(Breat Commanbere 
 
 EDITED BY JAMES GRANT WILSON 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON 
 
Zbc Great Commanbers Series. 
 
 Edited by General James Grant Wilson. 
 
 Admiral Farragut. 
 
 By Captain A. T. Mahan, U. S. N. 
 
 General Taylor. 
 
 By General O. O. Howard, U. S. A. 
 
 General Jackson. By James Parton. 
 
 General Greene. 
 
 By Captain Francis V. Greene, U. S. A. 
 
 General J. E. Johnston. 
 
 By Robert M. Hughes, of Virginia. 
 
 General Thomas. 
 
 By Henry Coppee, LL. D. 
 
 General Scott. 
 
 By General Marcus J. Wright. 
 
 General Washington. 
 
 By General Bradley T. Johnson. 
 
 m PREPARATION. 
 
 General Hancock. 
 
 By General Francis A. Walker. 
 
 General Sherman. 
 
 By General Manning F. Force. 
 
 General Grant. 
 
 By General James Grant Wilson. 
 
 Admiral Porter. 
 
 By James R. Soley, late Assist. Sec. of Na\7. 
 
 General Lee. By General Fitzhugh Lee. 
 
 General Sheridan. 
 
 By General Henry E. Davies. 
 
 New York : D. Appleton & Co., x, 3, & 5 Bond Street. 
 
GREAT COMMANDERS 
 * * * * 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON 
 
 BY 
 
 General BRADLEY T JOHNSON 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1894 
 

 Copyright, 1894, 
 By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 
 
 All rights resei~ved. 
 
■^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 I DEDICATE THIS BIOGRAPHY TO MY GRANDSON, 
 
 BRADLEY TYLER JOHNSON, Jr., 
 
 AS A REPRESENTATIVE OF THOSE ENDLESS GENERATIONS 
 
 WHO WILL LOVE GOD AND DUTY, 
 
 HONOR AND LIBERTY, COUNTRY AND RIGHT, 
 
 AND BE PROMPT TO STAKE LIFE AND FORTUNE FOR THEM, 
 
 PERPETUATING, AND TRANSMITTING, TO THE REMOTEST TIME, 
 
 THAT AMERICANISM, OF WHICH WASHINGTON 
 
 WAS THE GREATEST EXEMPLAR AND ILLUSTRATION. 
 
 B. T. J. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 When I was invited to prepare this biography 
 for the Great Commanders Series the duty was ac- 
 cepted with unaffected diffidence. There are about 
 five hundred biographies of George Washington, 
 original and translations, published in almost every 
 language of modern times, as well as Greek and Latin 
 versions of them. It was therefore reasonably clear 
 that no new facts could be educed to throw light 
 on his career or his character. This biography is 
 believed to be the first attempt to consider the mili- 
 tary character of Washington and to write his life as 
 a soldier. There have been three distinct eras in 
 Washington-olatry. 
 
 The generation which fought the Revolution, 
 framed and adopted the Constitution, and established 
 the United States were impressed with the most pro- 
 found veneration, the most devoted affection, the 
 most absolute idolatry for the hero, sage, statesman. 
 In the reaction that came in the next generation 
 against " the old soldiers," who for thirty years had 
 assumed all the honors and enjoyed all the fruits of 
 the victory that they had won, accelerated by the 
 division in American sentiment for or against the 
 French Revolution, it came to be felt, as the younger 
 
viii GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 generation always will feel, that the achievements of 
 the veterans had been greatly overrated and their 
 demigod enormously exaggerated. They thought, 
 as English Harry did at Agincourt, that " Old men 
 forget : yet all shall be forgot, but they'll remember 
 with advantages what feats they did that day." 
 
 The fierce attacks of the Jeffersonian Democracy 
 on Washington, his principles, his life, and his hab- 
 its, exercised a potent influence in diminishing the 
 general respect for his abilities felt by the preceding 
 generation ; and Washington came to be regarded as 
 a worthy, honest, well-meaning gentleman, but with 
 no capacity for military and only mediocre ability 
 in civil affairs. This estimate continued from the 
 beginning of Jefferson's administration to the first 
 of Grant's. Neither Marshall nor Irving did much 
 during that period to place him in a proper historical 
 light. The official and judicial statement of the 
 
 ^ case by Chief-Justice Marshall never reached the 
 popular ear, and the laudatory style of Washington 
 Irving did not impress the popular conviction. 
 
 But in the last twenty-five years there has been a 
 steady drift toward giving Washington his proper 
 place in history and his appropriate appreciation as 
 soldier and statesman. The general who never won 
 
 '' a battle is now understood to have been the Revolu- 
 tion itself, and one of the great generals of history. 
 
 / The statesman who never made a motion, nor devised 
 a measure, nor constructed a proposition in the con- 
 vention of which he was president, is appreciated as 
 the spirit, the energy, the force, the wisdom which 
 initiated, organized, and directed the formation of 
 the Constitution of the United States and the Union 
 by, through, and under it; and therefore it seems 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 now possible to present him as the Virginian soldier, 
 gentleman, and planter, as a man, the evolution of 
 the society of which he formed a part, representative 
 of his epoch, and his surroundings, developed by 
 circumstances into the greatest character of all 
 time — the first and most illustrious of Americans. 
 
 The appreciation of Washington among other 
 nations has steadily increased. General Wilson, the 
 editor of this Series, in an address before the New 
 York Society of the Order of the Cincinnati, at their 
 annual dinner at Delmonico's, February 22, 1894, 
 said: "When first a visitor to the princely estate of 
 Strathfieldsaye, England, presented by the British 
 Government to Wellington for a day's work at Water- 
 loo, I was surprised, and also greatly gratified, to see 
 a portrait of Washington, by Stuart, occupying the 
 place of honor in the Duke's drawing-room. In an- 
 swer to my look of inquiry, his eldest son, the second 
 Duke, remarked, * It was placed there by my father, / 
 who esteemed Washington as perhaps the purest 
 and the noblest character of modern times — possibly 
 of all time — and, considering the material of the 
 armies with which he successfully met the trained 
 and veteran soldiers of the Old World, fairly entitled 
 to a place among the Great Captains of the eight- 
 eenth century.' This opinion of Washington, enter- 
 tained by the conqueror of Napoleon, has never, so 
 far as I am aware, been made public before. I may 
 be permitted to add, on the same authority, that when 
 asked to take command of the troops ordered to 
 New Orleans in 1814, the Great Duke declined to 
 fight against Washington's countrymen. His broth- 
 er-in-law. Sir Edward Pakenham, was therefore sent 
 with Wellington's well-seasoned peninsular veterans, 
 
X GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 who had successfully driven the French armies from 
 Spain, and fell, as all the world knows, in the most 
 disastrous defeat ever sustained by a British army." 
 I am indebted for constant courtesy, advice, and 
 suggestion to General Wilson, Mr. Ainsworth R. 
 Spofford, Librarian of the National Library, Colonel 
 John Scott, and General William H. Payne, of War- 
 renton, Va., whose relation to historic Virginian fam- 
 ilies, and whose wide and generous culture and 
 friendship have given me much pleasure and great 
 assistance, and to the work of Henry Cabot Lodge, 
 Senator in Congress from Massachusetts, whose 
 George Washington is the most vigorous, most 
 graphic, and most just account and description yet 
 published of his and my subject. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. — The Washingtons of Virginia . . . . i 
 
 II. — Fort Necessity 27 
 
 III. — Braddock • • 35 
 
 IV. — The Planter's Life and Marriage . . .67 
 V. — The beginning of the Revolution . . .79 
 VI. — The Continental Congress — New England in 
 
 THE War 100 
 
 VII.— War, and the Declaration of Independence . 118 
 
 VIII. — The New York Campaign 134 
 
 IX. — The New Jersey Campaign — The Dictator- 
 ship 146 
 
 X. — The Times that tried Men's Souls . . . 176 
 
 XI.— The French Alliance 193 
 
 XII. — The French Alliance again . . . .206 
 
 XIII.— Arnold and Andre— The French again . . 218 
 
 XIV.— The Campaign in the South . . . .239 
 
 XV. — YoRKTOWN — Carrying the News to Congress . 256 
 
 XVI.— Peace, and Surrender of his Commission . . 267 
 
 XVII.— The Union and the Constitution . . .282 
 
 Appendix 325 
 
 Index 33i 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Colonel Washington, in the uniform of an officer of the 
 Colonial Forces of Virginia . . . Fro7ttispiece 
 (From a Portrait by Charles Wilson Peale, 1772, in the possession 
 X of General G. W. C. Lee, of Lexington, Va.) 
 
