The feeling was much the same in 1775. Pennsylvania "strictly" commanded
her representatives to dissent from any "proposition that may lead to
separation." Maryland gave similar instructions in January, 1776.
Independence was neither the avowed nor the conscious object in
defending Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. Washington's commission as
commander-in-chief, two days later, gave no hint of it. And the New
Hampshire legislature so late as December 25, 1775, in the very act of
framing a new state government, "totally disavowed" all such aim. In the
fall of 1775 Congress declared that it had "not raised armies with the
ambitious design of separation from Great Britain."

The swift change which, a little more than six months later, made the
Declaration of Independence possible and even popular, has never yet
been fully explained. In May, 1775, John Adams had been cautioned by the
Philadelphia Sons of Liberty not to utter the word independence. "It is
as unpopular," they said, in "Pennsylvania and all the Middle and
Southern States as the Stamp Act itself."  Early in 1776 this same great
man wrote that there was hardly a newspaper in America but openly
advocated independence. In the spring of 1776 the conservative
Washington declared, "Reconciliation is impracticable. Nothing but
independence will save us." Statesmen began to see that longer delay was
dangerous, that permanent union turned upon independence, and that,
without a government of their own, people would by and by demand back
their old constitution, as the English did after Cromwell's death. "The
country is not only ripe for independence," said Witherspoon, of New
Jersey, debating in Congress, "but is in danger of becoming rotten for
lack of it."

Colony after colony now came rapidly into line. Massachusetts gave
instructions to her delegates in Congress, virtually favoring
independence, in January, 1776. Georgia did the same in February, South
Carolina in March. Express authority to "concur in independency" came
first from North Carolina, April 12th, and the following May 31st
Mecklenburg County in that State explicitly declared its independence of
England. On May 1st Massachusetts began to disuse the king's name in
public instruments. May 4th, Rhode Island renounced allegiance almost in
terms. On May 15th brave old Virginia ordered her delegates in Congress
to bite right into the sour apple and propose independence. Connecticut,
New Hampshire, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania took action in the
same direction during the following month.

[1776]


Union Flag. The first recognized Continental Standard, raised for the
first time January 2,1776.

The king's brutal attitude had much to do with this sudden change. The
colonists had nursed the belief that the king was misled by his
ministers. A last petition, couched in respectful terms, was drawn up by
Congress in the summer of 1775, and sent to England. Out of respect to
the feelings of good John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, who still clung to
England, this address was tempered with a submissiveness which offended
many members. On its being read, Dickinson remarked that but one word in
it displeased him, the word "Congress;" to which Colonel Ben Harrison,
of Virginia, retorted that but one word in it pleased him, and that
"Congress" was precisely the word.

The appeal was idle. The king's only answer was a violent proclamation
denouncing the Americans as rebels. It was learned at the same time that
he was preparing to place Indians, negroes, and German mercenaries in
arms against them. The truth was forced upon the most reluctant, that
the root of England's obduracy was in the king personally, and that
further supplications were useless. The surprising success of the
colonial arms, the shedding of blood at Lexington, Concord, and Bunker
Hill--all which, remember, antedated the Declaration--the increase and
the ravages of the royal army and navy in America, were all efficient in
urging the colonists to break utterly and forever from the
mother-country.

[1772]

The behavior of the Gaspe officers in Narragansett Bay, their illegal
seizures, plundering expeditions on shore, and wanton manners in
stopping and searching boats, illustrate the spirit of the king's
hirelings in America at this time. At last the Rhode Islanders could
endure it no longer. Early on the morning of June 9, 1772, Captain
Abraham Whipple, with a few boatloads of trusty aides, dropped down the
river from Providence to what is now called Gaspe Point, six or seven
miles below the city, where the offending craft had run aground the
previous evening in giving chase to the Newport-Providence packet-boat,
and after a spirited fight mastered the Gaspe's company, put them on
shore, and burned the ship. There would be much propriety in dating the
Revolution from this daring act.

[1774]

Nor was this the only case of Rhode Island's forwardness in the
struggle. December 5, 1774, her General Assembly ordered Colonel
Nightingale to remove to Providence all the cannon and ammunition of
Fort George, except three guns, and this was done before the end of the
next day. More than forty cannon, with much powder and shot, were thus
husbanded for service to come. News of this was carried to New
Hampshire, and resulted in the capture of Fort William and Mary at New
Castle, December 14, 1774, which some have referred to as the opening
act of the Revolution. This deed was accomplished by fourteen men from
Durham, who entered the fort at night when the officers were at a ball
in Portsmouth. The powder which they captured is said to have done duty
at Bunker Hill.

[1776]

Most potent of all as a cause of the resolution to separate was Thomas
Paine's pamphlet, "Common Sense," published in January, 1776, and
circulated widely throughout the colonies. Its lucid style, its homely
way of putting things, and its appeals to Scripture must have given it
at any rate a strong hold upon the masses of the people. It was doubly
and trebly triumphant from the fact that it voiced, in clear, bold
terms, a long-growing popular conviction of the propriety of
independence, stronger than men had dared to admit even to themselves.



Thomas Paine.


On June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, rose in Congress, and,
in obedience to the command of his State, moved a resolution "that the
united colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent
States." John Adams seconded the motion. It led to great debate, which
evinced that New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South
Carolina were not yet quite ready for so radical a step. Postponement
was therefore had till July 1st, a committee meantime being appointed to
draft a declaration.

On July 2d, after further long debate, participated in by John Adams,
Dickinson, Wilson, and many other of the ablest men in Congress, not
all, even now, favorable to the measure, the famous Declaration of
Independence was adopted by vote of all the colonies but New York, whose
representatives abstained from voting for lack of sufficiently definite
instructions. We celebrate July 4th because on that day the document was
authenticated by the signatures of the President and Secretary of
Congress, and published, Not until August 2d had all the representatives
affixed their names. Ellery stood at the secretary's side as the various
delegates signed, and declares that he saw only dauntless resolution in
every eye. "Now we must hang together," said Franklin, "or we shall hang
separately."

The honor of writing the Declaration belongs to Thomas Jefferson, of
Virginia, who was to play so prominent a part in the early political
history of the United States. At this time he was thirty-three years
old. He was by profession a lawyer, of elegant tastes, well read in
literature, deeply versed in political history and philosophy. He was
chosen to draft the instrument chiefly because of the great ability of
other state papers from his pen. It is said that he consulted no books
during the composition, but wrote from the overflowing fulness of his
mind.

