution of 1688 ;
with equal unanimity, had, even more readily than
the English, accepted the house of Hanover, and had
been one of the most loyal parts of the empire of the
Georges ; the revolution was due to a keen sentiment
of wrong and outrage, and was joined in with a one-
ness of spirit, which asked no questions about ances-
try, or traditional affinities, or religious creed, or near-
ness to the sea or to the mountains. The story of the
war commemorates the courage of the highlanders ;
among the " inexorable families," Dunmore especially
reported from the low country the family of the Lees
and the whole family of Gary of Hampton, of whom
even the sisters, married to a Fairfax and a Nicholas,
cheered on their connections to unrelenting opposi-
tion. Virginia rose with as much unanimity as Con-
necticut or Massachusetts, and with a more command-
ing resolution.

The purpose for which the convention was assem-
bled, appears from the words of the county of Buck-

376 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, ingham to Charles Patterson and John Cabell. its del-

T XTV

- — *~^ egates : " We instruct you to cause a total and final
f ' separation from Great Britain to take place as soon
as possible ; and a constitution to be established, with
a full representation, and free and frequent elections.
As America is the last country of the world which
has contended for her liberty, so she may be the most
free and happy; taking advantage of her situation
and strength, and having the experience of all before
to profit by. The supreme Being hath left it in our
power to choose what government we please for our
civil and religious happiness : good government and
the prosperity of mankind can alone be in the divine
intention ; we pray, therefore, that under the superin-
tending providence of the Ruler of the universe, a
government may be established in America, the most
free, happy, and permanent that human wisdom can
contrive and the perfection of man maintain."

The county of Augusta represented the necessity
of making the confederacy of the United Colonies,
most perfect, independent, and lasting ; and of framing
an equal, free, and liberal government, that might
bear the test of all future ages. A petition was also
sent from the inhabitants of Transylvania, declaring
that they were anxious to concur with their brethren
of the United Colonies in every measure for the
recovery of their rights and liberties.

The inhabitants on the rivers Watauga and Hoi-
stein set forth, that " they were deeply impressed
with a sense of the distresses of their American breth-
ren, and would, when called upon, with their lives and
fortunes, lend them every assistance in their power ;
that they begged to be considered as a part of the

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 377

colony, and would readily embrace every opportn- CHAP.
nity of obeying any commands from the convention." — ^

To that body were chosen more than one hundred 1]J76-
and thirty of the ablest and most weighty men of
Virginia. Among them were no rash enthusiasts for
liberty ; no lovers of revolution for the sake of change ;
no ambitious demagogues hoping for advancement by
the overthrow of existing institutions ; they were the
choice of the freeholders of Virginia, and the majority
were men of independent fortune or even opulence.
It was afterwards remembered that of this grave
assembly the members were for the most part men
of large stature and robust frames, and that a very
great proportion of them lived to exceeding old age.
They were now to decide whether Virginia demanded
independence, and if so, they were to establish a com-
monwealth ; and in making this decision they moved
like a pillar of fire in front of the whole country.

When the delegates had assembled and appointed
a clerk, Richard Bland recommended Edmund Pen-
dleton to be chosen president, and was seconded by
Archibald Gary; while Thomas Johnson of Louisa,
and Bartholomew Dandridge proposed Thomas Lud-
well Lee. For a moment there was something like
an array of parties, but it instantly subsided ; Vir-
ginia showed her greatness by her moderation, and
gave to the world new evidence that the revolution
sprung from necessity, by placing in the chair Pen-
dleton, the most cautious and conservative among the
patriots.

The convention, after having been employed for
some days on current business, resolved itself into a
committee of the whole on the state of the colony ;

TOL. VIII. 32*

378 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and on the fifteenth Archibald Gary reported resolu-
v— r-^ tions which had been drafted by Pendleton, offered
1 776. by Nelson, and enforced by Henry. They were then
twice read at the clerk's table, and, one hundred and
twelve members being present, were unanimously
agreed to. The preamble enumerated their chief
grievances, among others, that the king's representa-
tive in the colony was training and employing slaves
against their masters ; and they say : " We have no
alternative left but an abject submission or a total
separation ; " therefore they went on to decree, " that
their delegates in congress be instructed to propose
to that body to declare the United Colonies free and
independent states, absolved from all allegiance or
dependence upon the crown or parliament of Great
Britain ; and that they give the assent of this colony
to such declaration, and to measures for forming
foreign alliances, and a confederation of the colonies :
provided that the power of forming government for,
and the regulation of the internal concerns of, each
colony be left to the respective colonial legislatures."
This resolution was received out of doors with
chimes of bells and the noise of artillery ; and the
British flag, which had thus far kept its place on the
state-house, was struck, to be raised no more.

In the following days a committee of thirty two
was appointed to prepare a declaration of rights and
a plan of government. Among the members were
Archibald Gary, Patrick Henry, the aged Richard
Bland, Edmund Randolph, son of the attorney gen-
eral, who was then a refugee in England, Nicholas,
James Madison, the youthful delegate from Orange
county ; but the man of most influence at this great

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 379

moment was George Mason, the successor of Washing- CHAP.
ton in the representation of Fairfax county. He was ^~Y-^
a devoted member of the church of England ; and by 1 J76-
his own account of himself, which is still preserved,
" though not born within the verge of the British
isle, he had been an Englishman in his principles, a
zealous assertor of the act of settlement, firmly attach-
ed to the royal family upon the throne, well affected
to the king personally and to his government, in de-
fence of which he would have shed the last drop of
his blood ; one who adored the wisdom and happiness
of the British constitution, and preferred it to any that
then existed or had ever existed." For ten years he
claimed nothing for his countrymen beyond the lib-
erty and privileges of Englishmen, in the same degree
as if they had still continued among their brethren in
Great Britain; but he said: "The ancient poets, in
their elegant manner of expression, have made a kind
of Being of necessity, and tell us that the gods them-
selves are obliged to yield to her ; " and he left the
private life that he loved, to assist in the rescue of his
country from the excesses of arbitrary power to which
a seeming fatality had driven the British ministers.
He was a good speaker and an able debater; the
more eloquent now for being touched with sorrow ;
but his great strength lay in his sincerity, which made
him wise and bold, modest and unchanging, while it
overawed his hearers. He was severe, but his sever-
ity was humane, with no tinge of bitterness, though
he had a scorn for every thing mean, and cowardly,
and low; and he always spoke out his convictions
with frank directness. He had been truly loyal; on
renouncing his king, he could stand justified to his

380 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, own conscience only by the purest and most unselfish
^r-^ attachment to human freedom.

1M?6< ^n ^e ^wenty seventh of May, Gary from the
committee presented to the convention the decla-
ration of rights, which Mason had drafted. For the
next fortnight the great truths which it proclaimed,
and which were to form the groundwork of American
institutions, employed the thoughts of the convention,
and during several successive days were the subject of
solemn deliberation. One clause only received a ma-
terial amendment. Mason had written that all should
enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion.
But toleration is the demand of the sceptic, who has
no fixed belief and only wishes to be let alone ; a firm
faith, which is too easily tempted to establish itself
exclusively, can be content with nothing less than
equality. A young man, then unknown to fame, of a
bright hazel eye, inclining to grey, small in stature,
light in person, delicate in appearance, looking like
a pallid, sickly scholar among the robust men with
whom he was associated, proposed a change. He was
James Madison, the son of an Orange county planter,
bred in the school of Presbyterian dissenters under
Witherspoon at Princeton, trained by his own studies,
by meditative rural life in the Old Dominion, by an
ingenuous indignation at the persecutions of the Bap-
tists, by the innate principles of right, to uphold the
sanctity of religious freedom. He objected to the
word toleration, because it implied an established
religion, which endured dissent only as a condescen-
sion; and as the earnestness of his convictions over-
came his modesty, he went on to demonstrate that
" all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 381

religion, according to the dictates of conscience." His CHAP.
motion, which did but state with better dialectics the — ,— >
very purpose which Mason wished to accomplish, ob- 1776.
tained the suffrages of his colleagues. This was the
first achievement of the wisest civilian of Virginia.
The declaration of rights having then been fairly
transcribed, was on the twelfth of June read a third
time and unanimously adopted by the representatives
of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and
free convention.

These are the rights which they said do pertain to
them and their posterity, as the basis and foundation
of government : "All men are by nature equally free,
and have inherent rights, of which, when they enter
into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact,
deprive or divest their posterity ; namely, the enjoy-
ment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring
and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining
happiness and safety.

" All power is vested in, and consequently derived
from, the people ; magistrates are their trustees and
servants, and at all times amenable to them.

" Government is, or ought to be, instituted for the
common benefit and security of the people, nation, or
community ; and whenever any government shall be
found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a ma-
jority of the community hath an indubitable, unalien-
able, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish
it, in such a manner as shall be judged most condu-
cive to the public weal.

"Public services not being descendible, neither
ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge to
be hereditary.

382 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. " The legislative and executive powers of the state

I XIV

v— , — '- should be separate and distinct from the judicative ;
1776. the members of the two first should, at fixed periods,
return into that body from which they were origi-
nally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by fre-
quent, certain, and regular elections.

" Elections of members to serve as representatives
of the people in assembly, ought to be free ; and all
men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common
interest with, and attachment to, the community, have
the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived
of their property for public uses without their own
consent or that of their representative so elected, nor
bound by any law to which they have not, in like
manner, assented for the public good.

" There ought to be no arbitrary power of sus-
pending laws, no requirement of excessive bail, no
granting of general warrants.

" No man ought to be deprived of liberty, except
by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers ;
and the ancient trial by jury ought to be held sacred.

" The freedom of the press is one of the greatest
bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but
by despotic governments.

" A well regulated militia, composed of the body
of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural,
and safe defence of a free state ; standing armies in
time of peace should be avoided as dangerous to lib-
erty ; and in all cases the military should be under
strict subordination to the civil power.

" The people have a right to uniform government ;
and therefore no government separate from or inde-

VIRGINIA PROCLAIMS THE RIGHTS OF MAN. 383

pendent of, the government of Virginia, ought to be CHAP.
erected or established within the limits thereof. — , —

"No free government can be preserved but by
a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance,
frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to
fundamental principles.

" Religion can be directed only by reason and
conviction, not by force or violence ; and, therefore,
all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of it,
according to the dictates of conscience ; and it is the
mutual duty of all to practise Christian forbearance,
love, and charity, towards each other."

Other colonies had framed bills of rights in refer-
ence to their relations with Britain ; Virginia moved
from charters and customs to primal principles ; from
a narrow altercation with lawyers about facts to the
contemplation of immutable truth. She summoned
the eternal laws of man's being to protest against all
tyranny. The English petition of right in 1688, was
historic and retrospective; the Virginia declaration
came directly out of the heart of nature, and an-
nounced governing principles for all peoples in all
future times. It was the voice of reason going forth
to create new institutions, to speak a new political
world into being. Virginia presented herself at the
bar of the world, and gave the name and fame of her
sons as hostages, that her public life should show a
likeness to the highest ideas of right and equal free-
dom among men.

CHAPTER LXV.

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE.

MAY — JUNE, 1776.

CHAP. WHILE Virginia communicated to her sister col-
— . — onies her instruction to her delegates in congress to
\I76' Pr°P°se independence, Washington at New York
freely and repeatedly delivered his opinion : u A recon-
ciliation with Great Britain is impracticable and
would be in the highest degree detrimental to the
true interest of America ; when I first took the com-
mand of the army, I abhorred the idea of independ-
ence ; but I am now fully convinced that nothing else
will save us." The preamble and the resolves of con-
gress, adopted at Philadelphia on the same day with
the Virginia instructions at Williamsburg, were in
themselves the act of a self-determining political body.
The blow which proceeded from John Adams, felled
the proprietary authority in Pennsylvania and. Mary-
land to the ground. Maryland, more happy than her
neighbor, kept her ranks unbroken, for she had in-
trusted the direction of the revolution to a convention

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE. 385

whose decrees were received as indisputably the voice CHAP.
of her whole people. She had dispensed with oaths ^^
for the support of the government under the crown; 1-J76>
but she resolved that it was not necessary to suppress
totally the exercise of every kind of office derived
from the king ; and in her new instructions to her
delegates in congress she mixed with her pledges of
support to the common cause the lingering wish for a
reunion with Great Britain. Meanwhile the governor
was required to leave the province; and the only
powers actually in being were the deputies in con-
gress, the council of safety, and the convention.

In Pennsylvania, the preamble, which was pub-
lished on the morning of the sixteenth, was cited by
the popular party as a dissolution of the proprietary
government and a direction to institute a new one
under the authority of the people. On the next day,
which was kept as a national fast, George Duffield,
the minister of the third Presbyterian church in
Philadelphia, with John Adams for a listener, drew
a parallel between George the Third and Pharaoh, and
inferred that the same providence of God which had
rescued the Israelites, intended to free the Americans.
On the twenty fourth a town meeting of more than
four thousand men was held in the state-house yard,
to confront the instructions of the assembly against
independence with the vote of the continental con-
gress against " oaths of allegiance and the exercise of
any kind of authority under the crown." It was
called to order by John Bayard, the chairman of the
committee of inspection for the county of Philadel-
phia, a patriot of singular purity of character and dis-
interestedness, personally brave, pensive, earnest, and
VOL. vni. 33

386 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CLXV>* devout ; it selected for its president Daniel Roberdau ;
and it voted unanimously, that the instructions with-
drew the province from the happy union with the
other colonies; that the present assembly was not
elected for the purpose of forming a new government ;
and, with but one dissentient voice, it further voted
that the house of assembly, not having the authority
of the people for that purpose, could not proceed to
form a new government without usurpation. As a
consequence, the committee of the city and liberties
of Philadelphia was directed to summon a conference
of the committees of every county in the province,
to make arrangements for a constituent convention,
which should be chosen by the people.

Thus was prepared the fall of the proprietary char-
ter of Pennsylvania. Any agreement which the gov-
ernor would accept could be no better than a collusion,
for by the very nature of his office and his interests,
he could not stand out against the British ministry,
however much they might be in the wrong. The
members of the assembly, by taking the oath or affir-
mation of allegiance, had plainly incapacitated them-
selves for reforming the government. Besides : the
resolve in congress, which dispensed in all cases with
that oath, was interpreted as conferring the rights of
electors on the Germans, who had not yet been nat-
uralized ; so that the assembly appeared now to rep-
resent not the people, but a wrongfully limited con-
stituency.

It was unhappy for the colony that Dickinson and
his friends refused to place themselves at the head of
the popular movement for a convention ; for it left
the principle of independence in Pennsylvania to be

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE. 387

established by a domestic political party, springing CHAP.
spontaneously from the ranks of the people, and ^ ^
struggling against an active social influence, a numer- 1776-
ous religious organization, and the traditional govern-
ing classes.

The assembly stood adjourned to the twentieth ;
on the morning of the twenty second a quorum ap-
peared, and as a first concession to the continental
congress, the newly elected members were not re-
quired to swear allegiance to the king. The protest
of the inhabitants of the city and liberties against
their powers to carry the resolve of congress into ex-
ecution, was presented, read, and laid on the table ;
but no other notice was taken of it. The resolve
itself was got out of the way by the appointment
of a committee to ask of the continental congress
an explanation of its purpose. The proposal to
sanction the naturalization of foreigners without re-
quiring oaths of allegiance to the king, was, in like
manner, put to sleep by a reference to a committee,
composed of those who had most earnestly contested
the wishes of the Germans. The assembly seemed to
have no purpose, unless to gain time and wait. The
constitution was the watchword of the conservative
members ; union that of the revolutionists ; one party
represented old established interests, another saw no
hope but from independence and a firm confedera-
tion; between these two stood Dickinson, whose cen-
tral position was the hiding place of the irresolute.

On the twenty third an address, claiming to pro-
ceed from the committee of inspection for the county
of Philadelphia, and bearing the name of William
Hamilton as chairman, asked the assembly to " adhere

388 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, religiously to its instructions against independence,
v— ^ and to oppose altering the least part of their invalua-

ble constitution." The next day the committee of
inspection of the city of Philadelphia came together
with Mackean as chairman, and addressed a memo-
rial directly to the continental congress, setting forth,
that the assembly did not possess the confidence of the
people, nor truly represent the province ; that among
its members were men who held offices under the
crown of Great Britain, and who had been dragged
into compliance with most of the recommendations of
congress only from the fear of being superseded by a
convention ; that measures had now been taken to as-
semble a convention of the people by men whose con-
stituents were fighting men, and were determined to
support the union of the province with the other col-
onies at every hazard.