 Boston, with its Environs 109 
 
 Battle of Trenton 151 
 
 Battle of Brandywine 164 
 
 Battle of Germantown 168 
 
 Battle of Monmouth . . 200 
 
 Route of the Allies, August-September, 1781, from the 
 
 Hudson to Yorktown 250 
 
 The Country from Raritan River, in East Jersey, to Elk 
 
 Head, in Maryland 253 
 
 Plan of the Investment and Attack of York .... 256 
 
GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Great industry, enthusiasm, and sentiment have 
 been expended in tracing the genealogy of George 
 Washington, Colonel of Virginia Militia, Commander 
 in Chief of the Continental Army, first President of 
 the United States, and greatest of all Americans. 
 
 Ancestor worship seems to concentrate in inten- 
 sity as it ceases to be general ; and as soon as an 
 individual emerges above the mass, and distinguishes 
 himself by achievement in action, admirers seek to 
 connect him with a distant and illustrious past, 
 through ancestors who have equaled or surpassed 
 their descendant in fame. 
 
 So, as soon as the independence of the United 
 States was achieved, industrious genealogists and ar- 
 dent admirers, both in America and in England, set 
 to work to explore all the hereditary sources from 
 which the great character displayed by the leader of 
 the Revolution had been derived. The pedigree of 
 the Virginian Washingtons has been traced back to 
 Odin, or to De Hertburn, who came into England on 
 the Norman raid, and held on to a few manors, 
 prize of his sword and his spear. 
 
2 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 These mythical genealogies are based more on 
 enthusiasm than on proof, and on faith rather than 
 on facts. It is a very difficult matter to connect an 
 emigrant who left a certain place in England, about 
 a certain year, with an immigrant of the same name 
 who appeared in America some months or years 
 afterward, unless there exist contemporaneous proofs 
 of their identity. 
 
 Identity of name is no proof, while it tends to 
 show a probable connection. We shall therefore 
 content ourselves with the facts about the Virgin- 
 ian Washingtons, and discard the myths and fables. 
 Within the last year evidence has been discovered 
 which establishes beyond doubt who John Washing- 
 ton, the emigrant to Virginia, was, from what part 
 of England he came, and at what time he landed in 
 Virginia. Records of Westmoreland County, lost 
 ever since the Revolution of i775-'83, have lately 
 been discovered, deciphered, and disclosed, which 
 identify John Washington beyond a doubt. He was 
 major of the militia of Westmoreland on April 4, 
 1655, during the Commonwealth Government. His 
 deposition, dated 1674, states that he was then forty- 
 five years of age. He was therefore born in 1629, 
 and in 1655, when he was commissioned major, he 
 was twenty-six years old ; which proves that he was 
 a gentleman of consideration and proper political 
 sympathies in the Dominion of Virginia, 
 
 He returned to England, and in 1656 was engaged 
 by Mr. Edward Prescott to come over from England 
 to Dunkirk (or Dantzic) and join Prescott in a trad- 
 ing venture in the North Sea, and to America, Pres- 
 cott supplying ship and venture, and Washington to 
 act as supercargo and first mate, and to share the 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 3 
 
 profits equally. He accepted Prescott's proposition, 
 went to Dunkirk or Uantzic, Lubeck, Copenhagen, 
 and Elsinore, selling tobacco, which appears to have 
 been the cargo, and with the proceeds purchased 
 goods for the outgoing voyage. They arrived in 
 the Potomac early in 1657, and, having fallen out 
 during the voyage, Washington tried to secure a 
 settlement from Prescott of his share of the partner- 
 ship in the trading operation. 
 
 Prescott did not deny Washington's claim, but 
 one Sunday he set sail, and took himself out of the 
 reach of the law or the reclamations of his first 
 mate ; whereupon the creditor began a suit by way 
 of attachment in the court of Westmoreland County, 
 and proceeded to take depositions to establish the 
 facts, which depositions were duly recorded among 
 the archives, and furnish us now the only authentic in- 
 formation we have of the first Virginian Washington. 
 He was a cavalier in political affinities, or he would 
 not have been commissioned major in 1655 ; or he 
 may not have had any pronounced sympathy with 
 either side, and the Government of Virginia may 
 have selected him for that reason. He returned to 
 England that same year or the next, and came out 
 with Prescott in 1657 and straightway married. 
 
 In the following year he complained to the Gov- 
 ernor and Council of Maryland that Edward Pres- 
 cott, his quondam, fraudulent, and fugitive partner, 
 had, during the voyage in the preceding year, been 
 accessory to the murder of a poor old woman by 
 permitting her to be tried for witchcraft. The trial 
 consisted in throwing her overboard. If she floated, 
 she would have been proved to be a witch ; if she 
 sank, her innocence would be demonstrated. She 
 
4 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 naturally was drowned, and Major Washington pro- 
 tested that that was an outrage not to be endured. 
 What his opinion of Prescott would have been if he 
 had settled fairly he does not say, but we may imagine 
 he would have had a much more tolerant feeling 
 about the witch trial. There has always been a 
 great deal of human nature in the Washington 
 blood ! The Maryland authorities, having taken the 
 matter into consideration, ordered Mr. Prescott to 
 attend them, and notified Major Washington to bring 
 his witnesses with him to prove his charge. 
 
 The Virginian gentleman, whose traits neither 
 time nor circumstance have changed, found pleasure 
 a duty, and informed the Maryland Governor and 
 Council that he was just about to celebrate the bap- 
 tism of his eldest child, that the day was named, " the 
 gossips bid," and that he could not break such an 
 engagement for a mere witch prosecution over on 
 the other side of the Potomac. He said he would 
 come at a more convenient and comfortable season. 
 The Marylanders dismissed Mr. Prescott, and both- 
 ered themselves no further about the matter. 
 
 It is reasonable to infer that at the time when 
 the constituted authorities at home under Sir Matthew 
 Hale, and their co-religionists in New England, were 
 denouncing the crime of witchcraft and punishing 
 witches, the new government of Maryland, recently 
 established under the authority of the Common- 
 wealth, should have hesitated and refused to an- 
 tagonize in action and sentiment the powers that 
 controlled "the State of England." 
 
 John Washington was chosen vestryman of Appo- 
 mattox Parish, July 3, 1661, and was commissioned 
 justice for Westmoreland, June 24, 1662. He was a 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 5 
 
 member of the House of Burgesses for Westmore- 
 land from 1666 to 1677. He was colonel command- 
 ing the militia, the armed posse comitatus of West- 
 moreland County, and the responsibilities and labor 
 of the position were incessant and severe. 
 
 The militia were the conservators of the peace 
 and the wardens of the border. The settlements on 
 the south side of the Potomac only extended a short 
 distance beyond the bay, as they did also on the north 
 side, for the Virginian and Marylander marched side 
 by side, up the great river to the conquest of the path- 
 less forest that extended from the falls of the Rap- 
 pahannock and of the Potomac to the Pacific Ocean. 
 The open highway of the river gave them easy means 
 of constant intercourse for pleasure or for business. 
 