It is an interesting inquiry how far the language of the document was
determined by utterances of a like kind already put forth by towns and
counties. There had been many of these, and much discussion has occurred
upon the question which of them was first. Perhaps the honor belongs to
the town of Sheffield, Mass., which so early as January 12, 1773,
proclaimed the grievances and the rights of the colonies, among these
the right of self-government. Mendon, in the same State, in the same
year passed resolutions containing three fundamental propositions of the
great Declaration itself: that all men have an equal right to life and
liberty, that this right is inalienable, and that government must
originate in the free consent of the people. It is worthy of note that
the only important change made by Congress in what Jefferson had
prepared was the striking out, in deference to South Carolina and
Georgia, of a clause reflecting on slavery.

Copies of the immortal paper were carried post-haste up and down the
land, and Congress's bold deed was everywhere hailed with enthusiastic
demonstrations of joy. The stand for independence wrought powerfully for
good, both at home and abroad. At home it assisted vacillating minds to
a decision, as well as bound all the colonies more firmly together by
committing them irreconcilably to an aggressive policy. Abroad it tended
to lift the colonies out of the position of rebels and to gain them
recognition among the nations of the earth.

Let us now inquire into the political character of these bodies of
people which this Declaration by their delegates had erected into "free
and independent States."

Five colonies had adopted constitutions, revolutionary of course, before
the decisive manifesto. There was urgent need for such action. The few
remaining fragments of royal governments were powerless and decadent.
Anarchy was threatening everywhere. Some of the royal governors had
fled. In South Carolina the judges refused to act. In other places, as
western Massachusetts, they had been forcibly prevented from acting. In
most of the colonies only small parts of the old assemblies could be
gotten together.

New Hampshire led off with a new constitution in January, 1776. South
Carolina followed in March. By the close of the year nearly all the
colonies had established governments of their own. New York and Georgia
did not formally adopt new constitutions until the next year. In
Massachusetts a popular assembly assumed legislative and executive
powers from July, 1775, till 1780, when a new constitution went into
force. Connecticut and Rhode Island, as we have seen already, continued
to use their royal charters--the former till 1818, the latter till 1842.

Nowhere was the general framework of government greatly changed by
independence. The governors were of course now elected by the people,
and they suffered some diminution of power. Legislatures were composed
of two houses, both elective, no hereditary legislators being
recognized. All the States still had Sunday laws; most of them had
religious tests. In South Carolina only members of a church could vote.
In New Jersey an office-holder must profess belief in the faith of some
Protestant sect. Pennsylvania required members of the legislature to
avow faith in God, a future state, and the inspiration of the
Scriptures. The new Massachusetts constitution provided that laws
against plays, extravagance in dress, diet, etc., should be passed.
Property qualifications continued to limit suffrage. Virginia and
Georgia changed their land laws, abolishing entails and primogeniture.

The sole momentous novelty was that everyone of the new constitutions
proceeded upon the theory of popular sovereignty. The new governments
derived their authority solely and directly from the people. And this
authority, too, was not surrendered to the government, but simply--and
this only in part--intrusted to it as the temporary agent of the
sovereign people, who remained throughout the exclusive source of
political power.

The new instruments of government were necessarily faulty and imperfect.
All have since been amended, and several entirely remodelled. But they
rescued the colonies from impending anarchy and carried them safely
through the throes of the Revolution.



CHAPTER IV.

OUTBREAK OF WAR: WASHINGTON'S MOVEMENTS

[1775]

By the spring of 1775 Massachusetts was practically in rebellion. Every
village green was a drill-ground, every church a town arsenal. General
Gage occupied Boston with 3,000 British regulars. The flames were
smouldering; at the slightest puff they would flash out into open war.

On the night of April 18th people along the road from Boston to Concord
were roused from sleep by the cry of flying couriers--"To arms! The
redcoats are coming!" When the British advance reached Lexington at
early dawn, it found sixty or seventy minute-men drawn up on the green.
"Disperse, ye rebels!" shouted the British officer. A volley was fired,
and seven Americans fell dead. The king's troops, with a shout, pushed
on to Concord. Most of the military stores, however, which they had come
to destroy had been removed. A British detachment advanced to Concord
Bridge, and in the skirmish here the Americans returned the British
fire.


Map of the United Colonies at the Beginning of the Revolution.


"By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
  Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood,
  And fired the shot heard round the world."

[Footnote: From R. W. Emerson's Concord Hymn, sung at the completion of
the Battle Monument near Concord North Bridge, April 19, 1836.]



Bunker Hill and Breed's Hill.
A Profile View of the Heights of Charlestown.

The whole country was by this time swarming with minute-men. The crack
of the rifle was heard from behind every wall and fence and tree along
the line of march. The redcoats kept falling one by one at the hands of
an invisible foe. The march became a retreat, the retreat almost a rout.
At sunset the panting troops found shelter in Boston. Out of 1,800
nearly 300 were killed, wounded, or missing. The American loss was about
ninety. The war of the rebellion had begun.

All that day and the next night the tramp of minute-men marching to
Boston was heard throughout New England, and by April 20th Gage was
cooped up in the city by an American army. May 25th, he received large
re-enforcements from England.

On the night of June 16th a thousand men armed with pick and spade stole
out of the American camp. At dawn the startled British found that a
redoubt had sprung up in the night on Breed's Hill (henceforward Bunker
Hill) in Charlestown. Boston was endangered, and the rebels must be
dislodged. About half-past two 2,500 British regulars marched silently
and in perfect order up the hill, expecting to drive out the "rustics"
at the first charge. Colonel Prescott, the commanding American officer,
waited till the regulars were within ten rods. "Fire!" A sheet of flame
burst from the redoubt. The front ranks of the British melted away, and
His Majesty's invincibles retreated in confusion to the foot of the
hill. Again they advance. Again that terrible fire. Again they waver and
fall back. Once more the plucky fellows form for the charge, this time
with bayonets alone. When they are within twenty yards, the muskets
behind the earthworks send forth one deadly discharge, and then are
silent. The ammunition is exhausted. The British swarm into the redoubt.
The Continentals reluctantly retire, Prescott among the last, his coat
rent by bayonets. Joseph Warren, of Boston, the idol of Massachusetts,
was shot while leaving the redoubt. The British killed and wounded
amounted to 1,054--157 of them being officers; the American loss was
nearly 500. The battle put an end to further offensive movements by
Gage. It was a virtual victory for the untrained farmer troops, and all
America took courage.