June. The members of the assembly became uneasy : in
the first days of June no quorum appeared ; on the
fifth the proceedings of Virginia, directing her dele-
gates to propose independence, were read in the house.
No answer was returned ; but a petition from Cum-
berland county, asking that the instructions to the
delegates of Pennsylvania might be withdrawn, was
read a second time, and a committee of seven was ap-
pointed to bring in new instructions. Of its members,
among whom were Dickinson, Morris, Reed, Clymer,
and one or two loyalists, all but Clymer were, for the
present, opposed to independence.

The instructions of Pennsylvania, which they re-

ported on the sixth, conceded that the revolutionists

• were in the right ; " that all hopes of a reconciliation,

on reasonable terms, were extinguished ; " and never-

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE. 389

theless, with a full knowledge that the king would CHAP.
not yield, they expressed their ardent desire for an • — ^
end of the civil war; while they expressly sanctioned 1776.
a confederation, and " treaties with foreign kingdoms
and states," they neither advised nor forbade a decla-
ration of independence, trusting to " the ability, pru-
dence, and integrity" of their delegates. Now the
opinion of the majority of those delegates was noto-
rious ; but to remove even a possibility of uncertainty,
on the seventh of June, before the question on the
new instructions was taken, Dickinson, in the assem-
bly, made a speech, in which he pledged his word to
Allen, who was the proprietary chief-justice of the
province, and to the whole house, that he and the ma-
jority of the delegates would continue to vote against
independence.

On that same day, and perhaps while Dickinson
was speaking in the Pennsylvania assembly, Eichard
Henry Lee, in the name and with the special authority
of Virginia, proposed: "That these United Colonies
are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
states ; that they are absolved from "all allegiance to
the British crown, and that all political connection
between them and the state of Great Britain is, and
ought to be, totally dissolved ; that it is expedient
forthwith to take the most effectual measures for
forming foreign alliances ; and that a plan of confed-
eration be prepared and transmitted to the respective
colonies for their consideration and approbation."
The resolutions were seconded by John Adams; and
"the members were enjoined to attend punctually
the next day at ten o'clock, in order to take them into
their consideration."

390 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. At nine in the morning of the eighth of June, the
>— ^ assembly of Pennsylvania resumed the consideration
1776. of its new instructions, and adopted them by a vote of
thirty one against twelve. The disingenuous measure
proved the end of that body; once only did it again
bring together a quorum of its members. The mode-
rate and the timid, lending their aid to the propri-
etary party, had put themselves in the wrong both
theoretically and practically; at once conceding the
impossibility of reconciliation, and, by their inde-
cision, entailing on Pennsylvania years of distraction
and bitter strife.

At ten on the same day congress entered into the
consideration of Richard Henry Lee's resolve, and the
long debate which ensued was the most copious and
the most animated ever held on the subject. The
argument on the part of its opponents was sustained
by Robert Livingston of New York, by Wilson, Dick-
inson, and Edward Rutledge. They made no objection
to a confederacy, and to sending a project of a treaty
by proper persons to France ; but they contended that
a declaration of independence would place America in
the power of the British, with whom she was to nego-
tiate ; give her enemy notice to counteract her inten-
tions before she had taken steps to carry them into ex-
ecution ; and expose her to ridicule in the eyes of for-
eign powers by prematurely attempting to bring them
into an alliance. Edward Rutledge said privately.
" that it required the impudence of a New Englander,
for them in their disjointed state to propose a treaty
to a nation now at peace ; that no reason could be as-
signed for pressing into this measure but the reason
of every madman, a show of .spirit." Wilson avowed

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE. 391

that the removal of the restriction on his vote by the CHAP.

LXV

Pennsylvania assembly on that morning, did not * — ^
change his view of his obligation to resist independ- 1776
ence. On the other hand, John Adams defended the
proposed measures as "objects of the most stupendous
magnitude, in which the lives and liberties of millions
yet unborn were intimately interested ;" as the con-
summation " of a revolution, the most complete, un-
expected, and remarkable, of any in the history of
nations." The power of all New England, Virginia,
and Georgia was put forth on the same side ; and the
discussion was kept up till seven in the evening. A
majority of the colonies, including North Carolina,
appeared to be unalterably fixed in favor of an imme-
diate declaration of independence ; but the vote on
the question was postponed till Monday.

On the day of rest which intervened, Keith, the
British minister at the court of Vienna, obtained an
audience of Joseph the Second, and afterwards of the
empress Maria Theresa. The emperor referred to the
proclamation which the joint sovereigns had issued,
most strictly prohibiting all commerce between their
subjects in the Low Countries and the rebel colonies
in America, and went on to say: "I am very sorry for
the difficulties which have arisen to distress the king's
government ; the cause in which he is engaged, is in
fact the cause of all sovereigns, for they have a joint
interest in the maintenance of a just subordination
and obedience to law, in all the monarchies which sur-
round them ; I saw with pleasure the vigorous exer-
tions of the national strength, which he is now em-
ploying to bring his rebellious subjects to a speedy
submission, and I most sincerely wish success to those

392 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, measures." The empress queen, in her turn, expressed
a very hearty desire to see obedience and tranquillity
res^ore^ ^0 every quarter of the British dominions.

When the congress met on Monday, Edward Rut-
ledge, without much expectation of success, moved
that the question should be postponed three weeks,
while in the mean time the plan of a confederation
and of a treaty might be matured. The whole day
until seven in the evening was consumed in the dis-
cussion. The desire of attaining a perfect unanimity
and the reasonableness of allowing time for the dele-
gates of the central colonies to consult their constitu-
ents, induced seven colonies against five to assent to
the delay, but with the further condition, that, to pre-
vent any loss of time, a committee should in the mean-
while prepare a declaration in harmony with the pro-
posed resolution. On the next day, Jefferson, John
Adams, Franklin, Sherman, and Eobert R. Living-
ston were chosen by ballot to prepare the declaration ;
and it fell to Jefferson to write it, both because he
represented Virginia from which the proposition had
gone forth, and because he had been elected by the
largest number of votes.

On the twelfth the office of digesting the form of
a confederation to be entered into between the col-
onies, was referred to a committee of one member
from each colony ; and as if the subject had not been
of transcendant importance, the appointment of the
committee was left to the presiding officer. Among
those whom Hancock selected are found the names of
Samuel Adams, Dickinson, and Edward Rutledge : it
could have been wished that the two Adamses had
changed places, though probably the result would at

THE VIRGINIA PROPOSITION OF INDEPENDENCE. 393

that time have been the same ; no one man had done
so much to bring about independence as the elder
Adams ; but his skill in constructing governments, not
his knowledge of the principles of freedom, was less
remarkable than that of his younger kinsman. In the
committee, Dickinson, who, as an opponent of inde-
pendence, could promote only a temporary constitu-
tion, assumed the task of drafting the great charter
of union.

The preparation of a plan of treaties with foreign
powers, was intrusted by ballot to Dickinson, Frank-
lin, John Adams, Harrison, and Robert Morris ; and
between John Adams and Dickinson there was no
difference of opinion that the scheme to be proposed
should be confined to commerce, without any grant
of exclusive privileges and without any entanglement
of a political connection or alliance.

CHAPTER LXVI.

THE BATTLE OF FOKT MOULTEIE.

THE TWENTY EIGHTH OF JUNE,

CHAP. THE month of May robed the pomegranate and
^^ the oleander in their gorgeous masses of flowers, and
1776. the peace of Charleston was still undisturbed except
by gathering rumors, that the English fleet and trans-
ports destined for its attack had arrived in Cape Fear
River. Its citizens, taking courage from the efficiency
and wisdom with which the independent government
of the colony was administered, toiled continually in
the trenches,- and bands of negroes from the neighbor-
ing plantations were put upon the works. The bloom
of the magnolia was yellowing in the hot sky of early
summer, when on the first day of June expresses from
Christ Church parish brought news to the president,
that a fleet of forty or fifty sail lay anchored about
twenty miles to the north of Charleston bar.

Prompt and fearless in action, Rutledge ordered
the alarm to be fired, and while the townsmen were
looking out for horses, carriages, or boats to remove

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 395

their wives and children, he hastened down the mi- CHAP.

i » . ,» i , i • LXVI.

litia from the country by expresses ; and in company — , —
with Armstrong visited all the fortifications. Barri- 1776.

, , June.

cades were thrown up across the principal streets ;
defences were raised at the points most likely to be
selected for landing ; lead, gleaned from the weights
of church windows and dwelling houses, was cast into
musket balls ; and a respectable force in men was con-
centred at the capital.

The invaders of South Carolina, at a moment when
instant action was essential to their success, were per-
plexed by uncertainty of counsel between Clinton and
Sir Peter Parker, the respective commanders of the
army and the naval force. On the seventh, when
Clinton would have sent on shore a proclamation by
a flag of truce, his boat was fired upon by an ignorant
sentinel ; but the next day Moultrie cleared up the
mistake through one of his officers, and received the
proclamation in return. In this the British general
declared the existence of "a most unprovoked and
wicked rebellion within South Carolina," the " succes-
sion of crimes of its inhabitants," the tyranny of its
congress and committees, the error, thus far, incor-
rigible, of an " infatuated and misguided multitude,"
the duty of " proceeding forthwith against all bodies
of men in arms, congresses, and committees, as open
enemies of the state;" but "from humanity" he con-
sented " to forewarn the deluded people," and to offer
in his majesty's name " free pardon to such as should
lay down their arms and submit to the laws." Hav-
ing done this, he consulted Cornwallis on the best
means of gaining possession of Sullivan's Island ; and
both agreed that they could not more effectually co-

396 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, operate with the intended movement of the fleet, than

* — <~^ by landing on Long Island, which was represented to

1776. communicate with Sullivan's Island at low water by

a ford, and with the main by a channel navigable for

boats of draft. Clinton had had four days' time to

sound the ford ; but he took the story of its depth on

trust.

On the morning of the ninth of June, Charles Lee,
attended by his aides-de-camp, and by Robert Howe
of North Carolina, arrived at Haddrell's Point. After
examining its fortifications, he crossed over to Sulli-
van's Island, where he found a good stock of powder ;
a fort of which the front and one side were finished ;
and twelve hundred men encamped in its rear in
booths that were roofed with palmetto leaves. With-
in the fort numerous mechanics and laborers were
lifting and fitting heavy palmetto logs for its walls.
He had scarce glanced at the work, when he declared
that " he did not like that post at all ; it could not
hold out half an hour, and there was no way to re-
treat ; " it was but a " slaughter pen," and the garrison
would be sacrificed. On his way up to Charleston,
Lee touched at James Island, where Gradsden had the
command.

The battalions raised in South Carolina were not
as yet placed upon the continental establishment ; and
although congress bore the proportionate expense,
the disposition of the force still remained under the
exclusive direction of the president of the colony and
its officers. This circumstance became now of the
greatest importance. To Armstrong no command
whatever had been conceded ; but Lee was the second
officer in the American army ; his military fame was

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 397

at that time very great; lie had power from the CHAP.
general congress to order, and he had ordered batta- ^^>
lions from North Carolina and Virginia; his presence 1776.
was a constant pledge of the active sympathy of the
continent ; and on his arrival he was invested with
the military command through an order from Rut-
ledge.

On that same day Clinton began his disembarka-
tion, landing four or five hundred men on Long
Island. It was therefore evident that the first attack
was to be made not on the city but its out-post; yet
Lee proposed to Rutledge to withdraw from Sulli-
van's Island and abandon it without a blow. Had he
acted in concert with the invaders, he could not have
more completely promoted their design. But Rut-
ledge, interposing his authority, would not suffer it,
and Lee did not venture to proceed alon-e ; yet on the
tenth his very first order to Moultrie, except one
which was revoked as soon as issued, directed that
officer to construct bridges for his retreat, and the
order was repeated and enforced several times that
day, and on almost every succeeding one. Happily
Moultrie's courage was of that placid kind that could
not be made anxious or uneasy ; he weighed carefully
his danger and his resources ; with quiet, imperturba-
ble confidence, formed his plan for repelling the im-
pending double attack of the enemy by sea and by
land ; and never so much as imagined that he could
be driven from his post.

On the tenth, while the continental congress was
finishing the debate on independence, the Bristol,
whose guns had been previously taken out, came
over the bar, attended by thirty or forty vessels,

TOL. VIII. 34

398 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and anchored at about three miles from Fort Sulli-

T.YVT

,— ^ van. In Charleston, from which this movement was
1776- distinctly visible, all was action; on the wharfs,
warehouses of great value were thrown down to give
room for the fire of cannon and musketry from the
lines along East Bay ; intrenchments surrounded the
town ; the barricades, raised in the principal streets,
were continued to the water; and arrow-headed em-
bankments were projected upon the landing places.
Negroes from the country took part in the labor ; the
hoe and the spade were in every citizen's hands, for
all persons, without distinction, " labored with alac-
rity," some for the sake of example, some as the best
way of being useful. Neither the noonday sun, nor
the rain, which in that clime drops from the clouds in
gushes, interrupted their toil.

On the eleventh the two regiments from North
Carolina arrived. That same day Lee, being told that
a bridge of retreat from Sullivan's Island to Had-
drell's Point was impossible, and not being permitted
by Kutledge to direct the total evacuation of the
island, ordered Moultrie immediately to send four
hundred of his men over to the continent; in his
postscript he added : " Make up the detachment to
five hundred." On the thirteenth he writes: "You
will detach another hundred of men," to strengthen
the corps on the other side of the creek. But the
spirit of South Carolina had sympathy with Moultrie,
and mechanics and negro laborers were sent down to
complete his fort ; yet hard as they toiled, it was not
nearly finished before the action. On the twelfth
the wind blew so violently that two ships which lay

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 399

outside of the bar, were obliged for safety to stand CHAP.

LXiV

out to sea, and this assisted to postpone the attack. ^-^J.
On the fifteenth, Lee stationed Armstrong at Had- 1J^'
drell's Point ; and the brave Pennsylvanian, as the su-
perior officer, ever manifested for Moultrie a hearty
friendship. On that same day, Sir Peter Parker gave
to the captains of his squadron his arrangement for
taking the batteries on Sullivan's Island ; and on the
sixteenth he communicated it to Clinton, who did not
know what to do. The dilatory conduct of the
British betrayed hesitation and unharrnonious coun-
cils ; and the Carolinians made such use of the conse-
quent delay, that by the seventeenth they were in an
exceedingly good state of preparation at every out-
post and also in town. But Clinton intended only to
occupy and garrison Sullivan's Island. For that end,
consulting with Cornwallis, he completed the landing
of all his men on Long Island, a naked sand, where
nothing grew except a few bushes, that harbored
myriads of musquitoes, and where the troops suffered
intensely from the burning sun, the want of good
water, and the bad quality and insufficient supply of
provisions. A trial of the ford was made ; Clinton
himself waded in up to his neck ; so did others of his
officers, and on the day on which he succeeded in get-
ting all his men on shore, he announced through
Vaughan to Sir Peter Parker, that no ford was to be
found ; that there remained a depth of seven feet of
water at low tide ; and that therefore the troops could
not take the share they expected in the intended at-
tack. His six full regiments, and companies enough
from others to make up one more, a body of more
than three thousand men, thoroughly provided with

400 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, arms, artillery, and ammunition, had left the trans-

-^^ ports for a naked sand-bank that was to them a

1776. prison. Compelled to propose something, Clinton

fixed on the twenty third for the joint attack ; but it

was hindered on that day by an unfavorable wind.

In the following night, Muhlenberg's regiment ar-
rived. On receiving Lee's orders they had instantly
set off from Virginia and marched to Charleston, with-
out tents, continually exposed to the weather. The
companies were composed chiefly of Muhlenberg's old
German parishioners; and of all the Virginia regi-
ments, this was the most complete, the best armed,
best clothed, and best equipped for immediate service.
The Americans were now very strong.

The confidence of Sir Peter Parker in an easy
victory was unshaken. To make all sure, he exercised
a body of marines and seamen in the art of entering
forts through embrasures ; intending first to silence
Moultrie's battery, then to land his practised detach-
ment, and by their aid enter the fort. His presump-
tion was justified by the judgment of Lee. That
general, coming down to the island, took Moultrie
aside and said : " Do you think you can maintain this
post?" Moultrie answered: "Yes, I think I can."
But Lee had no faith in a spirited defence, fretted at
Moultrie's too easy disposition, and wished, up. to the
last moment, to remove him from the command.