 When, therefore, news came, in the summer of 
 1675, that the "naked Indians were in the woods " 
 and had killed a man in Stafford, the country rose. 
 There was riding in hot haste from house to house 
 on both sides of the river. Colonel Washington and 
 Major Allerton drove the Indians from cover to 
 cover, and forced them over the water. The Mary- 
 landers under Major Truman closed in on them, and 
 the combined forces surrounded them in a fort at 
 Piscataway, on the border of Charles County, in 
 Maryland, not far from the present line of the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia. The Indians defended themselves / 
 with vigor, until at last a parley was held, under 
 which five of the principal chiefs of the Susquehan- 
 nas came out to discuss terms of peace, or surren- 
 der, when they were promptly put to death. 
 
 The Indians escaped from their fort, recrossed 
 into Virginia, and revenged themselves a hundred- 
 fold for the loss of their leaders, for they sacked 
 
6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 every homestead on the frontier from the Potomac 
 to the James. They were the moving cause of 
 Bacon's rebellion, when Bacon roused the house- 
 holders of Virginia first to defend themselves against 
 the Indians, and next to march on Jamestown and 
 extort necessary reforms from Sir William Berkeley, 
 the high-tempered, generous, stupid cavalier Gov- 
 ernor of the dominion. 
 
 There is some doubt about who was responsible 
 for these killings. It is difficult now to get the point 
 of view from which the frontiersmen and the original 
 settlers regarded the Indian. He was an infidel, a 
 savage, a wild beast. He had no soul. It was not 
 only lawful but it was meritorious to kill him on sight, 
 just as they would a panther or a rattlesnake. If 
 you did not kill him, he would kill you, and therefore 
 the thing to do was to strike first, and strike hardest. 
 No faith was conceivable with animals, and therefore 
 no truce was to be observed. The Marylanders had 
 always been more punctilious about killing Indians 
 — a policy impressed on them by the Jesuit in- 
 fluence under which their colony had been planted. 
 But it had been policy alone, not humanity, that 
 directed their action. Peace was more favorable to 
 the growth and security of the young colony, and 
 the policy of peace would render land more easily 
 acquired and draw more adventurers to St. Mary's. 
 They started with the purchase of an Indian town 
 from the emperor of the tribe, and they acquired by 
 willing conveyance from the natives such territory 
 as they required for settlement, for cultivation, for 
 hunting, and for protection. 
 
 No Indian massacre ever wiped out the infant 
 settlements on tide water, on the Potomac, in blood 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 7 
 
 and ashes, as had happened on the James ; and no 
 devastating war had ever ravaged the border, and 
 driven women and children back to the older settle- 
 ments. Therefore the murder of the five chiefs at 
 Piscataway roused the indignation of the Mary- 
 landers ; and their General Assembly, acting as the 
 Grand Inquest for the colony, examined into the 
 circumstances and denounced the whole affair as 
 brutal and barbarous. The depositions of witnesses 
 are spread out in full on the records ; they state ex- 
 plicitly that Colonel Washington refused to permit 
 further talk, and ordered the five " to be knocked on 
 the head," which was done at once. The lower 
 House proposed to punish Major Truman, but the 
 Governor and Council refused to assent to such 
 action, and the matter was dropped. 
 
 In Virginia it was not considered in such a seri- 
 ous light. Sir William Berkeley ordered an investi- 
 gation, and the depositions of the witnesses taken 
 at the time under his orders are to be seen among 
 the records of Westmoreland. They state distinctly 
 that Colonel John Washington did not order the 
 Indians to be killed, but that Major Truman took 
 possession and control of them, and killed them. 
 But this glimpse of the Washington nature in the 
 great grandfather of George is much more vivid 
 than the dim visions of De Hertburns and Wessing- 
 ton, conjured up by sentimental imaginations of 
 admirers and worshipers. 
 
 The Virginian Washingtons were strong, hardy, 
 manly people — hard riders, hard fighters, men of 
 action, meeting and dealing with the responsibilities 
 of life in a straightforward, positive, clear-headed 
 way, without the least sentiment of any kind about 
 
8 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the hardships of life. Life was a fact. It required 
 nerve, courage, fortitude, fidelity, to meet its trials 
 on the frontier, and the English in Virginia trans- 
 planted the highest hereditary traits to the new con- 
 ditions, and, in the environment of forest and savage, 
 subdued Nature and man. They lived over again 
 many of the circumstances which had developed 
 nerve and muscle, for a thousand years, in struggle 
 with the North Sea, and with Celt and Saxon, Goth 
 and Northman. 
 
 It has been the fashion of these latter generations 
 to designate the race which settled the Atlantic 
 seaboard of America under English charters as the 
 Anglo-Saxon. This is a curious error, for nothing is 
 more certain than that the English adventurers, from 
 Raleigh down, were in the main of Norman blood. 
 Compare the portraits in Lodge's Gallery of British 
 Worthies — which display the leaders of thought and 
 action at the time of the settlement, and they show 
 a race of long-headed, lean-faced, strong cheek- 
 boned men — with the portraits in Brown's Genesis of 
 America, of the Americans of the Revolution, and the 
 remarkable likeness at once appears. The same 
 gravity, the same contour of face and head, appear 
 in the era of Coke and Raleigh as in that of George 
 Mason, of Gunston, and George Washington, of 
 Mount Vernon ; and a visitor to any of the courts of 
 the old counties of Virginia will see to-day on court 
 day the same grave deportment, the same reserved 
 carriage, the same courteous intercourse, as was ex- 
 hibited by their ancestors of six generations ago ; 
 and the characteristics, physical and moral, of person 
 and manners were and are Norman, and not Saxon. 
 
 The British race that has been created by the 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 9 
 
 Union there, by trade, by industrialism, has become 
 more and more Saxon in its characteristics ; but the 
 people who settled Virginia, and have held it ever 
 since, are the best specimens who now exist of the 
 breed who roved the Spanish main under Hawkins 
 and Blake, who with Raleigh sought El Dorado, and 
 under Captain John Smith explored the Chesapeake, 
 or who fought the Grand Armada under Lord How- 
 ard, of Effingham, and won for mankind the freedom 
 of the seas. 
 
 The Washingtons, like their neighbors, addressed 
 themselves to the duties of life with severe sim- 
 plicity. The immigrant soon after his arrival mar- 
 ried Anne Pope, daughter of Colonel Nathanael 
 Pope; was a thrifty, energetic, public-spirited man; 
 was colonel of the militia, vestryman of his parish, 
 member of the House of Burgesses. Land then 
 could be had for the asking, and it only required the 
 courage and energy to examine it to select and 
 locate the best. Before his death, in 1677, John 
 Washington acquired large possessions and numer- 
 ous servants, with horses and horned cattle and 
 swine, and all the wealth of a new country. By Anne 
 Pope he had Lawrence, John, and Anne Washington. 
 His son Lawrence married Mildred Warner, by whom 
 he had John, Augustine, and Mildred W^ashington. 
 Augustine (pronounced Austin) Washington first 
 married Jane Butler, who died in 1728, leaving two 
 sons, Lawrence and Augustine. Augustine then mar- 
 ried Mary Ball, of a well-known and established 
 Westmoreland family. 
 
 The Balls were people of position and comfort- 
 able fortune, and Mary Ball's education was such as 
 was appropriate to her station in life and to the 
 
10 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 times in which she lived. Her father, whose estate 
 was Epping Forest, engaged a tutor for his young 
 family of boys and girls, who under his instruction 
 acquired the arts of reading, writing, and ciphering. 
 In the daily intercourse with their own family, and 
 with their neighbors, they learned to love God and 
 honor the king, to speak the truth, and be respectful 
 to their betters and seniors, rendering to their parents 
 affection and respect absolutely without limit. 
 
