wounded; the wives and families of officers and soldiers; the tories, their families and household goods-all these were to be embarked. In addition there was a great work of destruction performed; such heavy ordnance as could not be removed was dismounted, or otherwise rendered useless; orders were given to remove to the fleet all clothing, and cotton, and woolen goods, which might be of value to the continental army, and, acting upon these orders, shops and private dwellings were sacked, and even furniture and pictures defaced and destroyed. Howe was determined not to make capitulation, but he dropped hints to some patriotic citizens, that if the army were allowed to embark unmolested, the city would be spared, but, otherwise, it would be burned behind them. This report reached Washington, and, knowing that the sufferers by such a retaliation would be those of certain sympathy with himself, he allowed the embarkation to proceed, hastened to the point of absolute confusion by the erection of a battery on Nooks' hill, accomplished in the face of a fierce cannonading, on the 16th of March. At 4 o'clock, on the 17th of March, the troops and loyalist citizens began to move aboard the seventy-eight vessels which lay in the harbor; on the same day a continental force entered the city, and, on the day following, Washington himself made his informal entry.

Thus ended one of the most remarkable military episodes in the history of the world. There have been more brilliant and showy achievements, but none greater in the true sense of greatness. Washington was called to be commander in chief of an army yet to be created from the heterogeneous material called together by the emergencies at Concord and Lexington, and lying before Boston with no allegiance save to their respective colonies, recognizing no obligation to obey any but their own immediate officers, utterly undisciplined as were the Parisian street mobs of '93, ill clothed, ill armed and ill equipped. Coming as the representative of a new central power, as yet but half recognized, and under the guns of a veteran army, skillful in war, equipped with all of war's best appliances, he organized not one but two armies; he for months held the flower of the British army cooped, like fowls, in Boston, when, at times, he had not ten thousand efficient men to array against them, and on at least one occasion had not powder to fire a cannon, after filling the cartridge boxes of his men. Again and again a prompt movement on the part of the British could not have failed of success, yet that movement was never made, and in spite of discontent from within the ranks, tardiness and lack of support in Congress, and criticism from without, he finally took the initiative and compelled the British to slink away from before his raw levies, without firing a shot or making a demonstration in resistance.

Washington went to Philadelphia in response to the summons of Congress, to find himself subjected to troubles as annoying as any he had met in the field. He had to overcome the conservative feeling which had not

yet learned to recognize as inevitable the separation of the colonies from the mother country. He labored under every disadvantage in convincing Congress of the necessity of reforming its military policy and placing the armies of the colonies upon an effective basis. His experience in the past had proved the truth of the epigram, "More soldiers are killed by the legislation of their friends than by the bullets of their enemies." He did not mince matters in his consultations at Philadelphia; he declared reconciliation to be a dangerous chimera; he quoted the action of the British in subsidizing foreign troops-news of which course had lately been received as indicating a similar view on the part of Great Britain. He did not go to Congress with the prestige of uniform success. As commander in chief he was compelled to bear the burthen of all the military operations of the country, and the later enterprises in Canada, under Thomas, had not resulted much more fortunately than those under Montgomery. After holding Carleton a prisoner in Quebec for more than five months, burning the suburbs and battering the walls of the city, the Americans had been compelled by the arrival of reinforcements, and by a sortie of Carleton, to retire to Point Deschamboult, sixty miles from Quebec, and await reinforcements. In the face of this disaster Washington succeeded in persuading Congress to provide that soldiers be enlisted for two years, and that a bounty of ten dollars be paid to every man so enlisting; that the army at New York, pending the carrying out of this arrangement, should be reinforced until the 1st of December, by a force of thirteen thousand eight hundred militia; that fire ships be constructed to prevent the entry of the British fleet into the harbor of New York, and that a flying camp of ten thousand troops be stationed in New Jersey for the protection of the middle colonies. In addition, Washington was given authority to call upon the militia of the adjacent colonies, in case of emergency.

Hitherto, the prosecution of the war had been clumsily and inade quately provided for, by the reference of war questions to various committees. The commander now urged the organization of a war department, and, as a consequence, was established a Board of War and Ordnance, consisting of five members, whose duties began January 12th. In the meantime Virginia had formulated the public opinion of the country by declaring in favor of independence. This movement, coming from his own colony, received the warmest commendation of Washington. The "spasm of common sense" which seized the Congress and resulted in all these enactments looking to the reform of the army, did not result in bringing about the final and most effective legislation until June of the year 1776. Had it come sooner its effect would have been vastly greater. The first enthusiasm of the war had passed away in the face of the hardships and privations of the service. Men who were ready at the outset to rush to arms with no question of pay, were not now to be tempted by the offered bounty, and

1

recruits came but slowly.

Then, too, the announcement came too late to be efficient in the impending campaign. Had Congress authorized long enlistment and an offer of bounty in March, or even April, the disasters. which overtook the army at New York and on the Hudson might instead have been victories; the British troops might have been defeated and driven to their ships, or at least placed upon the defensive, and the whole complexion of the war changed.