Plan of Bunker Hill.


A. Boston Battery.  B. Charlestown.
C. British troops attacking.  D. Provincial lines.
Bunker Hill Battle.
From a Contemporary Print.


Two days before, Congress had chosen George Washington
commander-in-chief, and on July 2d he arrived at Cambridge. Washington
was forty-three years old. Over six feet in height, and
well-proportioned, he combined great dignity with ease. His early life
as surveyor in a wild country had developed in him marvellous powers of
endurance. His experience in the French and Indian War had given him
considerable military knowledge. But his best title to the high honor
now thrust upon him lay in his wonderful self-control, sound judgment,
lofty patriotism, and sublime courage, which were to carry him, calm and
unflinching, through perplexities and discouragements that would have
overwhelmed a smaller or a meaner man.

Washington fought England with his hands tied. The Continental
government was the worst possible for carrying on war. There was no
executive. The action of legislative committees was slow and
vacillating, and at best Congress could not enforce obedience on the
part of a colony. Congress, too, afraid of a standing army, would
authorize only short enlistments, so that Washington had frequently to
discharge one army and form another in the face of the enemy. His troops
were ill-disciplined, and scantily supplied with clothing, tents,
weapons, and ammunition. Skilled officers were few, and these rarely
free from local and personal jealousies, impairing their efficiency.

[1776]

Washington found that the army around Boston consisted of about 14,500
men fit for duty. He estimated the British forces at 11,000. All the
fall and winter he was obliged to lie inactive for want of powder.
Meantime he distressed the British as much as possible by a close siege.
In the spring, having got more powder, he fortified Dorchester Heights.
The city was now untenable, and on March 17, 1776, all the British
troops, under command of Howe who had succeeded Gage, sailed out of
Boston harbor, never again to set foot on Massachusetts soil.



Joseph Warren.


June 28th, a British fleet of ten vessels opened fire on Fort Moultrie,
in Charleston harbor, S. C. The fort, commanded by Colonel Moultrie,
returned the fire with remarkable accuracy, and after an engagement of
twelve hours the fleet withdrew, badly crippled. This victory gave
security to South Carolina and Georgia for three years.

The discomfited fleet sailed for New York, where the British forces were
concentrating. The plan was to seize the Middle States, and thus keep
North and South from helping one another. August 1st, 2,500 English
troops and 8,000 Hessians arrived. The effective British force was now
about 25,000. Washington was holding New York City with about 10,000 men
fit for duty.

Driven from Long Island by the battle of August 27th, and forced to
abandon New York September 15th, Washington retreated up the Hudson, and
took up a strong position at White Plains. Here the British, attacking,
were defeated in a well-fought engagement; but as they were strongly
re-enforced on October 30th, Washington fell back to Newcastle. Early in
November, guessing that they intended to invade New Jersey and advance
on Philadelphia, he threw his main force across the Hudson.



General Howe.


The fortunes of the American army were now at the lowest ebb, so that
had Howe been an efficient general it must have been either captured or
entirely destroyed. Through the treason of Adjutant Demont, who had
deserted to Lord Percy with complete information of their weakness,
Forts Washington and Lee were captured, November 16th and 20th, with the
loss of 150 killed and wounded, and 2,634 prisoners, besides valuable
stores, small arms, and forty-three pieces of artillery. Manhattan
Island was lost. General Charles Lee, with a considerable portion of the
army, persistently refused to cross the Hudson. Washington, with the
troops remaining, was forced to retreat slowly across New Jersey, the
British army, under Cornwallis, at his very heels, often within
cannon-shot. The New Jersey people were lukewarm, and many accepted
Cornwallis's offers of amnesty. Congress, fearing that Philadelphia
would be taken, adjourned to Baltimore. December 8th, Washington crossed
the Delaware with less than 3,000 men. The British encamped on the
opposite bank of the river. The American army was safe for the present,
having secured all the boats and burned all the bridges within seventy
miles.



Map of Manhattan Island in 1776, showing the American Defences, etc.



General Charles Lee.
Although intended for a caricature, this is considered an excellent likeness.


Washington was soon re-enforced, and now had between five and six
thousand troops. He determined to strike a bold blow that would
electrify the drooping spirits of the army and the country. At Trenton
lay a body of 1,200 Hessians. Christmas night Washington crossed the
Delaware with 2,400 picked men. The current was swift, and the river
full of floating ice; but the boats were handled by Massachusetts
fishermen, and the passage was safely made. Then began the nine-mile
march to Trenton, in a blinding storm of sleet and hail. The soldiers,
many of whom were almost barefoot, stumbled on over the slippery road,
shielding their muskets from the storm as best they could. Trenton was
reached at eight o'clock on the morning of the 26th. An attack was made
by two columns simultaneously. The surprise was complete, and after a
half hour's struggle the Hessians surrendered. Nearly 1,000 prisoners
were taken, besides 1,200 small arms and six guns. Washington safely
retreated across the Delaware.

[1777]

Cornwallis, with 7,000 men, hurried from Princeton to attack the
American army. But Washington, on the night of January 2, 1777, leaving
his camp-fires burning, slipped around the British army, routed the
regiments left at Princeton, and pushing on northward went into winter
quarters at Morristown.

The next campaign opened late. It was the last of August when Howe, with
17,000 men, sailed from New York into Chesapeake Bay, and advanced
toward Philadelphia. Washington flung himself in his path at Brandywine,
September 11th, but was beaten back with heavy loss. September 26th the
British army marched into Philadelphia, whence Congress had fled.
October 4th, Washington attacked the British camp at Germantown. Victory
was almost his when two of the attacking parties, mistaking each other,
in the fog, for British, threw the movement into confusion, and
Washington had to fall back, with a loss of 1,000 men.