 In due time Mary Ball was introduced to the 
 vice-regal court at Williamsburgh, where she ob- 
 served and was instructed in and imitated the " mode " 
 of the great world, and learned how to enter a room 
 and how to leave it, how to make her courtesy, and 
 how to manage her train and her fan. She made an 
 impression on society as a beauty, as contemporary 
 letters show, and after her " fling " of a season she 
 returned, happy and contented, to her country home 
 to take up her life as the wife of some honest Vir- 
 ginian colonel, to become the mother of his children 
 and the manager of his servants, his estates, and of 
 himself, as has always been the custom there, and 
 to live serene, happy, and contented in that state 
 of life into which it should please God to call her. 
 Fulfilling her destiny, she married the widower 
 Augustine Washington with his two sons, and bore 
 him four sons and two daughters. 
 
 The eldest, George, was born at Bridge's Creek, in 
 Westmoreland, on February ii, O. S., 1732 ; February 
 22, N. S. Three years after this event the house 
 was burned, and Augustine Washington moved his 
 family to another house and plantation in Stafford, 
 on the north side of the Rappahannock, opposite the 
 village of Fredericksburg. Here he died, in 1743, 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. n 
 
 leaving a large landed estate, stocked with servants 
 and cattle, and this large family to the care of the 
 young widow. 
 
 Much effusion has been expended over the won- 
 derful traits of " Mary, the mother of Washington " ; 
 and her sagacity, her influence in forming character, 
 her example in the way of method, order, and fru- 
 gality, have been greatly exploited as having exerted 
 a prodigious influence on the career of her illustri- 
 ous son. But it is fair to say that Mary Washington 
 was only a fair example of hundreds of Virginian 
 widows, who, before and since her time, deprived of 
 the support of a husband, have deliberately, seri- 
 ously, and voluntarily dedicated their lives to the 
 training of their children, and the preservation of 
 their estates, committed to them by the devotion, the 
 respect, and the intelligence of the father and hus- 
 band who had gone. Such instances of self-sacrifice 
 are usual in that society, and the example forms 
 strong characters, brave and good men and women. 
 Mary Washington was left in charge of several plan- 
 tations, many servants, the two stepsons, Lawrence 
 and Augustine, and her own children, George, 
 Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Betty ; another 
 daughter, Mildred, having died in infancy. 
 
 Augustine Washington, after his marriage, had 
 paid a visit to England with his wife, which has led 
 to a tradition that his eldest son George was born 
 near London. But it is certain that he was born in 
 Westmoreland County, Virginia. By the will of 
 Augustine his large landed estate was equitably di- 
 vided between his children of the first and second 
 marriage alike. To Lawrence he left the estate on 
 Hunting Creek, in Fairfax County — afterward named, 
 
12 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 by Lawrence, Mount Vernon, in honor of his old com- 
 mander, Admiral Vernon — and to George the place 
 on the Rappahannock. Mrs. Washington was made 
 guardian of her own children, with control and man- 
 agement of their property until they became of age. 
 She purchased a small one-story, three-roomed house 
 in Fredericksburg, and moved from the plantation 
 into the town. But she managed all her affairs her- 
 self ; she did precisely what every lady in her station 
 did then in that society, and does now. 
 
 Mrs. Washington had a large family of children, 
 for her servants were her children, next to her real 
 children. She watched them, guided them, controlled 
 them, trained them in manners and in morals, in 
 ideas and in faith, day and night, morning and 
 evening. In due season the geese were to be 
 plucked to provide for pillows and beds, the hens 
 and turkeys to be set, the sheep to be sheared, the 
 wool to be washed, carded, spun, and woven, the 
 hides to be saved and tanned, the winter shoes to be 
 made and socks to be knit, and clothes to be issued ; 
 and with this, the daily care of the plantation and the 
 house, the weighing out of the *' allowance " to each 
 family, the examination as to the cleanliness of the per- 
 sons and the houses of the " family." This was part 
 of the domestic police, and every part and detail 
 was executed under the direct eye of the mistress. 
 In the garden and on the plantation the same method 
 of personal superintendence was applied. The head 
 gardener and the overseer every morning came to 
 " the house " for " orders," and the mistress gave mi- 
 nute directions as to everythmg that was to be done 
 by them during the day. And after the details of 
 domestic housekeeping were through in the morning, 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 13 
 
 she would make a tour of inspection over the garden, 
 and then mount a one-horse stick gig and cross the 
 Rappahannock by the ferry, and see everything on 
 the plantation. Such a life requires energy, intelli- 
 gence, perseverance ; it begets methods of order, 
 frugality, and exactness ; and with the constant ex- 
 ample before his eyes, at home and everywhere he 
 went, among his relations and friends, the boy Wash- 
 ington must have acquired habits which accompanied 
 and controlled him all his life. 
 
 There were no schools, but Mrs. Washington 
 understood perfectly the value of education to a 
 young gentleman. Many young men of the neigh- 
 borhood, her own brother Joseph Ball among them, 
 had been sent " home " for education. Oxford was 
 full of Virginians ; Fitzhugh, Robinson, Randolph, 
 Burwell, Wormly, and many others were represented 
 there, and at the University of Edinburgh. It was 
 impossible, with the limited means of the Washing- 
 tons, to send them home for education. Lawrence 
 Washington had been sent home by his father for 
 that purpose, and that was as much as was reason- 
 able ; the rest of the boys had to take their chances. 
 So George was put in charge of William Hobby, an old 
 fellow of the neighborhood, sexton and school-teacher. 
 
 It does not at all follow that because Hobby was 
 a sexton that he might not also have been an M. A. 
 of Oxford, or a gentleman by birth. After the rising 
 of 1745 in England the adherents of the Stuarts 
 were exported by the hundred to Virginia and sold 
 at public vendue. A groom of the chambers, or a 
 maid of honor, would get at court a grant of fifty or 
 a hundred prisoners, captured by the Duke of Cum- 
 berland, and crammed into the jails of the northern 
 
14 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 counties, where typhus and smallpox destroyed them 
 by the score; and gifts of prisoners were negotiable 
 property, a kind of sight draft directed to any jailer 
 or sheriff in the kingdom, and were sold at a market 
 price. So old Hobby may have been a gentleman 
 although he was a sexton, and may have been a uni- 
 versity man though he did keep an old field school. 
 Hobby taught the three Rs, and George learned to 
 write a good, legible hand, which must have been 
 learned at that time, and which was not taught by 
 an illiterate man. 
 
 When George was seven or eight years old, Law- 
 rence returned from England a well-set-up, educated 
 gentleman, and one of the finest traits of his char- 
 acter was the affection and interest he at once took 
 in the little stepbrother. He felt what a difference 
 there would be between his life and that of the un- 
 kempt country lad who followed him around with 
 admiring eyes and affectionate docility. Big brother 
 Lawrence was the hero of George's youth. Law- 
 rence, with many young Virginians of quality, volun- 
 teered for the expedition under Admiral Vernon 
 against the hated Papist and Spaniard in the West 
 Indies, and was present and helped at the capture of 
 Carthagena. In due time Lawrence returned with 
 the approbation of his commanding officer and the 
 applause of his comrades, and the boy followed him 
 around, fearful to lose one word of the wonderful 
 story of hairbreadth escapes by flood and field. As 
 the boy grew older he needed better instruction and 
 training than Hobby could give him, and he was sent 
 to his half-brother Augustine's, on Bridge Creek, in 
 Westmoreland, to get the advantage of a neighbor- 
 hood school kept by Thomas Williams. 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 15 
 
 When George was thirteen years of age, he did 
 the things and developed the traits usual in a Vir- 
 ginia country boy of his age and period. A lad in 
 that society rides a horse from the time he is five 
 years old, and has a horse of his own, which he uses 
 at his pleasure. He catches him at pasture, saddles 
 and bridles him, and rides him everywhere — to the 
 neighbors, on an errand for his mother, to borrow 
 some sugar, for his father, to take back a bridle, to 
 church on Sunday, to school on week days. By the 
 time a boy is thirteen his horse becomes part of him- 
 self as much as his clothes, and he would as readily 
 appear in public without one as without the other. 
 In the country, boys find amusement and pleasure in 
 the expenditure of the energy of youth and health. 
 They run races, they wrestle, and they fight. In the 
 society in which Washington was born, like the Eng- 
 lish society in the preceding century, of which it was 
 a type, it was considered natural, proper, and healthy 
 for boys to fight. 
 