On the twenty fifth the squadron was increased by
the arrival of the " Experiment," a ship of -sixty guns,
which passed the bar on the twenty sixth. Letters
of encouragement came also from Tonyn, then gov-
ernor of East Florida, who was impatient for an at-
tack on Georgia; he would have had a body of

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 401

Indians raised on the back of South Carolina ; and a CHAP.
body of royalists to " terrify and distract, so that the — r^
assault at Charleston would have struck an astonish- 1776
ing terror and affright." He reported South Carolina
to be in "a mutinous state that delighted him;"
" the men would certainly rise on their officers ; the
battery on Sullivan's Island would not discharge two
rounds." This opinion was spread through the fleet,
and became the belief of every sailor on board. With
or without Clinton's aid the commodore was per-
suaded that his well drilled seamen and marines could
take and keep possession of the fort, till Clinton
should "send as many troops as he might think
proper, who might enter the fort in the same way."

One day Captain Lenipriere, the same who in the
former year had, with daring enterprise, taken more
than a hundred barrels of powder from a vessel at
anchor off St. Augustine, was walking with Moultrie
on the platform, and looking at the British ships-of-
war, all of which had already come over the bar, ad-
dressed him : " Well, Colonel, what do you think of
it now?" "We shall beat them," said Moultrie.
"The men-of-war," rejoined the captain, "will knock
your fort down in half an hour." " Then," said Moul-
trie, " we will lie behind the ruins and prevent their
men from landing."

On the morning of the twenty eighth a gentle 28.
sea-breeze prognosticated the attack. Lee, from
Charleston, for the tenth or eleventh time, charged
Moultrie to finish the bridge for his retreat, promised
him reinforcements, which were never sent, and still
meditated removing him from his command; while
Moultrie, whose faculties, under the outward show

VOL. Till. 34*

402 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of imperturbable and even indolent calm, were strained
to their utmost tension, rode to visit his advanced

on ^e east* Here the commander, William
Thomson, of Orangeburg, of Irish descent, a native
of Pennsylvania, but from childhood a citizen of South
Carolina, a man of rare worth in private life, brave
and intelligent as an officer, had, at the extreme
point, posted fifty of the militia behind sand-hills
and myrtle bushes. A few hundred yards in the
rear breastworks had been thrown up, which he
guarded with three hundred riflemen of his own
regiment from. Orangeburg and its neighborhood,
with two hundred of Clark's North Carolina regi-
ment, two hundred more of the men of South Caro-
lina under Horry; and the raccoon company of
riflemen. On his left he was protected by a morass ;
on his right by one eighteen pounder and one brass
six pounder, which overlooked* the spot where Clinton
would wish to land.

Seeing the enemy's boats already in motion on the
beach of Long Island, and the men-of-war loosing their
topsails, Moultrie hurried back to his fort at full
speed. He ordered the long roll to beat, and officers
and men to their posts. His whole number, including
himself and officers, was four hundred and thirty five ;
of whom twenty two were of the artillery, the rest of
his own regiment ; men who were bound to each other,
to their officers, and to him, by personal affection and
confidence. Next to him in command was Isaac Motte ;
his major was the fearless and faultless Francis Marion.
The fort was a square, with a bastion at each angle ;
built of palmetto logs, dove-tailed and bolted together,
and laid in parallel rows sixteen feet asunder, with

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 403

sand filled in between the rows. On the eastern and CHAP.
northern sides the palmetto wall was only seven feet
high, but it was surmounted by thick plank, so as to
be tenable against a scaling party ; a traverse of sand
extended from east to west. The southern and west-
ern curtains were finished with their platforms, on
which cannon were mounted. The standard which
was advanced to the south-east bastion, displayed a
flag of blue with a white crescent, on which was em-
blazoned LIBEETY. The whole number of cannon in
the fort, the bastions, and the two cavaliers, was but
thirty one, of which no more than twenty one could
at the same time be brought into use ; of ammunition
there were but twenty eight rounds for twenty six
cannon. At Haddrell's Point across the bay Arm-
strong had about fifteen hundred men. The first
regular South Carolina regiment, under Christopher
Gadsden, occupied Fort Johnson, which stood on the
most northerly part of James Island, about three
miles from Charleston, and within point-blank shot
of the channel. Charleston was protected by more
than two thousand men.

Half an hour after nine in the morning, the com-
modore gave signal to Clinton that he should go on
the attack. An hour later the ships-of-war were un-
der weigh. Gadsden, Cotesworth Pinckney, and the
rest at Fort Johnson watched all their movements ;
in Charleston the wharfs and water-side along the
bay were crowded with troops under arms and
lookers-on. Their adversary must be foiled, or their
city may perish ; their houses be sacked and burned;
and the savages on the frontier start from their lurk-
ing-places. No grievous oppressions weighed down

404 AMEKICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, the industry of South Carolina ; she came forth to the
— . — struggle from generous sympathy ; and now the bat-
1June ^e *s ^° ^e f°ught f°r her d&ief city and the province.
28. The " Thunderbomb," covered by the "Friend-

ship," began the action by throwing shells, which it
continued, till more than sixty were discharged ; of
these some burst in the air; one lighted on the maga-
zine without doing injury ; the rest sunk in the mo
rass, or were buried in the sand within the fort. At
about a quarter to eleven, the " Active," of twenty
eight guns, disregarding four or five shots fired at
her while under sail ; the " Bristol," with fifty guns,
having on board Sir Peter Parker and Lord William
Campbell, the governor; the "Experiment," also of
fifty guns ; and the " Solebay," of twenty eight,
brought up within about three hundred and fifty
yards of the fort, let go their anchors with springs
upon their cables, and began a most furious cannon-
ade. Every sailor expected that two broadsides
would end the strife ; but the soft, fibrous, spongy
wood of the palmetto withstood the rapid fire, and
neither split, nor splintered, nor started; and the
parapet was high enough to protect the men on the
platforms. When broadsides from three or four
of the men-of-war struck the logs at the same instant,
the shock gave the merlons a tremor, but the pile re-
mained uninjured. Moultrie had but one-tenth as
many guns as were brought te bear on him, and was
moreover obliged to stint the use of powder. His
guns accordingly were fired very slowly, the officers
taking aim, and waiting always for the smoke to clear
away, that they might point with more precision
"Mind the commodore, mind the fifty-gun ships,'7

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 405

were the words that passed along the platform from CHAP.

officers and men. ^^

"Shall I send for more powder?" asked Moultrie 1776-

/.-»«- June

of Motte. 28.

"To be sure," said Motte.

And Moultrie wrote to Lee : "I believe we shall
want more powder. At the rate we go on, I think
we shall ; but you can see that. Pray send us more,
if you think proper."

More vessels were seen coming up, and cannon
were heard from the north-east. Clinton had prom-
ised support; not knowing what else to do, he
directed the batteries on Long Island to open a
cannonade ; and several shells were thrown into
Thomson's intrenchments, doing no damage beyond
wounding one soldier. The firing was returned by
Thomson with his one eighteen pounder ; but, from
the distance, with little effect.

At twelve o'clock the light infantry, grenadiers,
and the fifteenth regiment embarked in boats, while
floating batteries and armed craft got under weigh to
cover the landing ; but the troops never so much as
once attempted to land. The detachment had hardly
left Long Island before it was ordered to disembark,
for it was seen that " the landing was impracticable,
and would have been the destruction of many brave
men without the least probability of success." The
American defences were so well constructed, the ap-
proach so difficult, Thomson so vigilant, his men such
skilful sharpshooters, that had the British landed,
they would have been cut to pieces. " It was impos-
sible," says Clinton, " to decide positively upon any
plan ; " and he did nothing.

406 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. An attack on Haddrell's Point would have been
' — r*-* still more desperate ; though the commodore, at Clin-

^on's re(llies^ sent three frigates to cooperate with
28. him in that design. The people of Charleston, as
they looked from the battery with senses quickened
by the nearness of danger, beheld the " Sphinx," the
"Acteon," and the "Syren," each of twenty eight
guns, sailing as if to get between Haddrell's Point
and the fort, so as to enfilade the works, and when
the rebels should be driven from them, to cut off
their retreat. It was a moment of danger, for the
fort on that side was unfinished ; but the pilots kept
too far to the south, so that they run all the three
upon a bank of sand, known as the Lower Middle
Ground. Gladdened by seeing the frigates thus en-
tangled, the beholders in the town were swayed
alternately by fears and hopes ; the armed inhabitants
stood every one at his post, uncertain but that they
might be called to immediate action, hardly daring
to believe that Moultrie's small and ill-furnished gar-
rison could beat off the squadron, when behold ! his
flag disappears from their eyes. Fearing that his
colors had been struck, they prepared to meet the in-
vaders at the water's edge, trusting in Providence
and preferring death to slavery.

In the fort, William Jasper, a sergeant, perceived
that the flag had been cut down by a ball from, the
enemy, and had fallen over the ramparts. " Colonel,"
said he to Moultrie, " don't let us fight without a flag."

" What can you do ? " asked Moultrie ; " the staff
is broken off."

"Then," said Jasper, "I'll fix it on a halberd, and
place it on the merlon of the bastion next the enemy ;"

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 407

and leaping through an embrasure, and braving the CHAP.
thickest fire from the ship, he took up the flag, re- — ^
turned with it safely and planted it, as he had prom- 1J^.
ised, on the summit of the merlon. 28.

The calm sea gleamed with light ; the almost ver-
tical sun of midsummer glared from a cloudless sky ;
and the intense heat was increased by the blaze from
the cannon on the platform. All of the garrison threw
off their coats during the action, and some were nearly
naked; Moultrie and several of the officers smoked
their pipes as they gave their orders. The defence
was conducted within sight of those whose watchful-
ness was to them the most animating: they knew
that their movements were observed from the house
tops of Charleston ; by the veteran Armstrong, and
the little army at Haddrell's Point ; by Gaclsden at
Fort Johnson, who was almost near enough to take
part in the engagement, and was chafing with discon-
tent at not being himself in the centre of danger.
Exposed to an incessant cannonade, which seemed
sufficient to daunt the bravest veterans, they stuck to
their guns with the greatest constancy.

Hit by a ball which entered through an embra-
sure, Macdaniel cried out to his brother soldiers : " I
am dying, but don't let the cause of liberty expire
with me this day."

Jasper removed the mangled corpse from the sight
of his comrades, and cried aloud : " Let us revenge
that brave man's death."

The slow, intermitted fire which was skilfully
directed against the commodore and the brave seamen
on board the " Bristol," shattered that ship, and car-
ried wounds and death. Never had a British squad-

408 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, ron " experienced so rude an encounter." Neither the
*-~v^ tide nor the wind suffered them to retire. Once the
Jim6 sP™gs on the cables of the "Bristol" were swept
28. away ; as she swung round with her stern toward the
fort, she drew upon herself the fire of all the guns
that could be brought to bear upon her. The slaugh-
ter was dreadful ; of all who in the beginning of the
action were stationed on her quarter deck, not one
escaped being killed or wounded. At one moment,
it is said, the commodore stood there alone, an exam-
pie of unsurpassed intrepidity and firmness. Morris,
his captain, having his fore-arm shattered by a chain-
shot, and also receiving a wound in his neck, was
taken into the cockpit ; but after submitting to ampu-
tation, he insisted on being carried on the quarter-
deck once more, where he resumed the command and
continued it, till he was shot through the body, when
feeling dissolution near, he commended his family to
the providence- of God and the generosity of his coun-
try. Meantime the eyes of the commodore and of all
on board his fleet were " frequently, and impatiently,"
and vainly turned toward the army. If the troops
would but cooperate, he was sure of gaining the
island; for at about one o'clock he believed that he
had silenced the guns of the rebels, and that the fort
was on the point of being evacuated. " If this were
so," Clinton afterward asked him, " why did you not
take possession of the fort, with the seamen and ma-
rines whom you practised for the purpose ? " And
Parker's rejoinder was, that he had no prospect of
speedy support from Clinton. But the pause was
owing to the scarcity of powder, of which the little
that remained to Moultrie was reserved for the mus-

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOTJLTRIE. 409

ketry as a defence against an expected attack from CHAP.
the land forces. Lee should have replenished his — *-^>

stock; but in the heat of the action Moultrie received
from him this letter: "If you should unfortunately 28.
expend your ammunition without beating off the
enemy or driving them on ground, spike your guns
and retreat."

A little later, a better gift and a better message
came from Rutledge, now at Charleston : "I send you
five hundred pounds of powder. You know our col-
lection is not very great. Honor and victory to you
and our worthy countrymen with you. Do not make
too free with your cannon. Be cool and do mischief."
These five hundred pounds of powder, with two hun-
dred pounds from a schooner lying at the back of the
fort, were all the supplies that Moultrie received.
At three in the afternoon, Lee, on a report from his
aide-de-camp Byrd, sent Muhlenberg's Virginia rifle-
men to reenforce Thomson. A little before five,
Moultrie was able to renew his fire. At about five
the marines in the ships' tops, seeing a lieutenant with
eight or ten men remove the heavy barricade from
the gateway to the fort, thought that Moultrie and
his party were about to retreat ; but the gateway was
unbarred to receive a visit from Lee. The officers
half naked, and begrimed with the hot day's work,
respectfully laid down their pipes as he drew near.
The general himself pointed two or three guns, after
which he said to Moultrie, u Colonel, I see you are
doing very well here, you have no occasion for me,
I will go up to town again ; " and thus he left the fort.

When at a few minutes past seven the sun went
down in a blaze of light, the battle was still raging,

VOL Till. 35

410 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE,

CHAP, though the British showed signs of weariness. The
v^r^ inhabitants of Charleston, whorn the evening sea
1776. breeze collected on the battery, could behold the flag
28. of crescent liberty still proudly waving; and they
continued gazing anxiously, till the short twilight was
suddenly merged in the deep darkness of a southern
night, when nothing was seen but continual flashes,
followed by peals as it were of thunder coming out
from a heavy cloud. Many thousand shot were fired
from the shipping, and hardly a hut or a tree on the
island remained unhurt; but the works were very
little damaged, and only one gun was silenced. The
firing from the fort continued slowly; and the few
shot they were able to send, were heard to strike
against the ships' timbers. Just after nine o'clock, a
great part of his ammunition being expended in a
cannonade of about ten hours, his people fatigued,
the "Bristol" and the " Experiment" made nearly
wrecks, the tide of ebb almost done, with no prospect
of help from the army at the eastward, and no possi-
bility of his being of any further service, Sir Peter
Parker resolved to withdraw. At half-past nine his
ships slipped their cables, and dropped down with
the tide to their previous moorings.

Of the four hundred and thirty-five Americans in
the fort, who took part in this action, all but eleven
remained alive, and of these but twenty-six were
wounded. At so small a cost of life had Charleston
been defended and a province saved.

When, after a cannonade of about ten hours, the
firing ceased, the inhabitants of Charleston remained
in suspense, till a boat from Moultrie announced his
victory. At morning's dawn the " Acteon " frigate

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRIE. 411

was seen, fast aground at about four hundred yards CHAP.
from the fort. The " Syren " had got off; and so too ^-^
had the "Sphinx," yet with the loss of her bowsprit. 1776.
Some shots were exchanged, but the company of the 28.
"Acteon" soon set fire to her and deserted her.
Men from the fort boarded her while she was on fire,
pointed and discharged two or three of her guns at
the commodore, and loaded their three boats from
her stores. In one half of an hour after they aban-
doned her, she blew up, and to the eyes of the Caro-
linians, the pillar of smoke, as it rose over the vessel,
took the form of the palmetto.

The " Bristol " had forty men killed and seventy
one wounded. Lord William Campbell received a
contusion in his left side, and, after suffering two
years, died from its effects. Sir Peter Parker was
slightly injured. About seventy balls went through
his ship ; her mizzenmast was so much hurt that it
fell early the next morning ; the mainmast was cut
away about fifteen feet below the hounds ; and the
broad pendant now streamed from a jury-mast, lower
than the foremast. She had suffered so much in hull,
masts, and rigging, that but for the stillness of the sea
she must have gone down. On board the u Experi-
ment," twenty three were killed and fifty six wounded ;
Scott, her captain, lost his left arm, and was other-
wise so severely wounded, that his life was long de-
spaired of; the ship was much damaged, her mizzen
gaff was shot away. The whole loss of the British
fleet, in killed and wounded, was two hundred and
five. The royal governors of North Carolina and
of South Carolina, as well as Clinton and Cornwallis,
and seven regiments, were witnesses of the defeat.