In December the American commander led his ragged army into winter
quarters at Valley Forge, twenty-one miles from Philadelphia. It was a
period of deep gloom. The war had been waged now for more than two
years, and less than nothing seemed to have been accomplished. Distrust
of Washington's ability sprang up in some minds. "Heaven grant us one
great soul!" exclaimed John Adams after Brandywine. Certain officers,
envious of Washington, began to intrigue for his place.

Meanwhile the army was shivering in its log huts at Valley Forge. Nearly
three thousand were barefoot. Many had to sit by the fires all night to
keep from freezing. One day there was a dinner of officers to which none
were admitted who had whole trousers. For days together there was no
bread in camp. The death-rate increased thirty-three per cent from week
to week.

Just now, however, amid this terrible Winter at Valley Forge, Baron
Steuben, a  trained German soldier, who had been a pupil of Frederick
the Great, joined our army. Washington made him inspector-general, and
his rigorous daily drill vastly improved the discipline and the spirits
of the American troops. When they left camp in the spring, spite of the
hardships past, they formed a military force on which Washington could
reckon with certainty for efficient work.



Baron von Steuben.


[1778]

The British, after a gay winter in Philadelphia, startled by the news
that a French fleet was on its way to America, marched for New York,
June 18,1778. The American army overtook them at Monmouth on the 28th;
General Charles Lee--a traitor as we now know, and as Washington then
suspected, forced into high place by influence in Congress--General Lee
led the party intended to attack, but he delayed so long that the
British attacked him instead.

The Americans were retreating through a narrow defile when Washington
came upon the field, and his Herculean efforts, brilliantly seconded by
Wayne, stayed the rout. A stout stand was made, and the British were
held at bay till evening, when they retired and continued their march to
New York. Washington followed and took up his station at White Plains.



CHAPTER V.

THE NORTHERN CAMPAIGN

[1775]

At the outbreak of hostilities the thoughts of the colonists naturally
turned to the Canadian border, the old battleground of the French and
Indian War. Then and now a hostility was felt for Canada which had not
slumbered since the burning of Schenectady in 1690.

May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen, at the head of a party of "Green Mountain
Boys," surprised Fort Ticonderoga. Crown Point was taken two days later.
Two hundred and twenty cannon, besides other much-needed military
stores, fell into the hands of the Americans. Some of these heavy guns,
hauled over the Green Mountains on oxsleds the next winter, were planted
by Washington on Dorchester Heights.

In November, 1775, St. Johns and Montreal were captured by a small force
under General Montgomery. The Americans now seemed in a fair way to get
control of all Canada, which contained only 700 regular troops. It was
even hoped that Canada would make common cause with the colonies. Late
in the fall Benedict Arnold led 1,000 men up the Kennebec River and
through the wilderness--a terrible journey--to Quebec. Here he was
joined by Montgomery. On the night of December 30th, which was dark and
stormy, Montgomery and Arnold led their joint forces, numbering some
3,000, against the city. Arnold was to attack the lower town, while
Montgomery sought to gain the citadel. Montgomery had hardly passed the
first line of barricades when he was shot dead, and his troops retreated
in confusion. Arnold, too, was early wounded. Morgan, with 500 of his
famous riflemen, forced an entrance into the lower town. But they were
not re-enforced, and after a desperate street fight were taken
prisoners.

[1776]

A dreary and useless blockade was maintained for several months; until
in May the garrison sallied forth and routed the besiegers. The British
were successful in several small engagements during the summer of 1776;
and the Americans finally had to fall back to Crown Point and
Ticonderoga.



Richard Montgomery.


[1777]

In June of the next year a splendid expedition set sail from St. Johns
and swept proudly up Lake Champlain. Eight thousand British and Hessian
troops, under strict discipline and ably officered, forty cannon of the
best make, a horde of merciless Indians--with these forces General
Burgoyne, the commander of the expedition, expected to make an easy
conquest of upper New York, form a junction with Clinton at Albany, and,
by thus isolating New England from the Middle and Southern States, break
the back of the rebellion.

Ticonderoga was the first point of attack. Sugar Loaf Mountain, which
rose six hundred feet above the lake, had been neglected as too
difficult of access. Burgoyne's skilful engineers easily fortified this
on the night of July 4th, and Fort Ticonderoga became untenable. General
St. Clair, with his garrison of 3,000, at once evacuated it, and fled
south under cover of the night. He was pursued, and his rear guard of
1,200 men was shattered. The rest of his force reached Fort Edward.



The Death of Montgomery at Quebec.


The loss of Ticonderoga spread alarm throughout the North. General
Schuyler, the head of the Northern department, appealed to Washington
for re-enforcements, and fell back from Fort Edward to the junction of
the Mohawk and Hudson.

Meanwhile Burgoyne was making a toilsome march toward Fort Edward.
Schuyler had destroyed the bridges and obstructed the roads, so that the
invading army was twenty-four days in going twenty-six miles. Up to this
point Burgoyne's advance had been little less than a triumphal march;
difficulties now began to surround him like a net.

Burgoyne had arranged for a branch expedition of 700 troops and 1,000
Indians under St. Leger, to sail up Lake Ontario, sweep across western
New York, and join the main body at Albany. August 3d, this expedition
reached Fort Schuyler, and besieged it. A party of 800 militia, led by
General Herkimer, a veteran German soldier, while marching to relieve
the fort, was surprised by an Indian ambush. The bloody battle of
Oriskany followed. St. Leger's further advance was checked, and soon
after, alarmed by exaggerated reports of a second relief expedition
under Arnold, he hurried back to Canada.

At Bennington, twenty-five miles east of Burgoyne's line of march, the
Americans had a depot of stores and horses. Burgoyne, who was running
short of provisions, sent a body of 500 troops, under Baume, to capture
these stores, and overawe the inhabitants by a raid through the
Connecticut valley. About 2,000 militia hastened to the defence of
Bennington. General Stark, who had fought gallantly at Bunker Hill and
Trenton, took command. August 16th, Baume was attacked on three sides at
once, Stark himself leading the charge against the enemy's front. Again
and again his men dashed up the hill where the British lay behind
breastworks. After a fight of two hours Baume surrendered, overpowered
by superi

the inhabitants of both countries had been accustomed to fish. Liberty
was also granted to take fish on such parts of the coast of Newfoundland
as British fishermen should use, and on the coasts, bays, and creeks of
all other British dominions in America. American fishermen could dry and
cure fish on the unsettled parts of Nova Scotia, Labrador, and the
Magdalen Islands. America agreed, for the protection of British
creditors, that debts contracted before the war should be held valid,
and should be payable in sterling money. It was also stipulated that
Congress should earnestly recommend to the several States the
restitution of all confiscated property belonging to loyalists.