The first legislative embodiment of the idea of independence was in the famous resolution offered in the Continental Congress by Richard Henry Lee. Its import did not materially differ from that of the final declaration, but it served to place the question in form for a debate. The people at large were ripe for it; its discussion had been constant for weeks, and the old-time obstinate loyalty to the crown was a thing of the past. During the Congress, provision had been made for the establishment of definite colonial government, with powers constitutionally stated and limited, in every colony save Connecticut and Rhode Island, which were deemed already sufficiently organized. Lee's resolution was offered on the 7th of June, and embodied the declaration that "these United States are, and of right ought to be free and independent States; that all political ties between them and the State of Great Britain is and ought to be totally dissolved." The resolution was seconded by John Adams, and came up for discussion in the committee of the whole, on the 8th and 10th of June. It was found during this discussion that the delegates for New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, while many of them personally favored the resolution, lacked the instructions of their constituents on the subject, or were affirmatively directed to oppose such a measure, and the debate was held over until the first day of July. In the meantime a committee was appointed to prepare a draft of a declaration of independence. Upon this committee was the young statesman, Thomas Jefferson, and, Lee being called to Virginia, the preparing of the draft fell to his lot. It may be well to say, at this point, that, though there have been periodical discussions in which it has been urged that Jefferson was not the author of the declaration, there is no question that, though he made use of his historical knowledge, and of the advice of his friends, to him belongs the credit of the framing of that splendid document. The draft was submitted on the 28th of June, but was laid upon the table to await the re-opening of the debate. On the 1st day of July the discussion was re-opened, and the resolution came to a vote on the evening of the same day. It received the affirmative votes of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, against Pennsylvania and South Carolina. Delaware was divided, and the delegates of New York, though some expressed individual approval of the resolution, requested to be excused from voting, on the ground of lack of instruction. Mr. Rut

ledge, of South Carolina, believed that the vote of his colleagues would be changed, and, at his request, the report was postponed until Saturday, the 2d, when South Carolina wheeled into the affirmative line, as did Delaware and Pennsylvania; and thus the resolution was carried unanimously by all voting delegations. On that Saturday evening John Adams wrote: "The 2d of July will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to Almighty God. It ought to be solemnized by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forth forevermore." Adams well foresaw the regard in which the grand act of the Congress would ever be held; he was only wrong as to the day of celebration. On Monday, Congress discussed the proposed declaration with closed doors, throngs without anxiously awaiting the report of the result. Finally the bell in the tower of the hall rang out a glad peal, and all within sound of its tidings knew that America had at last declared her freedom from foreign rule. News traveled but slowly in those days, but, with all haste, the report of the action of Congress was circulated throughout the colonies. In New England it was generally approved. In New York, and to the southward, a majority hailed the news with gladness, while a considerable minority held such a declaration to be unwise, and many considered its adoption a moral wrong. The tories, everywhere, held up their hands in horror. The ruin of America they deemed irrevocably assured. Weak-kneed colonists who had before professed devotion to the patriot cause, found in the declaration an excuse for cutting loose from their allegiance, and thus, while there. was no loss of any valuable class or element, the patriots were the better for the drainage of impurities which would doubtless have tended to the injury of their cause. The news of the declaration came to Washington on the 9th of July and, at 6 o'clock of the same evening, he caused it to be read at the head of every brigade of his army, accompanied by an expression from him, of which the following is a portion: "The General hopes that this important event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of his country depend, under God, solely on the success of our arms, and that he is now in the service of a state possessed of sufficient power to reward his merit, and advance him to the highest honors of a free country." New York city, always subject to great excitement, went fairly wild over the news, and, in an excess of enthusiasm, which it is now easy to pardon, overturned a leaden statue of George III., which stood in the city, broke it into small fragments, and, with strict poetic justice, the remains of the royal effigy were melted into bullets.

CHAPTER XII.

THE OCCUPATION OF NEW YORK.

HE evacuation of Boston was a bitter lesson to the British.

TH

The

duke of Manchester, in the House of Lords, embodied in a few caustic words, his estimate of the achievement. He said: "The army of Britain, equipped with every possible essential of war; a chosen army with chosen officers, backed by the power of a mighty fleet, sent to correct revolted subjects; sent to chastise a resisting city; sent to assert Britain's authority; has for many tedious months been imprisoned within that town by the provincial army, who, with their watchful guard, permitted them no inlet to the country; who braved all their efforts and defied all that skill and ability in war could ever attempt. One way, indeed, of escape was left; the fleet is still respected; to the fleet the army has recourse; and British generals, whose names never met with a blot of dishonor, are forced to quit that town, which was the first object of the war, the immediate cause of hostilities, the place of arms, which it has cost this nation more than a million to defend."

John Adams moved, and Congress adopted, a vote of thanks to Washington, and a commemorative gold medal was struck off, bearing upon its face the head and name of the commander, as the deliverer of Boston.

When General Howe sailed from Boston harbor he directed his course for Halifax, there to await the coming of his brother, Admiral Lord William Howe, who had been assigned to the naval command in America, and whose coming, with reinforcements for both fleet and army, was daily expected. He did not proclaim his intentions, and Washington was far from certain as to what the next manifestations of his military sagacity might be. One of two movements, however, seemed much more probable than any others; either he would direct his attention to the relief of Montreal, Quebec, and the St. Lawrence frontier, or he would move against New York city. The weight of probability seemed in favor of the latter plan, and