 Quarrels were discountenanced, but mothers 
 taught their sons that, if ever a falling out occurred 
 between comrades, the best thing to do was to strip 
 off their jackets and settle it — fight it out, and settle 
 it, not quarrel over it. At a school where every boy's 
 father had been shot at by or had shot an Indian, the 
 athletic sports most affected would naturally be of a 
 military cast. George, like every other healthy boy, 
 had been playing soldier and drilling the little negroes 
 on the plantation, and about the house, ever since 
 he had donned boy's clothes ; and at the W^illiams 
 school a boy who had a brother who wore a scarlet 
 coat and bore the King's commission, and who had 
 heard from that brother glowing accounts of real 
 
l6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 war under Admiral Vernon and General Wentworth 
 against the Spaniards, was of necessity a leader, es- 
 pecially when that boy was well grown, muscular 
 and strong, and quite prompt to enforce respect by 
 a remarkably stalwart and ready right arm. 
 
 Lawrence Washington had married Anne Fairfax, 
 the daughter of William Fairfax, of Belvoir, the cousin 
 of Lord Fairfax, and was living on his estate of 
 Mount Vernon in comfort, without ostentation, and 
 plenty, without extravagance. He felt the inequality 
 in social conditions between himself and his young 
 stepbrother, and appreciated the immense advan- 
 tage that social culture and elegant society gives a 
 man in the world, and he made a point of having 
 him at Mount Vernon as much as possible. There 
 he was introduced at Belvoir, and a well-grown, 
 handsome lad of fourteen is much more of a man 
 in primitive societies than in older ones, where con- 
 ventionalities thrust the young into the background. 
 So young Washmgton was a favorite among the 
 Virginian English society of the Northern Neck. 
 
 It has been represented that that society lived in 
 semisavage profusion and pomp, surrounded by troops 
 of slaves ; that the planter lived in a house where 
 the glass in the windows was often broken, though 
 the sideboard groaned beneath the remnant of the 
 plate, the rest of which had been melted down for the 
 King, at home ; that there were holes in the damask 
 curtains, though the walls were decorated with Lely's 
 masterpieces, portraits of ancestresses brought from 
 home ; that the women were ignorant, and the men 
 were boorish examples of the day and manners of 
 Squire Western. These views are as erroneous as 
 this picture is false. 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 17 
 
 No Virginian ever spoke of " slaves," By a cu- 
 rious, unconscious cerebration, the word was dis- 
 tasteful to a people who valued liberty as their most 
 precious possession, and the retainers of the family 
 were called '* servants." They were as much the 
 family as the children, or the wife, or the mother. 
 The relation of master and servant was not a prop- 
 erty relation at all. It was the domestic institution as 
 it had always existed in every primitive society, as it 
 had been practiced by the patriarchs, and recognized 
 and regulated by Moses and the prophets. A man's 
 "wife, his manservant, and his maidservant," were 
 placed in the same category in the decalogue, and it 
 was the Virginians who prevented the appearance of 
 the word " slaves " in the Constitution of the United 
 States, where reference is made to the servile class of 
 the population as ''persons held to labor" and as 
 "other persons." 
 
 " Slave " was a word tabooed in the language of 
 ladies and gentlemen; it was vulgar ; it was " com- 
 mon," to use the vernacular. It was not until the 
 invention of the cotton gin led to a great develop- 
 ment in the cotton-producing States that " servants " 
 began to be " slaves," and to be considered on ac- 
 count of their mercantile value, and the consequent 
 sectional jealousy which viewed with alarm the 
 growth of the Southern section which threatened to 
 transfer the power from east of the Hudson, that 
 " slave " began to be a word in the common vocabu- 
 lary, used on the one side as a taunt, on the other as 
 a defiance. And there was no barbaric extravagance 
 or savage profusion. The planter's estate fur- 
 nished everything the family consumed except 
 sugar and coffee ; tea was practically unknown. 
 
1 8 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Bear, venison, wild turkeys, pheasants, partridges 
 abounded in the woods; ducks and swans, oysters of 
 the finest, and fish of every variety crowded the 
 rivers and bays, and a huntsman and fisherman, de- 
 tailed for the sole duty of stocking the larder, kept 
 every household fully supplied. Beef, mutton, bacon, 
 and hams were provided also, while the fields pro- 
 duced wheat and corn, from which bread of unrivaled 
 excellence was made; nor were the manners most in 
 vogue those of Squire Western. 
 
 The heir of every family was educated at home, 
 and read his terms at Oxford. At the University 
 of Edinburgh there was a Club, requisite to the mem- 
 bership of which was the fact that the applicant must 
 have been born in Virginia. Within a day's ride 
 of Mount Vernon were a dozen country houses the 
 masters of which were university graduates and had 
 made the grand tour — the Fitzhughs at Eagle's Nest 
 and at Marmion, the Masons at Gunston Kail, the 
 Lees at Stratford, the Carters at Sabine Hall, the 
 Fauntleroys in Richmond. 
 
 All along the Potomac and the Rappahannock 
 were large roomy, pretentious homes, some of which 
 were on English models from Italian architects, the 
 great majority simple and plain mansions, in which 
 gathered and circulated a refined, elevated, traveled 
 society. Colonel Lewis Littlepage, of New Castle, 
 had been the chamberlain of the last King of Poland. 
 Colonel John Parke had been aid-de-camp to the 
 Duke of Marlborough at Blenheim, and had carried 
 the dispatch of victory to Queen Anne, and received 
 from her fair hand, for reward, her miniature set in 
 brilliants. 
 
 Colonel William Byrd, of Westover, had been the 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 19 
 
 intimate friend and was the constant correspondent 
 of the Earl of Orrery, the inventor of the astronom- 
 ical instrument which bears his name. Lord Fair- 
 fax had been one of the bucks of the court, the com- 
 panion of Addison and Dick Steele, and had con- 
 tributed to the Spectator. 
 
 As was and is the Virginia custom, the families 
 of wealth in the Dominion were closely bound by 
 frequent intermarriages, by ties of blood and friend- 
 ship, and they constituted one large circle. One 
 household would move over to another with servants, 
 children, carriages, horses, and dogs, and, after a 
 stay of two or three weeks, all would move to a 
 third, and so go on accumulating as they went, until 
 it became time for all to go home to arrange for the 
 coming year. But home was the last place the Vir- 
 ginian wanted to go unless he was accompanied by 
 a house full of cousins. This constant social inter- 
 course, free but reserved, cordial but dignified, pro- 
 duced a type of manners of the highest grade ; and 
 the characteristics of Washington, which for these hun- 
 dred years have been descanted upon as of phenom- 
 enal ceremony and extraordinary dignity, were the 
 ways and manners of his class, with whom he passed 
 his earlier years. He was an exemplar of the culture 
 of his society, and in no remarkable way different 
 from the gentlemen of his station in life all around 
 him. He was a typical Virginian of his epoch. 
 