"Done at Paris, this third Day of September,
In the Year of our Lord one thousand and seven hundred & eighty three.--
D. Hartley, John Adams, B. Franklin, John Jay"
Facsimile of Signatures to Treaty of Peace


[1783]

Peace came like a heavenly benediction to the country and the army,
exhausted by so long and so fierce a struggle. No general engagement
took place after the siege of Yorktown; but the armies kept close watch
upon each other, and minor skirmishes were frequent. Washington's 10,000
men were encamped near the Hudson, to see that Clinton's forces in New
York did no harm. In the South, Greene's valiant band, aided by Wayne
and his rangers, without regular food or pay, kept the British cooped up
in Charleston and Augusta.

Congress in due time declared cessation of hostilities, and on April 19,
1783, just eight years from the battle of Lexington, Washington read the
declaration at the headquarters of his army. The British had evacuated
Charleston the previous December. In July, Savannah saw the last of the
redcoats file out, and the British troops were collected at New York. On
November 25th, Sir Guy Carleton, who had superseded Clinton, embarked
with his entire army, besides a throng of refugees, in boats for Long
Island and Staten Island, where they soon took ship for England. "The
imperial standard of Great Britain fell at the fort over which it had
floated for a hundred and twenty years, and in its place the Stars and
Stripes of American Independence flashed in the sun. Fleet and army,
royal flag and scarlet uniform, coronet and ribbon, every sign and
symbol of foreign authority, which from Concord to Saratoga and from
Saratoga to Yorktown had sought to subdue the colonies, vanished from
these shores. Colonial and provincial America had ended, national
America had begun."

The American troops took possession of New York amid the huzzas of the
people and the roar of cannon. On November 25th, Washington with his
suite, surrounded by grateful and admiring throngs, made a formal entry
into the city whence he had been compelled to flee seven years before.

The time had now come when the national hero might lay down the great
burden which he had borne with herculean strength and courage through so
many years of distress and gloom. On December 4th he joined his
principal officers at the popular Fraunces's Tavern, near the Battery,
to bid them farewell. Tears filled every eye. Even Washington could not
master his feelings, as one after another the heroes who had been with
him upon the tented field and in so many moments of dreadful strife drew
near to press his hand. They followed him through ranks of parading
infantry to the Whitehall ferry, where he boarded his barge, and waving
his hat in a last, voiceless farewell, crossed to the Jersey shore.

Arrived at Annapolis after a journey which had been one long ovation,
the saviour of his country appeared before Congress, December 23d, to
resign the commission which he had so grandly fulfilled. His address was
in noble key, but abbreviated by choking emotion. The President of
Congress having replied in fitting words, Washington withdrew, and
continued his journey to the long-missed peace and seclusion of his
Mount Vernon home.



CHAPTER VIII.

AMERICAN MANHOOD IN THE REVOLUTION

[1775-1781]

It would be foolish to say that the Revolutionary soldiers never
quailed. Militia too often gave way before the steady bayonet charge of
British regulars, at times fleeing panic-stricken. Troops whose term of
service was out would go home at critical moments. Hardships and lack of
pay in a few instances led to mutiny and desertion. But the marvel is
that they fought so bravely, endured so much, and complained so little.
One reason was the patriotism of the people at large behind them.
Soldiers who turned their backs on Boston, leaving Washington in the
lurch, were refused food along the road home. Women placed rifles in the
hands of husbands, sons, or lovers, and said "Go!"

The rank and file in this war, coming from farm, work-bench,
logging-camp, or fisher's boat, had a superb physical basis for camp and
field life. Used to the rifle from boyhood, they kept their powder dry
and made every one of their scanty bullets tell. The Revolutionary
soldier's splendid courage has glorified a score of battle-fields; while
Valley Forge, with its days of hunger and nights of cold, its sick-beds
on the damp ground, and its bloody footprints in the snow, tell of his
patient endurance.

At Bunker Hill an undisciplined body of farmers, ill-armed, weary,
hungry and thirsty, calmly awaited the charge of old British
campaigners, and by a fire of dreadful precision drove them back. "They
may talk of their Mindens and their Fontenoys," said the British
general, Howe, "but there was no such fire there." At Charleston, while
the wooden fort shook with the British broadsides, Moultrie and his
South Carolina boys, half naked in the stifling heat, through twelve
long hours smoked their pipes and carefully pointed their guns. At Long
Island, to gain time for the retreat of the rest, five Maryland
companies flew again and again in the face of the pursuing host. At
Monmouth, eight thousand British were in hot pursuit of the retreating
Americans. Square in their front Washington planted two Pennsylvania and
Maryland regiments, saying, "Gentlemen, I depend upon you to hold the
ground until I can form the main army." And hold it they did.

Heroism grander than that of the battlefield, which can calmly meet an
ignominious death, was not lacking. Captain Nathan Hale, a quiet,
studious spirit, just graduated from Yale College, volunteered to enter
the British lines on Long Island as a spy. He was caught, and soon swung
from an apple tree in Colonel Rutgers's orchard, a corpse. Bible and
religious ministrations denied him, his letters to mother and sister
destroyed, women standing by and sobbing, he met his fate without a
tremor. "I only regret," comes his voice from yon rude scaffold, "that I
have but one life to give for my country." It is a shame that America so
long had no monument to this heroic man. One almost rejoices that the
British captain, Cunningham, author of the cruelty to Hale, himself met
death on the gallows, in London, 1791. How different from Hale's the
treatment bestowed upon Andre, the British spy who fell into our hands.
He was fed from Washington's table, and supported to his execution by
every manifestation of sympathy for his suffering.



John Paul Jones.


The stanch and useful loyalty of the New England clergy in the
Revolution has been much dwelt upon--none too much, however. With them
should be mentioned the Rev. James Caldwell, Presbyterian pastor at
Elizabeth, N. J., who, when English soldiers raided the town, and its
defenders were short of wadding, tore up his hymn-book for their use,
urging: "Give them Watts, boys, give them Watts."