412 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

The commodore and the general long indulged in re-
ciprocal criminations. Nothing remained for the
Vane* army "but ^° Q.u^ ^e san(^s °f Long Island; yet three

28. weeks more passed away before they embarked in
transports for New York under the single u convoy
of the " Solebay " frigate ; the rest of the fleet being
under the necessity of remaining still longer to refit."

The success of the Carolinians was due to the
wisdom and adequateness of their preparations. It
saved not a post but a province. It kept seven regi-
ments away from New York for two months ; it gave
security to Georgia, and three years' peace to Caro-
lina ; it dispelled throughout the South the dread of
British superiority ; it drove the loyalists into shame-
ful obscurity. It was an announcement to the other
colonies of the existence of South Carolina as a self-
directing republic; a message of brotherhood and
union.

29. On the morning of the twenty ninth, Charleston
harbor was studded with sails, and alive with the voice
of men, hastening to congratulate the victors. They
crowded round their deliverers with transports of grat-
itude ; they gazed admiringly on the uninjured walls
of the fortress, the ruinous marks of the enemy's shot
on every tree and hut in its neighborhood ; they
enjoyed the sight of the wreck of the " Acteon," the
discomfited men-of-war riding at anchor at two and a
half miles' distance ; they laughed at the commodore's
broad pendant, scarcely visible on a jury main-
topmast, while their own blue flag crowned the
merlon. Letters of congratulation came down from
Rutledge and from Gadsden ; and Lee gave his wit-

THE BATTLE OF FORT MOULTRJE. 413

ness, that " no men ever did behave better, or ever CHAP,
could behave better." ^^

On the afternoon of the thirtieth Lee reviewed ^TG.
the garrison, and renewed to them the praise that so.
was their due. While they were thus drawn out,
the women of Charleston presented to the second
regiment a pair of silken colors, one of blue, one of
red, richly embroidered by their own hands ; and
Susanna Smith Elliott, a scion of one of the oldest
families of the colony, who, being left an orphan, had
been bred up by Rebecca Brewton Motte, stepped
forth to the front of the intrepid band in matronal
beauty, young and stately, light-haired, with eyes of
mild expression, and a pleasant countenance ; and as
she put the flags into the hands of Moultrie and
Motte, she said in a low, sweet voice : " Your gallant
behavior in defence of liberty and your country enti-
tles you to the highest honors ; accept these two
standards as a reward justly due to your regiment ;
and I make not the least doubt, under heaven's pro-
tection, you will stand by them as long as they can
wave in the air of Liberty." And the regiment
plighting the word which they were to keep sacredly
at the cost of many of their lives, answered : " The
colors shall be honorably supported, and shall never
be tarnished."

On the fourth of July, Rutledge came to visit the
garrison. There stood Moultrie, there Motte, there
Marion, there Peter Horry, there William Jasper,
and all the survivors of the battle. Rutledge was
happy in having insisted on holding possession of the
fort ; happy in the consciousness of his unwavering re-
liance on Moultrie ; happy in the glory that gathered

VOL. vin. 35*

414 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

rouna ^6 first days °f tne new-born commonwealth ;
and when, in the name of South Carolina, he returned
^nanks *° ^ne defenders, his burning words gushed
forth with an eloquence that adequately expressed
the impassioned gratitude of the people. To Jasper
he offered a lieutenant's commission, which Jasper
modestly declined, accepting only a sword.

South Carolina, by her president and the common
voice, spontaneously decreed that the post on Sulli-
van's Island should, for all future time, be known
as Fort Moultrie ; her assembly crowned her victori-
ous sons with applause. The tidings leaped from
colony to colony on their way to the North, and the
continental congress voted their thanks to Lee, Moul-
trie, Thomson, and the officers and men under their
command. But at the time of that vote, congress was
no more the representative of dependent colonies;
the victory at Fort Moultrie was the bright morning
star and harbinger of American Independence.

CHAPTER LXVIL

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA.
JANUARY — JUNE, 1776.

THE death of Montgomery dispelled the illusion CHAP.
that hovered round the invasion of Canada. The sol- ^^,
diers whose time expired on the last day of Decem- 1776.
ber insisted on their discharge ; some went off with- *°*
out leave, taking with them their arms ; the rest were Mar-
dejected and anxious to be at home. There remained
encamped near Quebec rather than besieging it, about
four hundred Americans and as many wavering Cana-
dians. The force commanded by Carleton was twice
as numerous as both, and was concentrated in the well
provisioned and strongly fortified town. Yet in the
face of disasters and a superior enemy, Arnold pre-
served his fortitude ; " I have no thought," he said,
" of leaving this proud town until I enter it in tri
umph." Montgomery had required an army of ten
thousand men ; Arnold declared that a less number
would not suffice.

The chief command devolved on Wooster, who

416 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP was at Montreal ; and lie wrote in every direction for
— ^ aid. To Warner and the Green Mountain Boys lie sent
1776. W0rd that they must come down as fast as parties
to ' could be collected, by fifties or even by tens ; of
' Washington, who had no artillery for his own use, he
asked not men only, but heavy cannon and mortars ;
to the president of congress and to Schuyler he said
plainly : " We shall want every thing," men, heavy
cannon, mortars, shot, shells, powder, and hard money.
Bills of credit had no currency ; " money," he reite-
rated, " we must have or give up every thing ; " " if
we are not immediately supplied with hard cash, we
must starve, quit the country, or lay it under contri-
bution."

Wherever among the colonies the news spread of
Montgomery's fall, there was one general burst of
sorrow, and a burning desire to retrieve his defeat.
Washington overcame his scruples about initiating
measures, and without waiting to consult congress,
recommended to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New
Hampshire, each to raise and send forward a regiment
on behalf of the continent; and the three colonies
eagerly met his call, for the annexation of Canada was
then their passion. The continental congress specially
encouraged western New Hampshire to complete a
regiment for the service ; and ordered one regiment
from Philadelphia, another from New Jersey to march
for the St. Lawrence without delay. These were to
be soon followed by four .or five more.

In the first moments of the excitement the sum-
mons was obeyed ; citizens became soldiers, left the
comforts of home with alacrity, and undertook a march
of many hundred miles, to a country in that rigor-

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 417

ous season almost uninhabitable, through snow and CHAP.

LXVII

over frozen lakes, without tents, or any shelter from — ^
the inclemency of the weather. Their unanimity, 1J76*
their zeal for liberty, their steady perseverance, called to
forth the most confident predictions of their suc-
cess ; but reflection showed insurmountable obstacles.
Since congress for eight months had not been able to
furnish Washington, who was encamped in the most
thickly peopled part of the country, with the men,
clothes, blankets, money, and powder required for the
recovery of Boston, how could they hope to keep up
the siege of Quebec?

To maintain a foothold in Canada, there was need,
in the first place, of the good- will and confidence of its
people. Montgomery had from his birth been fa-
miliar with Catholics ; but Wooster, a New England
Calvinist from a country town in Connecticut, cradled
in the hatred of popery, irritated the jealousies of the
Canadian clergy, who refused absolution to the friends
of the Americans, and threatened them from the pul-
pit with eternal woe. Nor were his manners and fru-
gal style of living suited to win the friendship of the
Canadian nobility. But without the support of their
priests or their feudal superiors, the fickle and uncer-
tain common people were incapable of being solidly
organized, unless the Americans should prove them-
selves to be the strongest party.

It would therefore be necessary to send into Cana-
da a numerous, well disciplined, and well appointed
army, with trains of artillery for a siege. But congress,
in its dread of a standing force, had no troops at all
except on short enlistments ; among the New England
men who were the first to move, there was little apt-

418 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, ness for military subordination ; and if Washington

LXVII

^v^ found it difficult to reduce them to order, if Schuyler
1J76- almost threw up the attempt, if Montgomery suffered
to from their querulousness even while leading them to
Mar> victory, what was to be expected from fresh levies
of imperfectly armed villagers who for the most
part had never seen war, and, alike officers and men?
could never have acquired the sentiment of soldierly
obedience, or the habit of courage in danger ? More-
over, the distance was an obstacle in respect to which
England had the advantage ; the path across the At-
lantic and up the St. Lawrence was more easily trav-
ersed than the road by land from the colonies to Que-
bec. A real American army of ten thousand men was
wanted, and by the middle of March no more than
fifteen hundred had reached Montreal. The royalists
in Canada began to cry victory, and were bolder than
ever.

The relations with the Indians became alarming ;
yet Schuyler dissuaded from any attempt at employing
them ; and congress voted not to suffer them to serve
in its armies without the previous consent of the tribes
in a national council, nor then without its own express
approval. But to guard against dangers from the
Five Nations, James Deane was sent with the return-
ing deputations from the Oneidas and the seven tribes
in Canada. On the journey they marched in Indian
file, and at sunset encamped in a grove of hemlocks,
of which the boughs furnished beds. The council, in
which the nations were much divided, began on the
twenty eighth of March with the usual ceremonies
to wipe away tears, to cleanse from blood, to lighten
the grief wliich choked speech. The next day was

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 419

given to acts of condolence, when new trees, as they CHAP.
expressed it, were raised in the place of chiefs who — ^
had fallen, and their names published to the Six Na- 1-^7r6-
tions. On the thirty first the confederated tribes gave
each other pledges to observe a strict neutrality in
the present quarrel. Nothing amazed them more than
the flight of the British from Boston.

For four months Wooster remained the highest
officer in Canada. All accounts agree that he was
" unfit, totally unfit " for so important a station, which
he had never sought, and which he desired to sur-
render to an officer of higher rank. Yet he did some
things well ; in the early part of his command he ar-
rested Campbell, the Indian agent of the British,
and La Corne St. Luc, and sent them out of the prov-
ince. Like a true New England man, he allowed each
parish to choose its own officers, thus introducing the
system of self-government in towns. He also intended
to employ committees of safety and committees of
correspondence, and thus lead the way to a Canadian
convention, which might send delegates to the general
congress. When a friend wished he might enter Que-
bec through its gates, " Not so, but over its walls," was
his reply ; and they were not mere words of rodomon-
tade, for the aged man was brave. He was too old
to unlearn his partiality for Connecticut, and sometimes
paid his men in hard money, when those round Que-
bec got only paper ; and sometimes granted a furlough
which carried pay, instead of a discharge. With
Schuyler, who was far the more testy of the two, he
had constant bickerings, which attracted the attention
and divided the opinion of congress.

On the first day of April Wooster took command Apr.

420 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of the troops round Quebec. The garrison laughed
— f^ as they saw from the ramparts the general, now ven-
M™' era^e fr°m age> an(l distinguished by his singularly
large wig, walking solemnly along the walls, to spy out
their weak parts. Scattered round Quebec, on both
sides of the river, and at great distances from each
other, lay about two thousand men; of whom not
many more than half were able to do duty. How to
supply them with food was a great difficulty. The
insignificant batteries of three light guns and one
howitzer on Point Levi ; of twice that number of guns,
two howitzers, and two small mortars on the heights
of Abraham ; and of two guns at the Traverse, were
harmless to the enemy ; the store of powder did not
exceed three or four tons ; of shot, ten or twelve ;
there were no engineers and few artillerists ; of those
who had wintered in Canada, constituting more than
half of the whole number, the time of service would
expire on the fifteenth of April, when neither art, nor
money, nor entreaty would be able to prevail on them
to remain. Livingston's regiment of about two hun-
dred Canadians would be free on the same day, and
very few of them would reengage. Without the im-
mediate support of eight or ten thousand men, a good
train of artillery, and a full military chest, it was plain
that the ministerial troops would easily regain the
country. Arnold, at his own solicitation, withdrew
to Montreal.

The regiments, sent forward to Canada, arrived at
Albany in a very incomplete state, and were further
thinned on the march by sickness and desertion. The
Canadians who had confided in Montgomery and
given him aid before Quebec, now only waited an

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 421

opportunity to rise against the Americans. The CHAP.
country was outraged by the arbitrariness of the mil- — ^
itary occupation ; the peasantry had been forced to
furnish wood and other articles at less than the mar-
ket price, or for promissory certificates ; the clergy,
neglected or ill used, were unanimously hostile; of
the more cultivated classes, both French and English,
seven eighths favored the British, and were willing to
assist in driving back the invaders. The savages kept
aloof from the Americans, and it was feared would,
early in the spring, fall on their frontier.

Alarmed by constant unfavorable reports, con-
gress, on the twentieth, by its president, urged AVash-
ington to hasten the departure of four battalions des-
tined for Quebec, as "a week, a day, even an hour
might prove decisive ; " but on the twentieth and
twenty first, before receiving the letters, he had dis-
patched them, under Thompson of Pennsylvania as
brigadier. Two or three days later, the unsuccessful
attempt of the Canadians, near the end of March, un-
der Beaujeu, to raise the blockade of Quebec, became
known ; and though Washington at that moment was
in want of men, arms, and money, congress, giving
way to its unchecked impulses, declared itself " deter-
mined on the reduction of Quebec," and without even
consulting the commander in chief, suddenly and pe-
remptorily ordered him to detach six additional bat-
talions from his army for service in Canada, and fur-
ther inquired of him if he could spare more.

Late at night on the twenty fifth, Washington re-
ceived the order by express ; his effective force on
that day consisted of but eight thousand three hun-
dred and one ; and of this small force, poorly armed
VOL. viii. 36

422 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and worse clad, lie detached six of Ms best batta-

— *~^> lions, containing more than three thousand men, at a

iv 7 6. time when the British ministry was directing against

him thirty thousand veteran troops. The command

of the brigade was given to Sullivan ; among its

officers were Stark and Reed of New Hampshire,

Anthony "Wayne and Irvine of Pennsylvania. The

troops were scantily provided for the march ; some

companies had not a waistcoat among them all, and

but one shirt to a man.

It was a most touching spectacle to see Washing-
ton resign himself to the ill considered votes of con-
gress, and, parsimonious of complaint, to send off his
best troops to Canada at their word, even though it
left him bare and exposed to the greatest dangers.
" I could wish the army in Canada more powerfully
reenforced," he wrote to congress ; " at the same time
trusting New York and Hudson river to the handful
of men remaining here, is running too great a risk.
The securing this post and Hudson River is of so great
importance, that I cannot at present advise the send-
ing any more troops from hence ; on the contrary,
the general officers, now here, think it absolutely neces-
sary to increase the army at this place with at least
ten thousand men."

Destitute of hard money, congress requested the
New England States to collect as much of it as they
could and forward it to Schuyler. Having stripped
Washington of ten battalions, or about half his ef-
fective force, they next ordered that provisions, pow-
der, of which his stock was very low, and articles of
clothing for ten thousand men, should follow. Ten
thousand was the number of men, which all agreed

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 423

was necessary for Canada, and they were resolved to CHAP.
maintain that number on the St. Lawrence, leaving — , — '
Washington very much to his own devices and the 1776.
effect of solicitations, addressed to the colonies nearest
him, at a time when it was the grand plan of the
English to take possession of Hudson river.

For Canada an able general was wanted not less
than an army. Schuyler having refused the service,
and Lee having been transferred to the South, Put-
nam stood next in rank; but Washington, who
judged him leniently as an executive officer, saw his
utter incompetency to a distant, separate command.
Thomas of Massachusetts, a man of less experience
but superior ability and culture, was, therefore, raised
to the rank of major general and ordered to Quebec.
To complete the misery of the army, with which he
was to hold Canada, the small pox raged among the
soldiers : Thomas had never been inoculated ; and his
journey to the camp was a journey to meet death
unattended by glory.

He was closely followed by Franklin, Chase, and
Charles Carroll, whom congress had commissioned to
promise a guarantee of their estates to the clergy ; to
establish a free press ; to hold out to the people of
Canada the alluring prospect of a free trade with all
nations ; and to invite them to set up a government
for themselves and join the federal union. John
Carroll, the brother of Charles, a Jesuit, afterwards
archbishop of Baltimore, came also, in the vain hope
as an ecclesiastic of moderating the opposition of the
Canadian clergy. The commissioners discovered on
their arrival a general apprehension that the Amer-
icans would be driven out of the province ; and that

424 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, without a restoration of credit by the use of hard
— r~ money and without a large army, they could not ask
1 776. the people to take part in continuing the war.