 At this time the experience of Lawrence prompted 
 George to desire a commission as midshipman in the 
 British navy ; but Uncle Joseph Ball, who had 
 studied law in London and who was settled there 
 as a practicing attorney, discountenanced the idea 
 with the stolid obstinacy of the middle-class English- 
 3 
 
20 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 man, whose only idea of the naval service was de- 
 rived from the press gang, and who thought it un- 
 becoming for his provincial nephew to aspire to the 
 position of a gentleman and to bear the King's com- 
 mission. The instruction of Williams's school had 
 imparted sufficient skill to make young Washington 
 a competent surveyor. There are plats of surveys 
 now in the General Land Office of Virginia made by 
 him which would do credit to any youth of his age 
 at the present day. Lord Fairfax had acquired all 
 the land lying between the Potomac and the Rappa- 
 hannock Rivers, and a right line drawn from the 
 principal source of the one to the head of the other. 
 This great principality was unexplored save by the 
 trapper and hunter. Across it ran the great war 
 trail of the Five Nations, passing northeast and south- 
 west. In the spring of 1748, when young Washing- 
 ton had just passed his sixteenth birthday, Lord Fair- 
 fax employed him as surveyor to explore and locate 
 his lands beyond the Blue Ridge, up to the principal 
 source of the Potomac, his compensation being fixed 
 at a doubloon a day, with the possibility of increas- 
 ing it to six pistoles. 
 
 In March, he and George Fairfax rode over the 
 mountain by Ashby's Gap and through the lovely 
 valley of Virginia as far as the mouth of Wills Creek, 
 on the Potomac, and on their return, in April, Lord 
 Fairfax was so much pleased at their report of the 
 country, that he moved over to a new settlement, in 
 what is now the County of Clarke, and established a 
 hunting lodge which he named Greenway Court. The 
 ensuing three years were passed in the woods in this 
 employment as surveyor. His earnings, which were 
 very large compared with the price of land — one 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 2 1 
 
 day's wages sufficed to pay for many acres — were in- 
 vested in land, the location of which to this day 
 attests his admirable judgment. Probably this ex- 
 perience as a surveyor was the most valuable epoch 
 of his life. He was taught self-control, alertness, 
 quick decision, prompt action. Living in the woods, 
 where a man's life is guarded alone by himself, teaches 
 him to be on guard at all times, by day and by night ; 
 and in such a life every man's tomahawk was loose, 
 every man's rifle was unslung, his bullet pouch was 
 pulled around so as to be handy, and never for a 
 moment was the guard relaxed. A watch was set 
 every night, and on the march by day an advance 
 scout was sent out, and a wary lookout kept up. 
 
 This life under the open sky, when a man carries 
 his life in his hand, and a keen eye and sharp ear and 
 quick hand are his surest safeguard, develops a self- 
 possession, an endurance, a patience, and a persever- 
 ance unknown in other states of society. One who 
 spends days in the forest, without exchanging an un- 
 necessary word with a comrade, becomes a taciturn 
 man; whose life every minute is only protected by 
 himself, becomes of necessity self-reliant ; whose time 
 is passed in the solitude of Nature, absorbs the gravity 
 of the woods and the mountains. In such a school 
 George Washington passed the ensuing three years 
 of his life. 
 
 Returning from his surveying expedition in the 
 valley. Lord Fairfax procured him the appointment 
 of public surveyor, which insured him steady em- 
 ployment, and gave his work the stamp of official 
 authority. While thus employed, he enjoyed the 
 benefit of the cultivated society assembled by Lord 
 Fairfax at Greenway Court. There he found a library 
 
22 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 of English books, and read the Spectator and the 
 History of England, the only opportunity which he 
 had had up to that time to read books. His educa- 
 tion had been by action and by living, by observa- 
 tion of Nature and men, and thoughtfulness and 
 analysis of what he had observed. 
 
 In September, 1751, Lawrence went to Barbadoes 
 for his health, taking his young brother with him, and 
 returned the following spring. He died in July, 
 1752, leaving his whole estate to his infant daughter, 
 with the remainder, in case she died without issue, to 
 his brother George, with the latter as guardian of the 
 infant and executor of the will. This produced an 
 entire change in the prospects and position of the 
 young surveyor. His self-denial in working and in 
 saving his earnings, and his judgment in investing 
 them in well-selected and well-located lands during 
 his experience as a surveyor, had made him a large 
 holder of wild land along the Potomac and the 
 Shenandoah. Lawrence Washington was a man of 
 large views and forcible character. 
 
 The struggle that had been going on between 
 England and France in Europe for centuries had 
 been extended to the New World. The French 
 settled Canada and held the Great Lakes and their 
 outlet to the sea. The English planted colonies 
 along the Atlantic seaboard, and began feeling out 
 beyond the mountains toward the vast, unexplored 
 wilderness which stretched in unbroken solitude 
 toward the setting sun. 
 
 The French acquired the mouth of the Missis- 
 sippi, and explored what they believed to be its 
 source in Minnesota. They established communica- 
 tions between their northern and southern posts; 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 23 
 
 they navigated the Great Lakes; they pushed up 
 the Ohio ; and they were overrunning the country 
 on the right bank of that river. If they were suc- 
 cessful, Protestant Virginia would be walled in by 
 the Blue Mountains, held by Catholic France, and 
 confined to the narrow seaboard. 
 
 The English of Virginia, like their race every- 
 where, pushed their trade before them and followed it 
 with their flag. They organized the Ohio Company, 
 with men and means to settle the disputed territory, 
 and made Lawrence Washington their general man- 
 ager. No man could live on the frontier with the 
 threat of Indian massacre ever present to him, and 
 the Indian backed by the Frenchman ; no man whose 
 ancestor had fought under English Harry at Agin- 
 court but must have felt that the question of Eng- 
 lish or French supremacy in America must eventually 
 be decided by arms. Four generations of Virginian 
 Englishmen had been fighting the brutes set on them 
 by the French. No man could remember the time 
 when the tale of Indian horrors had not been told by 
 mother and grandmother around the fire, with bated 
 breath, to the children. 
 
 Lawrence Washington, like most of the young 
 Virginian gentlemen of his day, had seen service. 
 He procured for his brother, aged nineteen, the posi- 
 tion of assistant adjutant general for the Northern 
 District of Virginia with the rank of major, and pro- 
 vided as instructors for him Adjutant Bataille Muse, 
 a Virginian, who probably had served in the Low 
 Countries, as many young Virginian gentlemen of the 
 day did, and Jacob Van Braam, an old Dutch soldier, 
 whom Lawrence Washington had picked up on the 
 Carthagena expedition. 
 
24 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 He was determined that his younger brother 
 should be equipped for that stage of life to which it 
 should please God to call him; just as our genera- 
 tion has seen young men prepared by military educa- 
 tion, training, and discipline, for the trials that were 
 to come to them. 
 
 Lawrence Washington's death, George Washing- 
 ton's reputation and experience as surveyor, his 
 thrift and intelligence in the acquisition of wild 
 land, his executorship and guardianship of the heir- 
 ess of Mount Vernon, and his residence there, all 
 gave him weight and consideration in the communi- 
 ty ; and when the Lieutenant Governor of Virgina — 
 a choleric Scotchman, Dinwiddle — required a man to 
 warn off the French trespassers from that part of 
 Virginia which extended northwest of the Ohio, the 
 master of Mount Vernon was pre-eminently the fittest 
 man for the work. 
 