No fiercer naval battle was ever fought than when Jones, in the old and
rotten Bon Homme Richard, grappled with the new British frigate Serapis.
Yard-arm to yardarm, port-hole to port-hole, the fight raged for hours.
Three times both vessels were on fire. The Serapis's guns tore a
complete breach in the Richard from main-mast to stern. The Richard was
sinking, but the intrepid Jones fought on, and the Serapis struck.



Fight between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis.


As the roll of Revolutionary officers is called, what matchless figures
file past the mind's eye! We see stalwart Ethan Allen entering
Ticonderoga too early in the morning to find its commander in a
presentable condition, and demanding possession "in the name of Almighty
God and the Continental Congress "--destined, himself, in a few months,
to be sailing down the St. Lawrence in irons, bound for long captivity
in England. We behold gallant Prescott leisurely promenading the Bunker
Hill parapet to inspirit his men, shot and shell hurtling thick around.
There is Israel Putnam--"Old Put" the boys dubbed him. He was no
general, but we forgive his costly blunders at Brooklyn Heights and
Peekskill as we think of him leaving plough in furrow at the drum-beat
to arms, and speeding to the deadly front at Boston, or with iron
firmness stemming the retreat from Bunker Hill. Young Richard Montgomery
might have been next to Washington in the war but for Sir Guy Carleton's
deadly grape-shot from the Quebec walls the closing moments of 1775.
Buried at Quebec, his remains were transferred by the State of New York,
July 8, 1818, to their present resting-place in front of St. Paul's, New
York City, the then aged widow tearfully watching the funeral barge as
it floated past Montgomery Place on the Hudson.



General Anthony Wayne.

During a four years' apprenticeship under Washington, General Greene had
caught more of his master's spirit and method than did any other
American leader, and one year's separate command at the South gave him a
martial fame second only to Washington's own. In him the great chief's
word was fulfilled, "I send you a general." A naked, starving army, an
empty military chest, the surrounding country impoverished and full of
loyalists--these were his difficulties. Three States practically cleared
of the royal army in ten months--this was his achievement. He retreated
only to advance, was beaten only to fight again. One hardly knows which
to admire most, his tireless energy and vigilance, his prudence in
retreat, his boldness and vigor in attack, his cheerful courage in
defeat, or his mingled kindness and firmness toward a suffering and
mutinous army.

John Stark, eccentric but true, famous for cool courage--how stubbornly,
with his New Hampshire boys, he held the rail fence at Bunker Hill, and
covered the retreat when ammunition was gone! But Stark's most brilliant
deed was at Bennington. "There they are, boys--the redcoats, and by
night they're ours, or Molly Stark's a widow." Those "boys," without
bayonets, their artillery shooting stones for balls, were little more
than a mob. But with confidence in him, on they rush, up, over, sweeping
Baume's Hessians from the field like a tornado. The figure of General
Schuyler comes before us--quieter but not less noble, an invalid, set to
hard tasks with little glory. His magnanimous soul forgets self in
country as he cheerfully gives all possible help to Gates, his
supplanter, and puts the torch to his own grain-fields at Saratoga lest
they feed the foe.



The Encounter between Tarleton and Colonel Washington.


And matchless Dan Morgan of Virginia, with his band of riflemen, tall,
sinewy fellows, in hunting-shirts, leggins, and moccasins, each with
hatchet, hunter's knife, and rifle, dead sure to hit a man's head every
time at two hundred and fifty yards. It was one of these men who shot
the gallant Briton, Fraser, at Bemis's Heights. Morgan became the ablest
leader of light troops then living. How gallantly he headed the forlorn
hope under the icy walls of Quebec, where he was taken prisoner, and at
Saratoga with his shrill whistle and stentorian voice called his
dauntless braves where the fight was thickest! But Cowpens was Morgan's
crowning feat. Inspiring militia and veterans alike with a courage they
had never felt before, he routs Tarleton's trained band of horse, and
then, skilful in retreat as he had been bold in fight, laughs at baffled
Cornwallis's rage.

Gladly would one form fuller acquaintance with other Revolutionary
leaders: Stirling, Sullivan, Sumter, Mad Anthony Wayne, of Monmouth and
Stony Point fame, Glover with his brave following of  Marblehead
fishermen, who, able to row as well as shoot, manned the oars that
critical night when General Washington crossed to Trenton. But space is
too brief. Colonel Washington, the dashing cavalryman, was the Custer of
the Revolution. All the patriot ladies idolized him. In a hot
sword-fight with the Colonel, Tarleton had had three fingers nearly
severed. Subsequently in conversation with a South Carolina lady
Tarleton said: "Why do you ladies so lionize Colonel Washington? He is
an ignorant fellow. He can hardly write his name." "But you are a
witness that he can make his mark," was the reply.



DeKalb Wounded at Camden.


DeKalb was an American, too--by adoption. It is related that he
expostulated with Gates for fighting so unprepared at Camden, and that
Gates intimated cowardice. "Tomorrow will tell, sir, who is the coward,"
the old fellow rejoined. And tomorrow did tell. As the battle reddened,
exit Gates from Camden and from fame. We have recounted elsewhere how
like a bull De Kalb held the field. A monster British grenadier rushed
on him, bayonet fixed. DeKalb parried, at the same time burying his
sword in the grenadier's breast so deep that he was unable to extract
it. Then seizing the dead man's weapon he fought on, thrusting right and
left, till at last, overpowered by numbers, he slipped and fell,
mortally hurt.

Among the civilian heroes of the Revolution, Robert Morris, the
financier, deserves exceeding praise. Now turning over the lead ballast
of his ships for bullets, now raising $50,000 on his private credit and
sending it to Washington in the nick of time, now leading the country
back to specie payment in season to save the national credit, the
Philadelphia banker aided the cause as much as the best general in the
field.