Thomas arrived near Quebec on the first of May,
and employed the next three days in ascertaining the
condition of his command. He found one thousand
nine hundred men, including officers. Of these, nine
hundred were sick, chiefly with the small pox ; out
of the remaining thousand, three hundred were soldiers
whose enlistments had expired on the fifteenth of
April, and who refused duty, or were very importu-
nate to return home. This small army occupied seve-
ral posts so distant from each other, that not more
than three hundred men could be rallied against any
sudden attack. In all the magazines there remained
but about one hundred and fifty pounds of powder,
and six days' provisions. The French inhabitants were
much disaffected, so that supplies were obtained from
them with great difficulty.

On the fifth, he called a council of war, who
agreed unanimously to prepare for a retreat by re-
moving the invalids immediately to Three Rivers,
and embarking the cannon as soon as possible. The
wise decision was made too late ; that same evening
ships arrived before Quebec. Early on the sixth, the
Surprise frigate, the Isis, and the sloop Martin, which
had forced their way up the. river when it was almost
impracticable from ice, came into the basin, landed
their marines and that part of the twenty ninth which
they had on board ; and not far from noon, while the
Americans were embarking their sick and their artil-
lery, the garrison thus recnforced about one thousand
strong, in two divisions, formed in columns six deep,

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 425

with a train of six cannon, made a sally out of the CHAP.
St. John's and St. Louis' gates, and attacked the v^-r^
American sentinels and main guard. Thomas at- 1776.
tempted to bring his men under arms, but unable to
collect more than two hundred and fifty on the plains,
he directed a retreat to Deschambault, forty eight
miles above Quebec. The troops fled with the utmost
precipitation and confusion, leaving their provisions,
cannon, and five hundred muskets, and about two
hundred of their sick. Of these, one half crept away
from the hospitals as they could ; and they fell into the
hands of merciful men ; the Canadian peasants nursed
them with the kindness that their religion required ;
and Carleton, by proclamation, offered them proper
care in the general hospital with leave to return home
when their health should be restored.

At Deschambault Thomas again held a council of
war, and by a vote of twelve to three, it was carried
that the half-starved army should not attempt to
make a stand below Sorel. The English who were in
pursuit, less forbearing towards French insurgents
than towards colonists of the same stock with them-
selves, carried the torch in their hands to burn the
houses of those who had befriended the rebels.

On the eighth the ship of war Niger and three
transports with the forty seventh regiment from Hali-
fax, on the tenth the Triton with more transports and
troops, came in, and others continued to arrive. At
the same time Sir John Johnson, whom Schuyler had
left free on his parole, stirred up an attack by regu-
lars, Canadians, and Indians from the northwest. To
guard against this new danger, Arnold stationed Be-
dell of New Hampshire with about four hundred

VOL. VITT. 36*

4:26 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, men and two cannon at the narrow pass of the Ce-
dars. This pass was but fifteen leagues above Mon-

Ma Thomas, at Sorel, was but as many leagues

distant below.

The American commissioners calmly looked at
things as they were ; and with manly resolution gave
distinct advice. They observed that the invaders had
lost the affections of the Canadian people ; that for the
want of hard money to support themselves with honor,
they were distressed for provisions ; that they were
incapable of exact discipline, because sent for short
periods of service ; that, always too few in numbers,
they were disheartened and wasted by the small pox ;
and they wrote : " We report it as our firm and
unanimous opinion, that it is better immediately to
withdraw the army from Canada," " and fortify the
passes on the lakes." They even wished that Sulli-
van's brigade might be stopped at Fort George.

But the continental congress, which had sum-
moned Washington to Philadelphia for consultation
on the defence of the middle colonies, reasoned differ-
ently on learning the retreat from Quebec. It con-
sidered the loss of Canada as exposing the frontiers
of New York and New England not to Indians only
but to the ravages of the British ; it therefore en-
joined Thomas to " display his military qualities and
acquire laurels." Of hard money it sent forward all
that was in its treasury ; which was no more than six-
teen hundred sixty two pounds, one shilling, and three
pence ; and having vainly tried every method to col-
lect more, and being still bent on supporting the ex-
pedition, it resolved to supply the troops in Canada
with provisions and clothing from the other colonies.

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 427

Its resolutions were unmeaning words ; it could not CHAP.
command adequate means of transportation, nor had
it magazines on which it could draw; besides, the cam-
paigii in Canada was decided, before its votes were
made known.

The detachment from Detroit under Captain Fors-
ter, composed of forty of the eighth regiment, a hun-
dred Canadians, and several hundred Indians, from the
Northwest, appeared in sight of the Cedars. Bedell,
its commander, committing the fort to Major Butter-
field, deserted nnder pretence of soliciting a ree'n-
forcement. On his arrival at Montreal, Arnold on the
sixteenth detached Major Henry Sherburne of Rhode
Island with one hundred and forty men to relieve
the fort ; but before he could make his way through
the enemy to the Cedars, Butterfield, on the nine-
teenth, though he had two field-pieces and sufficient
ammunition and officers and men willing to defend
the post, cowered like a craven under a dread of the
Indians, and after sustaining no other attack than
from musketry, surrendered himself and his garrison
prisoners at discretion.

The next day, as Sherburne, ignorant of the sur-
render, came to the entrance of a wood, which was
about five miles from the fort, he was attacked while
still in open ground by an enemy who fought under
cover of trees. After a skirmish of an hour, the
Americans were intercepted in their attempt at a re-
treat, and more than a hundred of them were taken
prisoners. The savages, who lost in the battle a great
warrior of the Seneca tribe, immediately stripped
them almost naked, tomahawking or scalping the
wounded men; so that they lost twenty eight wounded

428 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and killed in battle or murdered afterwards in cold

LXVII

— t — - blood, in violation of the express terms of surrender,

as well as of humanity.

At the news of the double disaster, Arnold moved
with about seven hundred men to recover the cap-
tives by force ; but as the British officer declared a
massacre of the prisoners, four hundred and seventy
four in number, would be the inevitable consequence
of an attack, he consented to obtain the release of
them all, except four captains who were retained as
hostages, by promising the return of an equal number
of British prisoners. The engagement led to mutual
criminations ; the Americans preferred a counter claim
for the punishment of those who had massacred some
of the prisoners.

In this manner the British drew near Montreal
from the west. From the lower side news came,
that Thomas had been seized by the small pox. But
the commissioners, in their contempt for the capacity
of Wooster, would not suffer him to resume the com-
mand ; and thought the best service he could render
the cause would be to return home. At the end of
May confusion prevailed in every department of the
army. There could be no discipline among soldiers
enlisted only for a year, or a shorter term ; some only
for two months ; the troops lived from hand to mouth,
often for days without meat, levying contributions
of meal ; the scattered army did not exceed four thou-
sand men, three fourths of whom had never had the
small pox ; many of the officers were incompetent.
June. While Arnold's whole thoughts were bent on
making a safe retreat, the congress at Philadelphia, on
the first day of June, in the helplessness of its zeal,

THE EETREAT FROM CANADA. 429

resolved " that six thousand militia be employed to CHAP.

LXVIT

reenforce the army in Canada, and to keep up the <— , — '
communication with that province;" and called upon 1776.
Massachusetts to make up half that number, Connecti- 28.
cut one quarter, New Hampshire and New York the
rest. They also authorized the employment of Indians.

On that same day the first division o£ the Bruns-
wick troops under Kiedesel arrived with Burgoyne at
Quebec, and, with the regiments from Ireland and
others, put into the hands of Carleton an army of nine
thousand nine hundred and eighty four effective men,
well disciplined, and abundantly provided with all
the materials of war. Henceforth the Americans
were in imminent danger of being cut off and utterly
destroyed.

The death of Thomas on the second, left the
command to Sullivan. Arriving with his party at
Sorel on the fifth, he assumed it with the misplaced
confidence and ostentation of inexperience. " In a
few days," said he, u I can reduce the army to order,
and put a new face upon our affairs here." A coun-
cil of war resolved oil an attempt against the enemy
at Three Rivers ; a party of about fifteen hundred,
mostly Pennsylvanians, including the regiments of St.
Clair, Wayne, and Irvine, was placed for that pur-
pose under the command of Thompson. UI am de-
termined," wrote Sullivan to Washington, " to hold
the most important posts as long as one stone is left
upon another." At one o'clock in the morning of the
seventh, Thompson and his party arrived at St. Glair's
station on the Nicolet ; lay hid in the woods on its
bank during the day; and in the evening crossed
the St. Lawrence, intending a surprise on a party,

430 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, which was not supposed to exceed four hundred.
>— , — But a Canadian peasant, as soon as they landed, has-
17 76. tened to inform General Frazer at Three Rivers of

June. .

their approach; and moreover, twenty five trans-
ports, laden with troops, had, by Carleton's direc-
tions, been piloted past Quebec without stopping,
and had arrived at Three Rivers just in time to take
part in repelling the attack. A large force was
promptly landed with field-pieces ; and was disposed
with a view to surround and take captive the whole
body of assailants. The short darkness of that lati-
tude was soon over; as day began to appear, the
Americans, who were marching under the bank of the
river, were cannonaded from the ships ; undismayed
they took their way through a thickly wooded swamp,
above their knees in mire and water; and after a
most wearisome struggle of four hours reached an
open piece of low ground, where they endeavored to
form. Wayne began the attack, and forced an ad-
vanced party to run ; his companions then pressed
forward in column against the breastworks, which
covered the main body of the enemy. They dis-
played undisputed gallantry ; but being outnumbered
more than three to one, were compelled to retire-
To secure time for the retreat, "Wayne and Allen,
with about five officers and twenty men, sheltered by
the dense forest, which hid the paucity of their num-
bers, kept up a fire from the edge of the swamp for
an hour longer, when they also were obliged to fly.
Thompson and Irvine, who were separated from the
rest of the party, were betrayed by the Canadians ;
about one hundred and fifty of the fugitives were
taken prisoners ; the main body, saved, as British

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 431

officers asserted, by Carleton's want of alertness, and CHAP.
his calling in the parties that guarded the fords of —> — •
the De Loup, wandered about that day and the fol-
lowing night, without food or refreshment except
water, and worn out by watching and fatigue. On
the ninth they found their boats, and returned to
Sorel. The American loss exceeded two hundred ;
"Wayne's regiment which began the attack, suffered
the most.

" I now think only of a glorious death or a vic-
tory obtained against superior numbers," wrote Sulli-
van, as he learned that the force intended for Canada
was arrived with Burgoyne at its head ; and he would
have remained at Sorel. The post was not defensible ;
the remains of the army, encamped there, did not ex-
ceed two thousand five hundred men ; about a thou-
sand more were at other stations, but most of them
under inoculation. Sickness, want of regular and suf-
ficient food, the recent repulse, the threefold superior-
ity of the British in numbers, and their incomparable
superiority in appointments, made resistance impossi-
ble. Slow and cautious as were Carleton's movements,
any further delay would enable the British to pass
above them, take post in their rear, and cut off their
retreat. A council of field officers was all but unan-
imous, for quitting the ground; Arnold, Antill, and
Hazen, who were not present, were of the same
opinion.

On the fourteenth the fleet with the British forces
was coming up the river under full sail; when an
hour or a little more before their arrival, Sullivan
broke up his camp, taking away with him every thing,

432 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, even to a spade. The guard at Bertier retreated by

^-r-^ land, leaving nine boats behind.

1776. At Chambly all the boats and baggage were
brought over the rapids, except three heavy pieces of
cannon. Arnold with his little garrison of three hun-
dred men remained at Montreal till the enemy were at
twelve miles' distance from him, and having, under the
plea of instructions from Schuyler, seized such parcels
of goods as could be serviceable to the army, crossed
safely to La Prairie. All that was left of the invad-
ing army met on the seventeenth at St. John's ; one
half of them being sick, almost all destitute of clothing,
and having no provisions except salt pork and flour.
On the eighteenth the emaciated, half naked men,
broken in strength and in discipline, too weak to have
beaten off an assault from the enemy, as pitiable a
spectacle as could be seen, removed to Isle aux Noix,
where Sullivan proposed to await express orders from
Schuyler. They were languidly pursued by a column
under the command of Burgoyne, who excused his
inactivity by pleading instructions from Carleton to
hazard nothing till the column on his right should
be able to cooperate with him.

Meanwhile congress had introduced a new ele-
ment of confusion. On the day on which Sullivan
halted at Isle aux Noix, Gates, who enjoyed the friend-
ship of John Adams, and had been elected a major-
general, was appointed to take command of the forces
in Canada. The appointment could give Schuyler no
umbrage, for he himself had uniformly refused to go
into Canada ; but no sooner had Gates reached Al-
bany than the question arose whether the command

THE RETREAT FROM CANADA. 433

would not revert to Schuyler the moment the army CHAP.
should be found south of the Canada line. ^ — '.

At Isle aux Noix the men fit for duty remained me.
for eight days, till .the invalids could be taken to
Crown Point. The voyage was made in leaky boats
which had no awnings ; so that the sick lay drenched
in water and exposed to the sun. Their only food was
raw pork, and hard bread or unbaked flour. A phy-
sician, who was an eye-witness said : " At the sight of
so much privation and distress, I wept till I had no
more power to weep." When, early in July, all the July,
fragments of the army of Canada had reached Crown
Point, the scene of distress produced a momentary
despair. Every thing about them, their clothes, their
blankets, the air, the very ground they trod on, was
infected with the pestilence. " I did not look into a
tent or a hut," says Trumbull, " in which I did not
find either a dead or dying man." Of about five thou-
sand men, housed under tents, yor rudely built sheds,
or huts of brush, exposed to the damp air of the night,
full half were invalids ; more than thirty new graves
were made every day. In a little more than two
months the northern army lost by desertion and death
more than five thousand men.

VOL. Till. 37

CHAPTER LXVIII.

THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED COLONIES DEMAND INDE-
PENDENCE.

JUNE — JULY,
CHAP. AMEEICAN independence was not an act of sudden

LXVIII , -. £ , -,

.— > — ' passion, nor the work 01 one man or one assembly.

1776. It had been discussed in every part of the country by
farmers and merchants, by mechanics and planters,
by the fishermen along the coast and by the back-
woodsmen of the West ; in town meetings and from
the pulpit ; at social gatherings and around the camp
fires ; in newspapers and in pamphlets ; in county
conventions and conferences of committees; in colo-
nial congresses and assemblies. The decision was put
off only to hear the voice of the people. Virginia
having uttered her will, and communicated it to all
her sister colonies, proceeded as though independence
had been proclaimed, to form her constitution. More
counsellors waited on her assembly than they took
notice of; they were aided in their deliberations by
the teachings of the lawgivers of Greece ; by the
long line of magistrates who had framed the Roman

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 485

code ; by those who had written best in English on CHAP.

LXVIIl

government and public freedom ; but most of all by — . —
the great example of the English constitution, which
was an aristocratic republic with a permanent execu-
tive. They passed by monarchy and hereditary aris-
tocracy as unessential forms, and looked behind them
for the self-subsistent elements of English liberty.

The principles of the Virginia declaration of
rights remained to her people as a perpetual posses-
sion and a pledge of indefinite progress in happier
and more tranquil days ; but for the moment in-
ternal reforms were postponed ; the elective fran-
chise was not extended ; nor was anything done to
abolish slavery beyond the prohibition of the slave
trade. The king of England possessed the crown by
birth and for life ; the chief executive of Virginia
owed his place to an election by the general assembly,
and retained it for one year. The king was intrusted
with a veto power, limited within Britain, extrava-
gant and even retrospective in the colonies ; the re-
collection that " by an inhuman use of his negative he
had refused them permission to exclude negroes by
law," misled the Virginians to withhold the veto
power from the governor of their own choice.

The governor like the king had at his side an
elective privy council ; and in the construction of this
body of eight men, the desire of some permanent
element of government is conspicuous. Braxton, in
the scheme which he forwarded from congress, wish-
ing to come as near as possible to the forms of mon-
archy, would have had the governor continue in
authority during good behavior, the council of state
hold their places for life, in order that they might

436 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, possess all the weight, stability, and dignity due to
— > — the importance of their office. But Patrick Henry,
June Mason, and the other chief members of the conven-
tion did not share this dread of the power of the
people; and nothing more was conceded than that
two only of the eight councillors should be triennially
changed, so that the whole body was to be renewed
only once in the course of twelve years. The gov-
ernor with their advice had the appointment of militia
officers and of justices of the peace ; but the general
assembly by joint ballot elected the treasurer, the
judges, and officers of the higher courts. The general
assembly like the British parliament consisted of two
branches ; an annual house of delegates ; and a senate
of twenty four members. The state was to be divided
into twenty four districts for the choice of senators, of
whom one fourth was to be renewed each year.