 A former envoy of the Governor had been 
 stopped by Indian threats — instigated by French 
 craft — far short of the French posts, and had turned 
 back utterly unsuccessful. The service needed a 
 man of varied qualities and acquirements; a man of 
 will and' force; a woodsman, for he would be re- 
 quired to meet and overcome many obstacles from 
 man and Nature, and to face the perils of the wild 
 woods which stretched unbroken from the Shenan- 
 doah to the Rockies and to Lake Michigan ; a gen- 
 tleman of culture and information, for he must meet, 
 on equal terms, men trained at the Court of Ver- 
 sailles. What was the utility of sending a messenger 
 hundreds of miles through the wilderness, in hourly 
 peril of life, to warn subordinates from obeying the 
 orders of their superiors, and carrying out a well- 
 
THE WASHINGTONS OF VIRGINIA. 25 
 
 considered, matured, and determined national policy, 
 passes our comprehension. Accordmg to our mod- 
 ern lights, it seems a useless ceremonial that could 
 lead to no possible useful result; but, accordmg to 
 the standard of the day, the way of doing a thing 
 was quite as important as the doing of it. The cere- 
 monial was an important part of the transaction. 
 
 Adjutant Washington then was selected by the 
 Governor of Virginia for this delicate and danger- 
 ous mission. In October, 1753, he assembled a small 
 party at the mouth of Wills Creek, on the Potomac, 
 and pushed out toward the Ohio with Christopher 
 Gist, an experienced woodsman and Indian fighter, 
 as guide. His place of departure is the present city 
 of Cumberland, in Maryland, named from the Duke 
 of Cumberland. A great council of the Ohio In- 
 dians and the Iroquois had been called to meet at 
 Logstown, an Indian town on the Ohio a few miles 
 below the site of the present city of Pittsburg. 
 Here the Virginian envoy met the chiefs in council, 
 and, having induced them to enter into amicable 
 relations with the English, pushed on to the French 
 post farther west, near Lake Erie. There he deliv- 
 ered his message with great punctilio, and much 
 ceremony, and was bowed out with courtly grace 
 and diplomatic phrases, and sent back with the po- 
 lite intimation that if the Virginians would mind 
 their own business it would be better for them. 
 
 Winter was on them before they turned home- 
 ward. There would be no grass for the horses, and 
 the tracks of the animals would mark too clear a 
 trail on the backward march ; so Gist and the ma- 
 jor left their horses, and took to the woods on foot. 
 Snow and ice encumbered their march, and through 
 
26 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 perils of flood, and starvation, and of Indians, they 
 successfully pushed their way. When the country is 
 considered — the pathless forest, the flooded rivers, 
 the ice on the mountain, the snow in the valley — this 
 journey shows fortitude, perseverance, and prompt- 
 ness extraordinary. 
 
 Leaving Venango, the French post, on Christ- 
 mas day, Washington and his comrade marched up 
 the Alleghany to the confluence of the Mononga- 
 helaand the Alleghany — the present Pittsburg; then 
 up the Monongahela and across the mountain to 
 Wills Creek ; thence down the Potomac to Mount 
 Vernon ; thence across the Rappahannock, the Pa- 
 munkey, and the Mattapony, to Williamsburgh, 
 where they arrived on January i6th, just twenty-one 
 days from the start. It would push two good men, 
 and two horses, to cover the same ground now in the 
 same time, over modern roads and with modern inns. 
 The whole expedition was justly esteemed as an 
 extraordinary exhibition of courage, sagacity, and 
 skill. Washington had kept a careful and minute 
 journal, which he submitted as his oflicial report to 
 the Governor, and which was published. It fixed the 
 attention of the province upon the major command- 
 ing the Department of Northern Virginia, and thence- 
 forward he was the hope and pride of all Virginia, 
 trusted in trial, and her stay in the storm soon to 
 burst. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FORT NECESSITY. 
 
 In recognition of his service on the expedition 
 to the Ohio, Major Washington was promoted lieu- 
 tenant colonel of a Virginia regiment, Fry being 
 colonel, to be posted at Winchester, at the foot of 
 the great valley of Virginia, and right across the 
 great trail by which the Northern Indians had been 
 used from time immemorial to communicate with 
 the great nations which held the mountain ranges 
 and valleys of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Tennes- 
 see. It was the highway of the Iroquois or Six Na- 
 tions and the Cherokees. 
 
 It was plain to the Virginian intellect— English 
 and Protestant as it was— that the Jesuits were 
 scheming, and putting forward the Indians to exter- 
 minate the settlements of the Church established by 
 Henry VIII, where traditions of Poictiers, and Cressy, 
 and Agincourt stimulated confidence in themselves 
 and contempt for Frenchmen, and hatred of the Pope 
 and all his works. The old struggle between the lily 
 and the rose was to be tried over again, and no Virgin- 
 ian gentleman doubted his duty, or the result. Dinwid- 
 dle, the Lieutenant Governor, was a narrow and big- 
 oted Scotchman, greatly impressed with a sense of the 
 dignity of his office, and of the inferiority of provin- 
 cials to the home-born British subject. His Majesty's 
 
28 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 commission, in his opinion, conferred a patent of su- 
 periority which brought with it wisdom and infalli- 
 bility. The wrangle between the House of Burgesses, 
 elected by the gentry of Virginia, and the Governor, 
 appointed by a cabinet ignorant of the environment 
 or the development or of the feelings of the provm- 
 cials, of necessity impaired their efficient support of 
 the defense of Virginia. But the determination to 
 protect her ancient borders from encroachment was 
 absolutely unalterable. 
 
 The tradition of the spoliation of Virginia, by the 
 Penn and Calvert grants, was fresh in every one's 
 mind, but while they proposed to be loyal to his 
 Majesty, and yield obedience to his orders in council, 
 they would in no wise suffer aliens in race and re- 
 ligion, with whom their ancestors had waged war for 
 twenty generations, to extend their hold on the Con- 
 tinent, or to trespass on the ancient borders of the 
 Old Dominion. Therefore this regiment, under Fry 
 and Washington, was posted on outposts to break 
 communication between the North and South, and to 
 keep watch over the movements of the hereditary 
 enemy on the Ohio. 
 
 The mouth of Wills Creek, on the Potomac, in 
 Maryland, was the head of flatboat and canoe navi- 
 gation, and the nearest point to the French posts. 
 It was selected as a depot by Governor Sharpe, 
 of Maryland, where he collected some stores, and 
 whence was sent out by the combined authority of 
 the Governors of Maryland and Virginia an expe- 
 dition to seize the point at the confluence of the 
 Alleghany and the Monongahela, where their union 
 makes the Ohio — a position Major Washington had 
 selected and reported as the proper place for an 
 
FORT NECESSITY. 
 
 29 
 
 advanced post against the French on the lakes. 
 Captain Trent was pushed out to establish a post at 
 the confluence of the two rivers. With the usual 
 alertness of incompetency, Captain Trent differed 
 from the judgment of Major Washington, and de- 
 cided that a point below the junction was the best 
 place for a fort, and set his men to work there with 
 spade and pickaxe, and, mounting his horse, pushed 
 back to the post at Wills Creek. 
 
 It was hard living and hard sleeping on the Ohio. 
 Mere dying had no particular interest for the pio- 
 neer race ; that all came in the way of business, 
 and no one took any special pains to avoid it. It 
 was like a mountain road — you might get through, 
 and you might not ; you tried it all the same. 
 
 The appearance of the Virginians, their digging 
 of dirt, their cutting down of trees, their sharpen- 
 ing of stakes, all flew through the forest, in the 
 spring breeze, and Captain Contrecoeur, a bright 
 young Frenchman, at the nearest post, took upon 
 himself to investigate them and to verify them. 
 
 So down the Alleghany he started with a thou- 
 sand Frenchmen and Indians, in bateaux and ca- 
 noes, and incontinently stopped the intrenching 
 operations of the Virginians. Captain Trent was 
 away. Lieutenant Frazier, his second in command, 
 was at his home, ten miles distant — a matter entirely 
 within his right, for he had entered the service and 
 assumed the responsibility of command at the fort 
 on the express understanding that he was to be per- 
 mitted to remain at his own home, and only visit the 
 fort weekly, or as often as he thought necessary. 
 The Frenchman marched the Virginians out of the 
 work with scant ceremony, and permitted them to 
 
30 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 depart with their intrenching tools, on their promise 
 not to come near the Ohio again for a year. 
 