Faithful and successful envoys as Jay and John Adams were, the
Revolution brought to light one, and only one, true master in the
difficult art of diplomacy--Franklin. Wise with a lifetime's shrewd
observation, venerable with years, preceded by his fame as scientist and
Revolutionary statesman, grand in his plain dignity, the Philadelphia
printer stood unabashed before the throne of France, and carried king
and diplomats with an art that surprised Europe's best-trained
courtiers. Never missing an opportunity, he yet knew, by delicate
intuition, when to speak and when to hold his tongue. Through
concession, intrigue, and delay, his resolute will kept steady to its
purpose. To please by yielding is easy. To carry one's point and be
pleasing still, requires genius. This Franklin did--how successfully,
our treaty of alliance with France and our treaty of peace with England
splendidly attested.

Towering above Revolutionary soldier, general, and statesman stands a
figure summing up in himself all these characters and much more. That
figure is George Washington, the most perfect human personality the
world has known. Washington's military ability has been much underrated.
He was hardly more First in Peace than First in War. That he had
physical courage and could give orders calmly while bullets whizzed all
about, one need not repeat. He was strategist and tactician too. Trenton
and Yorktown do not cover his whole military record. With troops
inferior in every single respect except natural valor, he
out-generalled Howe in 1776, and he almost never erred when acting upon
his own good judgment instead of yielding to Congress or to his
subordinates. His movements on the Delaware even such a captain as
Frederick the Great declared "the most brilliant achievements in the
annals of military action." Washington advised against the attempt to
hold Fort Washington, which failed; against the Canada campaign, which
failed; against Gates for commander in the South, who failed; and in
favor of Greene for that post, who succeeded. His army was indeed driven
back in several battles, but never broken up. At Monmouth his plan was
perfect, and it seems that he must have captured Clinton but for the
treason of Charles Lee, set, by Congress's wish, to command the van.
Indeed, of Washington's military career, "take it all in all, its long
duration, its slender means, its vast theatre, its glorious aims and
results, there is no parallel in history." [Footnote: Winthrop,
Washington Monument Oration. February 23, 1885.]

Yet we are right in never thinking of the Great Man first as a soldier,
he was so much besides. Washington's consummate intellectual trait was
sound judgment, only matched by the magnificent balance which subsisted
between his mental and his moral powers. "George had always been a good
son," his mother said. Nature had endowed him with intense passions and
ambitions, but neither could blind him or swerve him one hair from the
line of rectitude as he saw it. And he made painful and unremitting
effort to see it and see it correctly. He was approachable, but repelled
familiarity, and whoever attempted this was met with a perfectly
withering look. He rarely laughed, and he was without humor, though he
wrote and conversed well. He had the integrity of Aristides. His account
with Congress while general shows scrupulousness to the uttermost
farthing. To subordinate, to foe, even to malicious plotters against
him, he was almost guiltily magnanimous. He loved popularity, yet, if
conscious that he was right, would face public murmuring with heart of
flint. Became the most famous man alive, idolized at home, named by
every tongue in Europe, praised by kings and great ministers, who
compared him with Caesar, Charlemagne, and Alfred the Great, his head
swam not, but with steadfast heart and mind he moved on in the simple
pursuit of his country's weal. "In Washington's career," said Fisher
Ames, "mankind perceived some change in their ideas of greatness; the
splendor of power, and even the name of conqueror had grown dim in their
eyes." Lord Erskine wrote him: "You are the only being for whom I have
an awful reverence." "Until time shall be no more," said Lord Brougham,
"will a test of the progress which our race has made in Wisdom and
Virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of
Washington." And Mr. Gladstone: "If among all the pedestals supplied by
history for public characters of extraordinary nobility and purity I saw
one higher than all the rest, and if I were required at a moment's
notice to name the fittest occupant for it, my choice would light upon
WASHINGTON." [Footnote: See Winthrop's Oration for these and other
encomia.]



CHAPTER IX.

THE OLD CONFEDERATION

[1781]

The Revolutionary Congress was less a government than an exigency
committee. It had no authority save in tacit general consent. Need of an
express and permanent league was felt at an early date. Articles of
Confederation, framed by Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, were adopted by
Congress in November, 1777. They were then submitted to the State
Legislatures for ratification. By the spring of 1779 all the States but
Maryland had given their approval. Upon the accession of the latter, on
March 1, 1781, the articles went into effect at once.

The Confederation bound the States together into a "firm league of
friendship" for common defence and welfare, and this "union" was to be
"perpetual."  Each State retained its "sovereignty" and "independence,"
as well as every power not "expressly delegated" to the central
Government. Inhabitants of each State were entitled to all the
privileges of citizens in the several States. Criminals fleeing from one
State to another were to be returned.

Congress was composed of delegates chosen annually, each State being
represented by not less than two or more than seven. Each State had but
one vote, whatever the number of its delegates.

Taxation and the regulation of commerce were reserved to the State
Governments. On the other hand, Congress alone could declare peace or
war, make treaties, coin money, establish a post-office, deal with
Indians outside of the States, direct the army, and appoint generals and
naval officers. Many other things affecting all the States alike,
Congress alone could do. It was to erect courts for trial of felonies
and piracies on the high seas, and appoint judges for the settlement of
disputes between the States. It was to make estimates for national
expenses, and request of each State its quota of revenue.

To amend the Articles, the votes of the entire thirteen States were
demanded. Important lesser measures--such as those regarding war or
peace, treaties, coinage, loans, appropriations--required the consent of
nine States. Upon other questions a majority was sufficient. A
committee, composed of one delegate from each State, was to sit during
the recess of Congress, having the general superintendence of national
affairs.

The faults of the Confederation were numerous and great. Three
outshadowed the rest: Congress could not enforce its will, could not
collect a revenue, could not regulate commerce.

Congress could not touch individuals; it must act through the State
Governments, and these it had no power to coerce. Five States, for
instance, passed laws which violated the treaty provision about payment
of British creditors; yet Congress could do nothing but remonstrate.
Hence its power to make treaties was almost a nullity. European nations
did not wish to treat with a Government that could not enforce its
promises.

Congress could make requisition upon the States for revenue, but had no
authority to collect a single penny. The States complied or not as they
chose. In October, 1781, Congress asked for $8,000,000; in January,
1783, it had received less than half a million. Lack of revenue made the
Government continually helpless and often contemptible.