The convention recognised the territorial rights
of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas, and the
limit set by the peace of 1768; otherwise it claimed
jurisdiction over all the region, granted by the second
charter of King James the First. The privilege of pur-
chasing Indian titles was reserved to the public ; but
by resolves of the convention, a right of pre-emption
was secured to actual settlers on unappropriated lands.
In framing the constitution George Mason had a
principal part, aided by the active participation of
Richard Henry Lee and of George Wythe ; a form of
government, sent by Jefferson, arrived too late ; but
his draft of a preamble was adopted ; and he was
looked to by Wythe to become the author of further
reform. The institutions of Virginia then established,
like every thing else which is the work of man's hands,

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 437

were marked by imperfection ; yet they called into CHAP.
being a republic, of which the ideal sovereignty, rep- —-. —
resenting the unity of all public functions, resided in 1776*
the collective people. It rose above the horizon in a
season of storm, but the surrounding clouds were
edged with light. The convention, having on the
twenty ninth of June unanimously adopted the con-
stitution, at once transformed itself into a temporary
general assembly, and made choice by ballot of a gov-
ernor and a privy council. For governor the choice
fell on Patrick Henry; and on the first day of July,
he, who had so lately been a subject of a king and had July,
been surrounded by fellow-subjects, became the chief
magistrate over his fellow-citizens of the common-
wealth which, he said, had just formed " a system of
government, wisely calculated to secure equal liberty,"
and which did not shrink from bearing a principal
part in a war " involving the lasting happiness of a
great proportion of the human species."

On the fourteenth of June, the Connecticut as- June,
sembly, urged by the invitation and example of Vir-
ginia, instructed its delegates in favor of independ-
ence, foreign alliances, and a permanent union of the
colonies ; but the plan of confederation was not to go
into effect till it should receive the assent of the sev-
eral legislatures. At the same time, the puritan com-
monwealth, which had enjoyed a republican govern-
ment more than a hundred years, cast the slough of .
royalty, and established administrative independence.

On the same day and the next the Delaware as-
sembly, at the instance of Mackean, unanimously ap-
proved the resolution of congress of the fifteenth of
May, overturned the proprietary government within

VOL. Till. 37*

438 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, her borders, substituted her own name on all occasions

LXVIII

' — ^ for that of the king, and gave to her delegates new

V76' instructions which left them at liberty to vote re-
June. . »•'.-•

specting independence according to their judgment.

On the fifteenth, the council and assembly of New
Hampshire, in reply to a letter from Bartlett and
Whipple, their delegates in congress, unanimously
voted in favor of "declaring the Thirteen United
Colonies a free and independent state ; and solemnly
pledged their faith and honor to support the measure
with their lives and fortunes."

Massachusetts took the opinion of its people in
their town meetings ; and all that had been heard
from declared for independence. The choice of New
England was spontaneous and undoubted. Its ex-
tended line of seacoast, winding round deep inlets
and projecting headlands, and rent with safe and con-
venient harbors, defied the menaces of a blockade ; and
except that the harbor of Newport was coveted by
the British as a shelter for their fleet, the uninviting
ruggedness of its soil and its comparatively compact
population gave it a sense of security against the re-
turn of the enemy whom they had once effectually
driven away.

Far different was the position of New York, which
was the first of the large central colonies to mark out
irrevocably her system. Devoted to commerce, she
yet possessed but one seaport on the main, and if that
great mart should fall into the hands of the British,
she must for the indefinite time of its occupation, re-
sign all maritime intercourse with other colonies and
with the world. The danger was not vague and dis-
tant ; it was close at hand, distinctly known, and in-

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 439

evitable. On the twenty fourth of May, the vote of CHAP.
the continental congress of the fifteenth recommend- — . —

ing the establishment of a new government, was re-
ferred to John Morin Scott, Haring, Kemsen, Lewis,
Jay, Cuyler, and Broome ; three days later, Remsen
reported from the committee, that the right of cre-
ating civil government is and ought to be in the
people, and that the old form of government was
dissolved; accordingly, on the thirty first, resolu-
tions were proposed by Scott, Jay, and Haring, or-
dering elections for deputies, with ample powers to
institute a government which should continue in force
until a future peace with Great Britain. But early in
June the New York congress had to pass upon the
Virginia proposition of independence. This was the June.
moment that showed the firmness and the purity of
Jay ; the darker the hour, the more he stood ready
to cheer ; the greater the danger, the more promptly
he stepped forward to guide. He had insisted on the
doubtful measure of a second petition to the king
with no latent weakness of purpose or cowardice of
heart. The hope of obtaining redress was gone ; he
could now, with perfect peace of mind, give free
scope to the earnestness of his convictions. Though
it had been necessary for him to perish as a martyr,
he could not and he would not swerve from his sense
of duty. Joining a scrupulous obedience to his idea
of right with inflexibility of purpose, he could not
admit that the provincial congress then in session had
been vested with power to dissolve the connection
with Great Britain, and he therefore held it necessary
first to consult the people themselves. For this end,-
on the eleventh of June, the New York congress, on

440 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

?xvm "^S m°tion, called upon the freeholders and electors
— . — ' of the colony to confer on the deputies whom they
were about to choose, full powers of administering
government, framing a constitution, and deciding the
great question of independence.

In this manner the unanimity of New York was
ensured ; her decision did not remain a moment longer
in doubt ; though it could not be formally announced
till after the election of its convention. It was taken
in the presence of extreme danger, against which there
was no hope that adequate preparations would be
made. Bands of savages hovered on the extended
inland frontier of the province ; the army, which was
to have protected her on the side of Canada, was
flying before disease and want and a vastly superior
force ; an irresistible fleet was approaching the harbor
of her chief city, and a veteran army of overwhelm-
ing strength, computed by no one at less than thirty
thousand, was almost in sight. The whole number of
rank and file in Washington's army, present and fit for
duty, was on the morning of the twelfth of June but
six thousand seven hundred and forty nine ; with four
hundred men in a continental regiment of artillery,
and one single provincial company of artillery, raised
probably through the zeal of Alexander Hamilton,
who, though not yet twenty years old, had after an
examination been judged qualified to command it,
and had in March been appointed its captain. Of the
infantry many were without arms ; one regiment had
only ninety seven firelocks and seven bayonets ; others
were in nearly as bad a state, and no one was well
armed. In numbers the regiments from the east were
deficient from twenty to fifty ; and few as the men were,

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 441

the term of the enlistment of every one of them would CHAP.

T X V 1 1 T

arrive in a few months. Little had been done by — *—
congress to reenforce Washington except to pass votes, V 7 6 '
ordering out large numbers of militia from Massa-
chusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey ;
and still again more militia under the name of the
flying camps of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Mary-
land ; and none of these were to be engaged beyond
December. Congress had not yet authorized the em-
ployment of men for three years or for the war ; nor
did it do so till near the end of June, when it was too
late for any success in enlistments ; the feeble army,
then under Washington's command, was by the con-
ditions of its existence to melt away in the autumn
and coming winter.

Moreover a secret plot was fostered by Try on, who
ever unscrupulous and indefatigable, from on board
the Duchess of Gordon, sought through the royalist
mayor of the city of New York and others to pre-
pare a body of conspirators, who should raise an in-
surrection in aid of Howe on his arrival, blow up the
magazines, gain possession of the guns, and seize Wash-
ington and his principal officers. Some of the inferior
agents were suspected of having intended to procure
Washington's death. There were full proofs that the
plan against his army was prosecuted with the utmost
diligence ; but it was discovered before it was ma-
tured. It is certain that two or three of his own
guard were partners in the scheme of treachery ; and
one of them, after conviction before a court martial,
was hanged. It was the first military execution of
the revolution. This discovery of danger from secret
foes, made no change in the conduct of the commander

442 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

Lxvni *n °kief 5 he placed his trust " in the protection of an
^— > — ' all-wise and beneficent Being ; " and knew no fear.
June* f^ie new provincial congress of New Jersey,
which came fresh from the people with ample powers,
and organized itself in the evening of the eleventh
of June, was opened with prayer by John Wither-
spoon, an eloquent Scottish minister of the same faith
with John Knox ; a man of great ability, learning,
and liberality, ready to dash into pieces all images of
false gods. Born near Edinburgh, trained up at its
university, in 1768 he removed to Princeton, to be-
come the successor of Jonathan Edwards, Davies, and
Pinley, as president of its college. A combatant of
scepticism and the narrow philosophy of the material-
ists, he was deputed by Somerset county to take part
in applying his noble theories to the construction of
a civil government.

The body of which he was a member was in-
structed to prepare for the defence of the colony
against an enemy, whose arrival was hourly expected
with force enough to lay waste its villages and drench
its plains in blood ; next, to decide the question of in-
dependence ; and lastly, to form and establish a con-
stitution. They promptly resolved to reenforce the
army of New York, with three thousand three hun-
dred of the militia. William Franklin, the last roy-
alist governor, still lingered at Perth Amboy ; and in
the hope of dividing public opinion by the semblance
of a regular constitutional government, he had, by
proclamation, called a meeting of the general assembly
for the twentieth of June. The convention, on the
fourteenth, voted that his proclamation ought not to
be heeded ; the next day he was arrested ; as he re-

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 443

fused to give his parole, lie was kept under guard till
lie could be removed to Connecticut. On the twenty
second it was resolved by a vote of fifty four against
three, " that a government be formed for regulating
the internal police of the colony, pursuant to the
recommendation of the continental congress ; " and in
that congress five friends to independence were then
elected to represent New Jersey. As the constitu-
tion was reported before independence had been de-
clared, a clause provided for the contingency of a
reconciliation ; otherwise this charter from the people
was to remain firm and inviolable. Its principles
were, a legislative power intrusted to two separate
houses ; a governor annually chosen by the legislature,
and possessing only a casting vote in one branch of the
legislature ; judges to be appointed by the legislature
for seven years and for five years ; the elective fran-
chise to be exercised by all inhabitants of full age,
who had been residents for twelve months, and pos-
sessed fifty pounds proclamation money. No Protes-
tant could be denied any rights or franchises on ac-
count of his religious principles ; and to every person
within the colony were guaranteed the right to wor-
ship God according to the dictates of his own con-
science, and an immunity from all tithes or church
rates, except in conformity to his own engagements.

On the eighteenth of June the committee of Phil-
adelphia and of the several counties of Pennsylvania
met at Carpenters' Hall in a provincial conference.
The duty which they had to perform was imperative,
and yet necessarily the occasion of a bitter domestic
feud. The old proprietary government, in an exist-
ence of more than ninety years, had won the admira-

444 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, tion of the wise throughout the world by its respect
— . — ' for religious and civil liberty, had kept itself free from
the suspicion of having instigated or approved the
obnoxious measures of the British ministry, and had
maintained the attitude of a mediator between par-
liament and America. When the obstinacy of the
king left no room for reconciliation, its career was run,
and it came naturally to its end. Such of the mem-
bers of the assembly as remained in their places, con-
fessed in a formal vote their "despair" of again bring-
ing together a quorum ; and when, according to the
charter, they could only have kept their body alive
by adjourning from day to day, they made an illegal
adjournment to a day nearly two months later than
that appointed for the vote of congress on independ-
ence, leaving the measures of defence unattended to.
The adjournment was an abdication ; and the people
prepared promptly and somewhat roughly to super-
sede the expiring system. Nor were the proposed
changes restricted only to forms; a fierce demand
broke out for an immediate extension of the right of
suffrage to those " whom," it was held, " the resolve
of congress had now rendered electors."

The provincial conference was necessarily com-
posed of men who had hitherto not been concerned
in the government ; the old members of the assembly
were most of them bound by their opinions and all of
them by their oaths to keep aloof; Franklin, who, by
never taking his place in that body, had preserved his
freedom, would not place himself glaringly in contrast
with his colleagues, and stayed away ; while Reed,
observing "that the province would be in the sum-
mer a great scene of party and contention," withdrew

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 445

to the army, in which Washington had procured him
the high office of adjutant-general.

On the eighteenth Thomas Mackean was chosen
president of the conference. On the nineteenth, one
hundred and four members being present, the reso-
lution of congress of the fifteenth of May was read
twice, and after mature consideration was unani-
mously approved; the present government of the
colony was condemned as incompetent; and a new
one was ordered to be formed on the authority of
the people only. Every other colony had shunned
the mixture of questions of internal reform with the
question of the relation to Great Britain ; but here, a
petition was read from Germans, praying that all
associators who were taxable might vote. In the old
election to the assembly the possession of fifty pounds
proclamation money was required as the qualification
of a voter, both in the city under its charter and in
the counties ; and the foreign born must further have
been naturalized under a law which required an oath
of allegiance to the British king : the conference re-
vived the simple provision of " the Great Law " of
December 1682, and endowed every taxpayer with
the right to vote for members of the constituent
convention. So neither poverty nor place of birth
any more disabled freemen ; in Pennsylvania liberty
claimed for the builders of her house the rich and the
poor, the German, the Scot, the Englishman, the Irish-
man, as well as the native. Thus the Germans were
incorporated into the people, and made one with
them ; the emigrants who spoke the language of Les-
sing and Kant, became equal members of the new
city of humanity.

VOL. viii. 38

446 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. "While in this manner the divisions of nationalities

LXVIII • • •

1 — i^ were broken in pieces, the conference, at the instance

1776. o£ Christopher Marshall, who had been educated
among the Friends and had left the society, because
he held it right to draw the sword in defence of civil
liberty, resolved that the members elected to the
convention should be required to 'declare their faith in
God the Father, Christ his eternal Son, and the Holy
Spirit ; and in the divine inspiration of the Scriptures.
For this interference he was much censured ; but the
pure minded mystic would not perceive that he was
justifying the exclusiveness of the Catholic and the
Anglican church.

It had not been the intention of the conference
to perform administrative acts ; yet to repair the
grievous neglect of the assembly, they ordered a fly-
ing camp of six thousand men to be called out, in
conformity to the vote of the continental congress.

One thing more remained ; on the afternoon of the
twenty fourth, on the report of a committee com-
posed of Mackean, Benjamin Rush of Philadelphia,
and James Smith of York county, the conference,
with perfect unanimity, all its members giving their
voices one by one, pronounced in behalf of themselves
and their constituents their willingness to concur in a
vote of congress, declaring the United Colonies to be
free and independent states ; and a copy of their vote,
having been signed at the table, was, by Mackean,
the president, delivered directly to congress.

Far happier were the people of Maryland, for
they acted with moderation and unanimity; their
counsels sprung from a sense of right and from sym
pathy with their sister colonies, especially Virginia.

THE PEOPLE DEMAND INDEPENDENCE. 447

Chase, now the foremost civilian in Maryland, the CHAP.
ablest of their delegates in the continental congress, — , —
a friend to law not less than to liberty, ever attracted 1776.
towards the lovers of established government, had
always, on the question of independence, kept ahead
of men who otherwise agreed with him. Guided
by his clear understanding and vehement will, the
patriots of all classes, the most eager and the lag-
gards, joined hands. In May and the early part of
June, the people, in county meetings, renounced the
hope of reconciliation ; listening to their voices, the
committee of safety called a convention; and that
body, assembling on the twenty first of June, placed
itself in the closest relations with its constituents. On
the request of any one delegate, the yeas and nays
might be taken and entered in its journal; its debates
and proceedings were public. Its measures for calling
its militia into active service were prompt and efficient.
On the afternoon of the day on which Moultrie re-
pelled the British squadron from Charleston, it con-
curred with Virginia on the subject of independence,
a confederation, treaties with foreign powers, and the
reservation of the internal government of each colony
to its own people ; and five days later, while the con-
tinental congress was still considering the form of its
declaration of independence, it directed the election
of a new convention to create a government by the
authority of the people only.

CHAPTER LXIX.

THE EESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE.
THE FIEST AND SECOND OF JULY, 1776.