Yet in spite of their looseness and other faults, the adoption of the
Articles of Confederation was a forward step in American public law.
Their greatest value was this: they helped to keep before the States the
thought of union, while at the same time, by their very inefficiency,
they proved the need of a stronger government to make union something
more than a thought. The years immediately after the war were an
extremely critical period. The colonies had indeed passed through the
Red Sea, but the wilderness still lay before them. The great danger
which had driven them into union being past, State pride and jealousy
broke out afresh. "My State," not "my country," was the foremost thought
in most minds. There was serious danger that each State would go its own
way, and firm union come, if at all, only after years of weakness and
disaster, if not of war. The unfriendly nations of Europe were eagerly
anticipating such result. At this juncture the Articles of
Confederation, framed during the war when union was felt to be
imperative, did invaluable service. They solemnly committed the States
to perpetual union. Their provisions for extradition of criminals and
for inter-State citizenship helped to break down the barriers between
State and State. Congress, by discharging its various duties on behalf
of all the States, kept steadily before the public mind the idea of a
national government, armed with at least a semblance of authority.



The Franklin Penny.
"United States" "We Are One"
"Fugio"  "1787"  "Mind Your Business"


[1783]

The war had cost about $150,000,000. In 1783 the debt was
$42,000,000--$8,000,000 owed in France and Holland, and the rest at
home. The States contributed in so niggardly a way that even the
interest could not be paid. Five millions were owing to the army. Deep
and ominous discontent spread among officers and men. An obscure
colonel, supposed to be the agent of more prominent men, wrote to
Washington, advocating a monarchy as the only salvation for the country,
and inviting him to become king. In the spring of 1783 an anonymous
address, of menacing tone, was circulated in the army, calling upon it
for measures to force its rights from an ungrateful country.

[1785]

That the army disbanded quietly at last, with only three months' pay, in
certificates depreciated nine-tenths, was due almost wholly to the
boundless influence of Washington. How powerless the Government would
have been to resist an uprising of the army, was shown by a humiliating
incident. In June, 1783, a handful of Pennsylvania troops, clamoring for
their pay, besieged the doors of Congress, and that august body had to
take refuge in precipitate flight.

The country suffered greatly for lack of uniform commercial laws. So
long as each State laid its own imposts, and goods free of duty in one
State might be practically excluded from another, Congress could
negotiate no valuable treaties of commerce abroad.

The chief immediate distress was from this wretchedness of our
commercial relations, whether foreign or between the States at home. If
our fathers would be independent, king and parliament were determined to
make them pay dearly for the privilege. Accordingly Great Britain laid
tariffs upon all our exports thither. What was much harder to bear, an
order of the king in council, July 2, 1783, utterly forbade American
ships to engage in that British West-Indian trade which had always been
a chief source of our wealth. The sole remedy for these abuses in
dealing with England at that time was retaliation, but Congress had no
authority to take retaliatory steps, while the separate States could not
or would not act sufficiently in harmony to do so. If one imposed
customs duties, another would open wide its ports, filling the markets
of the first with British goods by overland trade, so that the customs
law of the first availed nothing. If Pennsylvania and New York laid
tariffs on foreign commodities, New Jersey and Connecticut people, in
buying imported articles from Philadelphia or New York, were paying
taxes to those greater States. North Carolina was in the same manner a
forced tributary to South Carolina and Virginia, as were portions of
Connecticut and Massachusetts to Rhode Island.



Dollar of 1794.
The First United States Coin.
"Liberty"  "1794"  "United States of America"


We also needed a complete system of courts, departments for foreign and
Indian affairs, and an efficient executive. The single vote for each
State was unfair, allowing one-third of the people to defeat the will of
the rest. The article requiring the consent of nine States made it
almost impossible to get important measures through Congress. Delegates
should not have been paid by their respective States. In consequence of
this provision, coupled with other things, Congress decreased in numbers
and importance. In November, 1783, less than twenty delegates were
present, representing but seven States, and Congress had to appeal to
the recreant States to send back their representatives before the treaty
of peace could be ratified.

[1787]

But the one grand defect of the Confederation, underlying all others,
was lack of power. The Government was an engine without steam. The
States, just escaped from the tyranny of a king, would brook no new
authority strong enough to endanger their liberties. The result was a
thin ghost of a government set in charge over a lot of lusty
flesh-and-blood States.

The Confederation, however, did one piece of solid work worthy of
everlasting praise. The Northwest Territory, embracing what is now Ohio,
Indiana. Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, had been ceded to the Union
by the States which originally claimed it. July 13, 1787, Congress
adopted for the government of the territory the famous Ordinance of
1787. It provided for a governor, council, and judges, to be appointed
by Congress, and a house of representatives elected by the people. Its
shining excellence was a series of compacts between the States and the
territory, which guaranteed religious liberty, made grants of land and
other liberal provisions for schools and colleges, and forever
prohibited slavery in the territory or the States which should be made
out of it. Thus were laid broad and deep the foundation for the full and
free development of humanity in a region larger than the whole German
Empire.

The passing of the Ordinance was probably due in large measure to the
influence of the Ohio Company, a colonist society organized in Boston
the year before. It was composed of the flower of the Revolutionary
army, and had wealth, energy, and intelligence. When its agent appeared
before Congress to arrange for the purchase of five million acres of
land in the Ohio Valley, a bill for the government of the territory,
containing neither the antislavery clause nor the immortal principles of
the compacts, was on the eve of passage. The Company, composed mostly of
Massachusetts men, strongly desired their future home to be upon free
soil. Their influence prevailed with Congress, eager for revenue from
the sale of lands, and even the Southern members voted unanimously for
the remodelled ordinance. The establishment of a strong and enlightened
government in the territory led to its rapid settlement. Marietta, 0.,
was founded in April, 1788, and other colonies followed in rapid
succession.



CHAPTER X.

RISE OF THE NEW CONSTITUTION

[1787]

The anarchy succeeding the Revolution was as sad as the Revolution
itself had been glorious. The Articles of Confederation furnished
practically no government with which foreign nations could deal; England
still clung to the western posts, contrary to the treaty of peace, with
no power anywhere on this side to do more than protest; the debt of the
confederacy steadily piled up its unpaid interest; the land was flooded
with irredeemable paper money, state and national; the confederacy's
laws and constitution were ignored or trampled upon everywhere; and the
arrogance

Another table exhibits approximately the number of houses in the
principal cities of the country in 1785-86. It was customary then in
estimating population to allow seven persons to each house. This
multiplier is probably too large rather than too small.