CHAP. ON the morning of the first of July, the day set
•— — • apart for considering the resolution of independence,
John Adams, confident as if the vote had been taken,
i/ invoked the blessing of heaven to make the new-born
republic more glorious than any which had gone be-
fore. His heart melted with sorrow at the disasters
and sufferings of the army that had been in Canada ;
he knew that England having now recovered that
province, commanded the upper lakes and the Missis-
sippi ; that she had a free communication with all the
numerous tribes of Indians, extending along the fron-
tiers of all the colonies, and would induce them to take
up the hatchet, and by bloodshed and fire drive in
the inhabitants upon the middle settlements, at a time
when the coasts might be ravaged by the British navy,
and a single day might bring the army before New
York. Independence could be obtained only by a
great expense of life ; but the greater the danger, the

THE KESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 449

stronger was his determination ; for a free constitu- CHAP.
tion of civil government could not be purchased at v — r— '
too dear a rate. He called to mind the fixed rule of l ? 7Q •
the Romans, never to send or receive ambassadors to i.
treat of peace with their enemies while their affairs
were in a disastrous situation ; and he was cheered by
the belief that his countrymen were of the same tem-
per and principle.

At the appointed hour the members, probably on
that day fifty one in number, appeared in their places ;
among them the delegates lately chosen in New Jersey.
The great occasion had brought forth superior states-
men ; none of them passionate revolutionists, but men
who joined the power of moderation to energy. After
they had all passed away, their longevity was remark-
ed as a proof of their calm and temperate nature ;
full two thirds of the New England representatives
lived beyond seventy years; some of them to be
eighty or ninety. Every colony was found to be rep-
resented, and the delegates of all but one had re-
ceived full power of action. Comprehensive instruc-
tions, reaching the question of independence without
explicitly using the word, had been given by Massa-
chusetts in January, by South Carolina in March, by
Georgia on the fifth of April. North Carolina, in
the words of Cornelius Harnett, on the fourteenth of
April, was the first to direct expressly its representa-
tives in congress to concur in a declaration of inde-
pendence. On the first of May, Massachusetts ex-
punged the regal style from all public proceedings,
and substituted the name of her "government and
people ; " on the fourth, Rhode Island more explicitly
renounced allegiance, and made its delegates the rep-

450 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, resentatives of an independent republic ; Virginia on
— ^ the fifteenth, the very day on which John Adams in
congress carried his measure for instituting govern-
l. ments by the sole authority of the people, gave her
delegates at Philadelphia the positive direction to
propose independence, and by a circular letter com-
municated her decision to all her sister colonies. The
movement of Virginia was seconded almost in her
words by Connecticut on the fourteenth of June, New
Hampshire on the fifteenth, New Jersey on the twenty
first, the conference of committees of Pennsylvania on
the twenty fourth, Maryland on the twenty eighth.
Delaware on the twenty second of March had still
hoped for conciliation ; but on the fourteenth or the
fifteenth of June, from the imperfect state of her
records the exact date is unknown, she took off all
restraint from her members, and knowing that a ma-
jority of them favored independence, encouraged
them to follow their own judgment. The vote of the
eleventh of June showed the purpose of New York ;
but under the accumulation of dangers, her statesmen
waited a few days longer, that her voice for independ-
ence might have the full authority of her people.

The business of the day began with reading vari-
ous letters, among others one from Washington, who
returned the whole number of his men, present and
fit for duty, including the one regiment of artillery, at
seven thousand seven hundred and fifty four. The
state of the arms of this small and inconsiderable
body was still more inauspicious ; of near fourteen
hundred the firelocks were bad; more than eight
hundred had none at all ; three thousand eight hun-
dred and twenty seven, more than half the whole

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 451

number of infantry, had no bayonets. Of the militia CHAP.
who had been called for, only about a thousand had — ^
joined the camp; and with this force the general was 1776.
to defend extensive lines against an army, near at i.
hand, of thirty thousand veterans. An express from
Lee made known, that fifty three ships with Clinton
had arrived before Charleston, of which the safety
was involved in doubt.

A more cheering letter which Chase had for-
warded by express from Annapolis, brought the first
news of the unanimity of the Maryland convention,
whose vote for independence was produced and read.

The order of the day came next, and congress
resolved itself "into a committee of the whole to
take into consideration the resolution respecting inde-
pendency." For a few minutes, perfect silence pre-
vailed; every one felt the responsibility of acting
finally on the most important question ever agitated
in the assembly. In the absence of the mover of the
resolution, the eyes of every one turned towards its
seconder, John Adams ; and the new members from
New Jersey requested that the arguments used in for-
mer debates might be recapitulated. He had made no
preparation for that morning ; but for many months
independence had been the chief object of his thoughts
and his discourse, and the strongest arguments ranged
themselves before his mind in their natural order.
Of his sudden, impetuous, unpremeditated speech no
minutes ever existed, and no report was ever made.
It is only remembered that he set forth the justice,
the necessity, and the advantages of a separation from
Great Britain ; he dwelt on the neglect and insult with
which their petitions had been treated by the king ;

452 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, and on that vindictive spirit, which showed itself in

I XTX

— ^-^ the employment of German troops, whose arrival was
1776. hourly expected, to compel the colonists to uncon-
l. ditional submission. He concluded by urging the
present time as the most suitable for resolving on in-
dependence, inasmuch as it had become the first wish
and the last instruction of the communities they rep-
resented.

Dickinson of Pennsylvania rose not so much to re-
ply, as to justify himself before congress. He took
pride in being the ardent assertor of freedom ; and was
conscious that his writings had won him a great name.
Accustomed to lead, he loved to be recognized as the

' O

guide. Now for the first time in his life his exces-
sively sensitive nature was writhing under the agonies
of wounded self-love. For one year he had been at
variance with John Adams, and during all that time
had till recently triumphed over him or kept him at
bay ; congress had loved to employ his pen, and had
been only too ready to follow his counsel ; yet at last
he had been baffled even in his own province. He
had seen the proprietary government go to its long
sleep in the house of its friends ; he had seen a dele-
gate from Delaware bring before congress from the
Pennsylvania conference instructions in favor of inde-
pendence, which he did not mean to regard ; and he
had prepared himself with the utmost care to vindi-
cate his opinions, which he would have held it guilt
to suppress. It is from the report made by himself,
that I abridge his elaborate discourse, using no words
but his own :

u I value the love of my country as I ought, but
I value my country more, and I desire this illustrious

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 453

assembly to witness the integrity, if not the policy CHAP.
of niy conduct. The first campaign will be decisive of — ^
the controversy. The declaration will not strengthen ljlQ'
us by one man, or by the least supply, while it may i.
expose our soldiers to additional cruelties and out-
rages. Without some prelusory trials of our strength
we ought not to commit our country upon an alterna-
tive, where to recede would be infamy, and to persist
might be destruction.

u No instance is recollected of a people without a
battle fought, or an ally gained, abrogating forever
their connection with a warlike commercial empire.
It might unite the different parties in Great Britain
against us, and it might create disunion among our-
selves.

" With other powers it would rather injure than
avail us. Foreign aid will not be obtained but by
our actions in the field, which are the only evidences
of our union and vigor that will be respected. In the
war between the United Provinces and Spain, France
and England assisted the provinces before they de-
clared themselves independent ; if it is the interest of
any European kingdom to aid us, we shall be aided
without such a declaration ; if it is not, we shall not
be aided with it. Before such an irrevocable step
shall be taken, we ought to know the disposition of
the great powers ; and how far they will permit any
one or more of them to interfere. The erection of an
independent empire on this continent is a phenom-
enon in the world ; its effects will be immense, and
may vibrate round the globe. How they may affect,
or be supposed to affect old establishments, is not
ascertained. It is singularly disrespectful to France,

454 AMEBICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, to make the declaration before her sense is known; as

,

we have sent an agent expressly to inquire whether

LXIX.

1Jui6 suck a Declaration would be acceptable to her, and
i. we have reason to believe he is now arrived at the
court of Versailles. The measure ought to be delayed,
till the common interests shall in the best manner be
consulted by common consent. Besides, the door to
accommodation with Great Britain ought not to be
shut, until we know what terms can be obtained from
some competent power. Thus to break with her be-
fore we have compacted with another, is to make ex-
periments on the lives and liberties of my countrymen,
which I would sooner die than agree to make ; at
best it is to throw us into the hands of some other
power and to lie at mercy, for we shall have passed
the river that is never to be repassed. We ought to
retain the declaration and remain masters of our own
fame and fate. We ought to inform that power, that
we are filled with a just detestation of our oppressors ;
that we are determined to cast off forever all subjec-
tion to them, to declare ourselves independent, and to
support that declaration with our lives and fortunes,
provided that power will approve the proceeding,
acknowledge our independence, and enter into a treaty
with us upon equitable and advantageous conditions.

" Other objections to the declaration at this time
are suggested by our internal circumstances. The
formation of our governments, and an agreement upon
the terms of our confederation, ought to precede the
assumption of our station among sovereigns. A sove-
reignty composed of several distinct bodies of men,
not subject to established constitutions, and not com-
bined together by confirmed articles of union, is such

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 455

a sovereignty as has never appeared. These particu- CHAP.
lars would not be unobserved by foreign kingdoms ^^
and states, and they will wait for other proofs of po-
litical energy, before they will treat us with the de-
sired attention.

" With respect to ourselves, the consideration is
still more serious. The forming of our governments
is a new and difficult work. When this is done and
the people perceive, that they and their posterity are
to live under well regulated constitutions, they will
be encouraged to look forward to independence, as
completing the noble system of their political happi-
ness. The objects nearest to them are now enveloped
in clouds, and those more distant appear confused;
the relation one citizen is to bear to another, and the
connection one state is to have with another, they do
not, cannot know. Mankind are naturally attached
to plans of government that promise quiet and secu-
rity. General satisfaction with them, when formed,
would indeed be a great point attained ; but persons
of reflection will perhaps think it absolutely necessary,
that congress should institute some mode for preserv-
ing them from future discords.

" The confederation ought to be settled before the
declaration of independence. Foreigners will think it
most regular; the weaker states will not be in so
much danger of having disadvantageous terms im-
posed upon them by the stronger. If the declaration
is first made, political necessities may urge on the ac-
ceptance of conditions, highly disagreeable to parts of
the Union. The present comparative circumstances
of the colonies are now tolerably well understood ;
but some have very extraordinary claims to territory,

456 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, that if admitted, as they might be in a future confed-
V^Y^- eration, the terms of it not being yet adjusted, all
1776. idea of the present comparison between them would
1. be confounded. Those whose boundaries are acknow-
ledged would sink in proportion to the elevation of
their neighbors. Besides; the unlocated lands, not
comprehended within acknowledged boundaries, are
deemed a fund sufficient to defray a vast part, if not
the whole of the expenses of the war. These ought
to be considered as the property of all, acquired by
the arms of all. For these reasons the boundaries of
the colonies ought to be fixed before the declaration,
and their respective rights mutually guarantied ; and
the unlocated lands ought also, previous to that dec-
laration, to be solemnly appropriated to the benefit of
all, for it may be extremely difficult, if not impracti-
cable, to obtain these decisions afterwards. Upon the
whole, when things shall be thus deliberately ren-
dered firm at home, and favorable abroad, then let
America, ' Attollens humeris famam et fata nepotuni,'
bearing up her glory and the destiny of her descend-
ants, advance with majestic steps and assume her sta-
tion among the sovereigns of the world."

Wilson of Pennsylvania could no longer agree
with his colleague. He had at an early day foreseen
independence as the probable, though not the intended
result of the contest ; he had uniformly declared in
his place, that he never would vote for it contrary to
his instructions, nay, that he regarded it as something
more than presumption to take a step of such im-
portance without express instructions and authority.
"For," said he, " ought this act to be the act of four or
five individuals, or should it be the act of the people

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 457

of Pennsylvania?" But now that their authority CHAP.
was communicated by the conference of committees,
he stood on very different ground.

These are all the details of the debate which I 1.
have been able to find. Others spoke ; among them
probably Paca of Maryland, Mackean of Delaware,
and undoubtedly Edward Rutledge of South Caro-
lina ; but I have not met with any authentic record
of their remarks. Richard Henry Lee and Wythe
were both on that day attendants on the Virginia
convention in Williamsburgh. Before the vote was
taken, the delegates from New York, of whom all but
Alsop were personally ready to vote for independence
and were confident of the adhesion of their constitu-
ents, read to the committee a letter which they had
received from the provincial congress, explaining why
their formal concurrence must, for a few days longer,
be withheld. The resolution for independence was
then sustained by nine colonies, two thirds of the
whole number; the vote of South Carolina, unani-
mously, it would seem, was in the negative ; so was
that of Pennsylvania, by the vote of Dickinson, Mor-
ris, Humphreys, and Willing, against Franklin, Mor-
ton, and Wilson ; owing to the absence of Rodney,
Delaware was divided, each member voting under the
new instruction according to his former known opin-
ion, Mackean for independence and Read against it.

The committee rose, and Harrison reported the
resolution ; but at the request of Edward Rutledge,
on behalf of South Carolina, the determination upon
it was put off till the next day.

A letter from Washington of the twenty ninth of

VOL. Till. 39

458 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. June, was then read, from which it appeared that
v^~^ Howe and forty five ships or more, laden with troops,
1776. had arrived at Sandy Hook, and that the whole fleet
1. was expected in a day or two. " I am hopeful," wrote
the general, " that I shall get some reinforcements
before they are prepared to attack ; be that as it may,
I shall make the best disposition I can of our troops.'7
Not all who were round him had firmness like his
own ; Reed, the new adjutant general, quailed before
the inequality of the British and American force, and
thus in private described the state of the American
camp : " With an army of force before, and a secret
one behind, we stand on a point of land with six
thousand old troops, if a year's service of about half,
can entitle them to the name, and about fifteen hun-
dred new levies of this province, many disaffected and
more doubtful ; every man, from the general to the
private, acquainted with our true situation, is exceed-
ingly discouraged ; had I known the true posture of
affairs, no consideration would have tempted me to
have taken an active part in this scene ; and this sen-
timent is universal." No one knew better than the
commander in chief the -exceedingly discouraging
aspect of military affairs ; but his serene manner and
unfaltering courage in this hour was a support to con-
gress. His letter was referred to the board of war,
which they had recently established, and of which
John Adams was the president ; the faculties of the
members were on that day too intensely strained by
their enthusiasm to be much agitated by reports of
danger. Especially John Adams, revolving the in-
cidents of the day at its close, not disguising to his

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 459

own mind the approaching terrible conflict of which CHAP.

XLIX

America could not ward off the calamities, not even — ^
flattering himself with halcyon days among the col- 1J7 j6-
onies after their separation from Great Britain, was i.
content with what he had done ; for freedom was in
his eyes a counterbalance to poverty, discord, war,
and more.

On the second day of July there were present in 2.
congress probably just fifty members. Rodney had
arrived from Delaware, and joining Mackean secured
that colony. Dickinson and Morris stayed away, which
enabled Franklin, Wilson, and Morton, of Pennsyl-
vania, to outvote "Willing and Humphreys. The
South Carolina members, for the sake of unanimity,
came round; so though New York was still unable
to vote, twelve colonies, " without one dissenting col-
ony," resolved : " That these United Colonies are, and
of right ought to be free and independent states, that
they are absolved from all allegiance to the British
crown, and that all political connection between them
and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, to-
tally dissolved."

After this great day, the mind of John Adams
heaved like the ocean after a storm. " The greatest
question," he wrote, " was decided which ever was
debated in America, and a greater, perhaps, never
was nor will be decided among men. When I look
back to 1*761, and run through the series of political
events, the chain of causes and effects, I am surprised
at the suddenness as well as greatness of this revolu-
tion. Britain has been filled with folly, and America
with wisdom. It is the will of Heaven that the two

460 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, countries should be sundered forever ; it may be the
— <—' will of Heaven that America shall suffer calamities
lJu\Q' s^ more wasting, and distresses yet more dreadful.
2. If this is to be the case, the furnace of affliction pro-
duces refinement in states as well as individuals ; but I
submit all my hopes and fears to an overruling Prov-
idence, in which, unfashionable as the faith may be,
I firmly believe.

" Had a declaration of independence been made
seven months ago, we might before this hour have
formed alliances with foreign states ; we should have
mastered Quebec, and been in possession of Canada ;
but on the other hand, the delay has many great ad-
vantages attending it. The hopes of reconciliation,
which were fondly entertained by multitudes of the
honest and well meaning, though weak and mistaken,
have been gradually and at last totally extinguished.
Time has been given for the whole people maturely
to consider the great question of independence, so that
in every colony of the thirteen, they have now adopted
it as their own act.

c; But the day is past. The second day of July,
1Y76, will be the most memorable epocha in the his-
tory of America ; to be celebrated by succeeding gen-
erations as the great anniversary festival, commemo-
rated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of
devotion to God Almighty, from one end of the con-
tinent to the other, from this time forward forever-
more.

" You will think me transported with enthusiasm,
but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, and blood,
and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this

THE RESOLUTION OF INDEPENDENCE. 461

declaration, and support and defend these states; yet CHAP.

through all the gloom, I can see the rays of light and > — r-^-

glory; that the end is worth all the means; that pos- IT 76.
terity will triumph in that day's transaction, even
though we should rue it, which I trust in God we
shall not."

39*

CHAPTER LXX.

THE DECLAKATION OF THE UNITED STATES.

JULY 2-4, 1TY6.

CHAP THE resolution of congress changed the old thir-
~~^L, teen British colonies into free and independent states.
1776. It remained to set forth the reason for this act, and
the principles which the new people would own as
their guides. Of the committee appointed for that
duty, Thomas Jefferson of Virginia had received the
largest number of votes, and was in that manner sin-
gled out to draft the confession of faith of the rising
empire. He owed this distinction to respect for the
colony which he represented, to the consummate abil-
ity of the state papers which he had already written,
and to that general favor which follows merit, mod-
esty, and a sweet disposition ; but the quality which
specially fitted him for the task was the sympathetic
character of his nature, by which he was able with
instinctive perception to read the soul of the nation,
and having collected in himself its best thoughts and
noblest feelings, to give them out in clear and bold

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 463

words, mixed with so little of himself, that his country, CHAP.
as it went along with him, found nothing but what ^^L
it recognized as its own. No man of his century had 1776.
more trust in the collective reason and conscience of 2^
his fellow men, or better knew how to take their
counsel ; and in return he came to be a ruler over the
willing in the world of opinion. Born to an indepen-
dent fortune, he had from his youth been an indefati-
gable student. Of a calm temperament and a philo-
sophic cast of mind, always temperate in his mode of
life and decorous in his manners, he was a perfect
master of his passions. He was of a delicate organi-
zation, and fond of elegance ; his tastes were refined ;
laborious in his application to business or the pursuit
of knowledge, music, the most spiritual of all pleas-
ures of the senses, was his favorite recreation ; and he
took a never-failing delight in the beauty of the va-
rious scenery of rural life, building himself a home
in the loveliest region of his native state. He was a
skilful horseman ; and he also delighted to roam the
mountains on foot. The range of his knowledge was
very wide ; he was not unfamiliar with the literature
of Greece and Eome; had an aptitude for mathe-
matics and mechanics; and loved especially the nat-
ural sciences ; scorning nothing but metaphysics.
British governors and officials had introduced into
Williamsburg the prevalent freethinking of English-
men of that century, and Jefferson had grown up in
its atmosphere ; he was not only a hater of priest-
craft and superstition and bigotry and intolerance;
he was thought to be indifferent to religion ; yet his
instincts all inclined him to trace every fact to a gen-
eral law, and to put faith in ideal truth ; the world

464 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, of the senses did not bound his aspirations, and he be-
^-Y-^ lieved more than he himself was aware of. He was
1 17.6* an idealist in his habits of thought and life, as indeed
2-4. is every one who has an abiding and thorough con-
fidence in the people ; and he was kept so in spite of
circumstances by the irresistible bent of his charac-
ter. He had great power in mastering details as well
as in searching for general principles. His profession
was that of the law, in which he was methodical,
painstaking, and successful; at the same time he
studied law as a science, and was well read in the law
of nature and of nations. Whatever he had to do, it
was his custom to prepare himself for it carefully ;
and in public life, when others were at fault, they
often found that he had already hewed out the way;
so that in council men willingly gave him the lead,
which he never appeared to claim, and was always
able to undertake. But he rarely spoke in public ;
and was less fit to engage in the war of debate, than
calmly to sum up its conclusions. It was a beautiful
trait in his character that he was free from envy ;
and had he kept silence, John Adams would have
wanted the best witness to his greatness as the ablest
advocate and defender of independence. A common
object now riveted the two statesmen together in
close bonds. I cannot find, that at that period, Jef-
ferson had an enemy ; by the general consent of Vir-
ginia, he already stood first among her civilians. Just
thirty three years old, married, and happy in his
family, affluent, with a bright career before him, he
was no rash innovator by his character or his position ;
if his convictions drove him to demand independence,
it was only because he could no longer live with honor

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 465

under the British constitution, which he still acknowl- CHAP.
edged to be the best that the world had thus far seen,
His enunciation of general principles was fearless;
but he was no visionary devotee of abstract theories, 2-4.
which, like disembodied souls, escape from every em-
brace; the nursling of his country, the offspring of
his time, he set about the work of a practical states-
man, and his measures grew so naturally out of pre-
vious law and the facts of the past, that they struck
deep root and have endured.

From the fulness of his own mind, without con-
sulting one single book, Jefferson drafted the decla-
ration, submitted it separately to Franklin and to
John Adams, accepted from each of them one or two
verbal, unimportant corrections, and on the twenty
eighth of June reported it to congress, which now on
the second of July, immediately after the resolution
of independence, entered upon its consideration.
During the remainder of that day and the two next,
the language, the statements, and the principles of the
paper were closely scanned.

In the indictment against George the Third, Jef-
ferson had written:

"He has waged cruel war against human nature
itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and lib-
erty in the persons of a distant people who never of-
fended him, captivating and carrying them into slavery
in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in
their transportation thither. This piratical warfare,
the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the
Christian king of Great Britain. Determined to keep
open a market where men should be bought and sold,
he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every

466

AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CLX!' legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this ex-
1 — ^ ecrable commerce. And that this assemblage of hor-
1jlJ6* rors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is
2-4. now exciting those very people to rise in arms among
us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has de-
prived them, by murdering the people on whom he
also obtruded them: thus paying off former crimes
committed against the liberties of one people with
crimes which he urges them to commit against the
lives of another."

These words expressed with precision what had
happened in Virginia ; she, as well as other colonies,
had perseveringly attempted to repress the slave-
trade ; the king had perseveringly used his veto to pro-
tect it ; the governor, clothed with the king's authority,
had invited slaves to rise against their masters ; but it
could not be truly said that all the colonies had been
always without blame, in regard to the commerce ; or
that in America it had been exclusively the guilt of
the king of Great Britain ; and therefore, the severe
strictures on the use of the king's negative, so Jefferson
wrote for the guidance of history, " were disapproved
by some southern gentlemen, whose reflections were
not yet matured to the full abhorrence of that traffic ;
and the offensive expressions were immediately yield-
ed." Congress had already manifested its own senti-
ments by the absolute prohibition of the slave-trade ;
and that prohibition was then respected in every one
of the thirteen states, including South Carolina and
Georgia. This is the occasion, when the slave-trade
was first branded as a piracy. Many statesmen,
among them Edmund Pendleton, president of the
Virginia convention, always regretted that the pas-

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 467

sage had been stricken out ; and the earnestness of
the denunciation lost its author no friends.

All other changes and omissions in Jefferson's
paper were either insignificant, or much, for the bet- 2-4.
ter ; rendering its language more terse, more dispas-
sionate, and more exact; and in the evening of the
fourth day of July, New York still abstaining from
the vote, twelve States, without one negative, agreed
to this Declaration by the Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled :

"When, in the course of human events, it be-
comes necessary for one people to dissolve the politi-
cal bands which have connected them with another,
and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature
and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should
declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal; that they are endowed by
their Creator with certain unalienable rights ; that
among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of hap-
piness ; that, to secure these rights, governments
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers
from the consent of the governed; that, whenever
any form of government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish
it, and to institute a new government, laying its foun-
dation on such principles, and organizing its powers
in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed,
will dictate that governments long established, should
not be changed for light and transient causes ; and,

468 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CLXXR accor(iingly, a11 experience hatli shown, that mankind
— ^ are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable,
1 7476' than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to
which^ they are accustomed. But, when a long train
of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the
same object, evinces a design to reduce them under
absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to
throw off such government, and to provide new guards
for their future security. Such has been the patient
sufferance of these colonies, and such is now the ne-
cessity which constrains them to alter their former
systems of government. The history of the present
king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries
and usurpations, all having, in direct object, the estab-
lishment of an absolute tyranny over these states.
To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid
world : —

" He has refused his assent to laws the most whole-
some and necessary for the public good.

" He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of
immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended
in their operation till his assent should be obtained •
and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to
attend to them.

" He has refused to pass other laws for the ac-
commodation of large districts of people, unless those
people would relinquish the right of representation in
the legislature; a right inestimable to them, and
formidable to tyrants only.

" He has called together legislative bodies at places
unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the deposi-
tory of their public records, for the sole purpose of
fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 469

"He has dissolved representative houses repeat- CHAP.
edly, for opposing, with manly firmness, his invasions — ^

on the rights of the people.

" He has refused for a long time after such dissolu- 4.
tions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the
legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have re-
turned to the people at large for their exercise ; the
state remaining, in the mean time, exposed to all the
danger of invasion from without and convulsions
within.

" He has endeavored to prevent the population
of these States ; for that purpose, obstructing the
laws for naturalization of foreigners ; refusing to pass
others to encourage their migration hither, and raising
the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

" He has obstructed the administration of justice,
by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judici-
ary powers.

"He has made judges dependent on his will alone,
for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries.

" He has erected a multitude of new offices, and
sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,
and eat out their substance.

" He has kept among us, in times of peace, stand-
ing armies, without the consent of our legislature.

" He has affected to render the military independ-
ent of, and superior to, the civil power.

" He has combined with others, [that is, with the
lords and commons of Britain,] to subject us to a juris-
diction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowl-
edged by our laws ; giving his assent to their acts of
pretended legislation : For quartering large bodies of

VOL. VIII. 40

470 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, armed troops among us : For protecting them, by
— ^ mock trial, from punishment for any murders which
1 776. they should commit on the inhabitants of these States :
4. For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world :
For imposing taxes on us without our consent : For
depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by
jury: For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for
pretended offences: For abolishing the free system
of English laws in a neighboring province, establish-
ing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging
its boundaries, so as to render it at once an example
and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute
rule into these colonies : For taking away our charters,
abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, fun-
damentally, the powers of our governments : For sus-
pending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves
invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever.

" He has abdicated government here, by declaring
us out of his protection, and waging war against us.

" He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts,
burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our peo-
ple.

" He is, at this time, transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death,
desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circum-
stances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in
the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the
head of a civilized nation.

" He has constrained our fellow citizens, taken cap-
tive on the high seas, to bear arms against their coun-
try, to become the executioners of their friends and
brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 471

" He has excited domestic insurrections amongst CHAP.
us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants — ^
of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose 1H6'
known rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruc- 4.
tion, of all ages, sexes, and conditions.

" In every stage of these oppressions, we have pe-
titioned for redress, in the most humble terms ; our
repeated petitions have been answered only by re-
peated injuries. A prince whose character is thus
marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is
unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

" Nor have we been wanting in attention to our
British brethren. We have warned them, from time
to time, of attempts made by their legislature to ex-
tend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have
reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration
and settlement here. We have appealed to their
native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow
these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt
our connections and correspondence. They, too, have
been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which
denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold
the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace, friends.

" We, therefore, the representatives of the United
States of America, in General Congress assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World for
the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and
by the authority of the good people of these colonies,
solemnly publish and declare, That these United
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, FREE AND IN-
DEPENDENT STATES ; that they are absolved from all

472 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP, allegiance to the British crown, and that all political
— r^ connection between them and the state of Great
1J76- Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved; and
4. that, as Free and Independent States, they have full
power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances,
establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things
which Independent States may of right do. And,
for the support of this declaration, with a firm re-
liance on the protection of DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we
mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes,
and our sacred honor."

This immortal state paper, which for its composer
was the aurora of enduring fame, was " the genuine
effusion of the soul of the country at that time," the
revelation of its mind, when in its youth, its enthu-
siasm, its sublime confronting of danger, it rose to the
highest creative powers of which man is capable.
The bill of rights which it promulgates, is of rights
that are older than human institutions, and spring
from the eternal justice that is anterior to the state.
Two political theories divided the world ; one found-
ed the commonwealth on the reason of state, the
policy of expediency; the other on the immutable
principles of morals: the new republic, as it took
its place among the powers of the world, proclaimed
its faith in the truth and reality and unchangeable-
ness of freedom, virtue, and right. The heart of
Jefferson in writing the declaration, and of congress
in adopting it, beat for all humanity; the asser-
tion of right was made for the entire world of man-
kind and all coming generations, without any ex-
ception whatever ; for the proposition which admits
of exceptions can never be self-evident. As it was

THE DECLARATION OP THE UNITED STATES. 473

put forth in the name of the ascendent people of that CHAP.
time, it was sure to make the circuit of the world, ^^'

1 *7 7 fi

passing everywhere through the despotic countries juiy'
of Europe ; and the astonished nations as they read 4<
that all men are created equal, started out of their
lethargy, like those who have been exiles from child-
hood, when they suddenly hear the dimly remem-
bered accents of their mother tongue.

In the next place, the declaration, avoiding specious
and vague generalities, grounds itself with anxious
care upon the past, and reconciles right and fact. Of
universal principles enough is repeated to prove that
America chose for her own that system of politics
which recognises the rule of eternal justice ; and in-
dependence is vindicated by the application of that
rule to the grievous instructions, laws, and acts, pro-
ceeding from the king, in the exercise of his prerog-
ative, or in concurrence with the lords and commons
of Great Britain. The colonies professed to drive back
innovations; and not, with roving zeal, to overturn all
traditional inequalities ; they were no rebels against
the past, of which they knew the present to be the
child ; with all the glad anticipations of greatness that
broke forth from the prophetic soul of the youthful
nation, they took their point of departure from the
world as it was. They did not even declare against
monarchy itself; they sought no general overthrow
of all kings, no universal system of republics ; nor
did they cherish in their hearts a lurking hatred
against princes. Loyalty to the house of Hanover
had, for sixty years, been another name for the love
of civil and religious liberty ; the vast majority, till
within a few years or months, believed the English
constitution the best that had ever existed ; neither

474 AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE.

CHAP. Franklin, nor Washington, nor John Adams, nor Jeffer-
v^-v-L, son, nor Jay, had ever expressed a preference for a re-
juiy ' public. The voices that rose for independence, spoke
also for alliances with kings. The sovereignty of
George the Third was renounced, not because he was
a king, but because he was deemed to be "a tyrant."
The insurgents, as they took up self-government,
manifested no impatience at the recollection of having
been ruled by a royal line ; no eagerness to blot out
memorials of their former state ; they sent forth no
Hugh Peter to recommend to the mother country the
abolition of monarchy, which no one seems to have
proposed or to have wished ; in the moment of revo-
lution in America, they did not counsel the English to
undertake a revolution. The republic was to America
a godsend ; it came, though unsought, because soci-
ety contained the elements of no other organization.
Here, and, in that century, here only, was a people,
which, by its education and large and long experience,
was prepared to act as the depository and carrier of
all political power. America developed her choice
from within herself; and therefore it is, that, con-
scious of following an inner law, she never made her-
self a spreader of her system, where the conditions
of success were wanting.

Finally, the declaration was not only the announce-
ment of the birth of a people, but the establishment of
a national government ; a most imperfect one, it is true,
but still a government, in conformity with the limited
constituent powers which each colony had conferred
upon its delegates in congress. The war was no
longer a civil war ; Britain was become to the United
States a foreign country. Every former subject of

THE DECLARATION OF THE UNITED STATES. 475

the British king in the thirteen colonies now owed CHAP.

LXX_

primary allegiance to the dynasty of the people, and — Y— '
became citizens of the new republic; except in this, 1J716>
every thing remained as before ; every man retained 4.
his rights ; the colonies did not dissolve into a state of
nature ; nor did the new people undertake a social
revolution. The affairs of internal police and gov-
ernment were carefully retained by each separate
state, which could, each for itself, enter upon the
career of domestic reforms. But the states which
were henceforth independent of Britain were not in-
dependent of one another ; the United States of
America assumed powers over war, peace, foreign al-
liances, and commerce.

The declaration was not signed by the members
of congress on the day on which it was agreed
to, but it was duly authenticated by the president
and secretary, and published to the world. The
nation, when it made the choice of a day for its great
anniversary, selected not the day of the resolution of
independence, when it closed the past, but that of
the declaration of the principles on which it opened
its new career.

END OF VOL. VIII.

I

THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ

This book is due on the last DATE stamped below.

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