 On the 2d of April Colonel Washington set out 
 from Alexandria, with two companies of the new 
 regiment, for the outpost on the Ohio. His supplies 
 and baggage were pushed and hauled up the Potomac 
 to the mouth of Wills Creek in bateaux and canoes. 
 His whole force consisted of about one hundred and 
 fifty men ; but on arriving at Wills Creek, where 
 Captain Trent was to have collected pack horses for 
 him, he found Trent a fugitive — no pack horses, and 
 no outpost on the Ohio.- He decided to move out 
 as far as possible and occupy the best position prac- 
 ticable, and therefore pushed into the wilderness be- 
 yond Cumberland, or Wills Creek, through the moun- 
 tain defiles, over the mountain ranges, and through 
 the forest with about three hundred men. Progress 
 was necessarily slow, where a way for wheels had to 
 be cut along the mountain side and a road cleared 
 through the heavy timber. 
 
 In ten days they had not advanced more than 
 twenty miles, to the Little Meadows. Notwithstand- 
 ing the difficulties of the country, he marched forty 
 or fifty miles farther north, to the falls of the You- 
 ghiogheny. There he heard that the French were 
 coming, and had crossed the ford of the river eight- 
 een miles off. He had only three hundred men, 
 Virginian frontiersmen, and fighting men to be sure, 
 but it was utter recklessness that pushed such a 
 force out in the wilderness nearly a hundred miles 
 from re-enforcement or support. Three hundred Vir- 
 ginians could march and fight their way from Win- 
 chester or Staunton to Lake Erie or Lake Michigan 
 against Indians only, but nothing but the self-confi- 
 
FORT NECESSITY. 
 
 31 
 
 dence of Englishmen could explain why an inexperi- 
 enced young soldier would undertake to penetrate a 
 wilderness with a mere handful of men, in the face of 
 the unknown force of Frenchmen, then the first sol- 
 diers of the age. 
 
 When, however, he learned that eight hundred 
 French were marching on him, and only eighteen 
 miles off, he promptly selected a position for a fight. 
 At the Great Meadows he started to construct a fort. 
 The locality was bad; it was too far out from his 
 supports. The topography was worse. General 
 Sharpe, of Maryland, a soldier of experience, of 
 courage, and sense, criticised the whole performance 
 with remorseless severity. ^* Fort Necessity," says 
 Sharpe, " was a little, useless intrenchment in a val- 
 ley between two eminences." It was, in fact, a 
 meadow of no great area, surrounded by low hills 
 covered with heavy timber. While he was at work 
 at his ''fort " news came that a hostile party was in 
 his neighborhood, and his Indian ally— the Half King 
 of the Senecas — wanted his assistance to atack it. 
 
 Washington started at once, with forty men, to 
 find the enemy, surprised him in camp, and killed and 
 captured Jumonville and the entire party save one, 
 who escaped. This was Colonel Washington's first 
 experience of the singing of a hostile bullet, and, 
 being a healthy, strong young Virginian, it is reason- 
 able to believe that he enjoyed it. His ancestors in 
 Virginia for three generations had been fighting In- 
 dians, as in England for ten they had been fighting 
 Frenchmen, and this combined operation of killing 
 both Frenchmen and Indians must have been a rea- 
 sonable, commendable, and agreeable performance 
 of duty and pleasure. 
 
22 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Contrecoeur, with his French troops, pushed rap- 
 idly on him, to avenge the insult in the capture of 
 his advance party, and the death of Jumonville, its 
 commanding officer. He closed the Virginians up in 
 Fort Necessity and took possession of the wooded 
 heights surrounding it. Some nonsense has been 
 written about Colonel Washington's gallantry in of- 
 fering battle to his adversary outside of his trenches. 
 Now, Washington, though reckless and overconfi- 
 dent in this first experience, has never been suspected 
 of an utter lack of sense. In war it is business to 
 kill as many of the other side as you can and have 
 as few of your own people killed as possible; so 
 you use every advantage to save your men and to de- 
 stroy the others; and the idea of abandoning shel- 
 ter, and offering with three hundred men to fight 
 eight hundred "in the open," never did occur to 
 any one but an idiot or a lunatic. Therefore Wash- 
 ington must be acquitted of the charge of offer- 
 ing to fight the French " in the open " at Fort 
 Necessity. 
 
 The truth is, he and his Virginians stuck to their 
 earthworks, and their ditch, and their stockade, as 
 closely as bark to the trees; but the Frenchmen sur- 
 rounded them, shelteredthemselvesbehind trees, and 
 fired over the walls of Fort Necessity into the un- 
 covered troops there, with perfect security and com- 
 fort to themselves. This continued the whole day, 
 in a drizzling rain. The Virginian loss was severe. 
 Twelve had been killed and forty-three wounded ; so 
 when the French drums beat a parley at dark, the 
 Virginian colonel was glad to treat for terms. His 
 position was utterly untenable, and it was only a 
 question of time when his entire force would be shot 
 
FORT NECESSITY 
 
 33 
 
 down, and it was his duty to save his men for future 
 use of the State. 
 
 No one among the Virginians could speak or 
 read French. Old Jacob Van Braam, the Dutchman 
 who had been pretending to teach Washington fenc- 
 ing and the sword exercise at Mount Vernon, had 
 been commissioned major, and was present with the 
 command. He was sent out to see the Frenchmen, 
 and returned with several offers of terms, all of 
 which were rejected by Colonel Washington. At 
 last, late at night, Major Van Braam brought m 
 terms of capitulation written in French. He trans- 
 lated them to the council of Virginian officers. Ac- 
 cording to his translation, they agreed to honorable 
 terms of surrender; the defeated party should march 
 out of their fort with drums beating and colors fly- 
 ing, should salute their flag, and carry off all their 
 arms, military stores, and effects, except artillery, 
 which they were to destroy. They pledged them- 
 selves not to erect buildings or to occupy land, or 
 to approach near the Ohio for twelve months. 
 
 But the articles of capitulation also referred to 
 the assassmation of De Jumonville, and Washington 
 was thus made to admit that he had murdered a 
 French officer. This phrase Van Braam translated 
 as "the death of De Jumonville," and thus its sig- 
 nificance and intention escaped the Virginians. The 
 terms of capitulation gave great offense in some of 
 the colonies, and were sharply criticised at home. 
 
 Governor Sharpe wrote that "everybody was 
 talking of the urunilitaij conduct of Colonel Wash- 
 ington," and Horace Walpole said that the French 
 had clipped the wings of that gay " fanfaron," 
 Major Washington ; but the Virginians had a truer 
 
34 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 appreciation of youthful dash and imprudence, and 
 through their House of Burgesses gave a vote of 
 thanks to the officers, and a donation in money to 
 the men, for their fidelity and gallantry in defense of 
 their country. 
 
 This first campaign of Washington is a curious 
 incident in his career, and gives an interesting in- 
 sight into his character. A genuine soldier does not 
 give great consideration to arithmetic. If generals 
 never fought until success was demonstrably certain, 
 there would be no pitched battles; but in the real 
 soldier so much of imagination mingles with analysis 
 and logic, and chance so often determines the event, 
 that he is always ready to take desperate chances. 
 Since the capitulation of Fort Necessity, the advance 
 into the wilderness with so small a force has been 
 considered the next thing to foolhardiness ; yet 
 Andrew Lewis afterward, with a few Virginians, 
 fought more Indians with success than the French 
 force that captured Fort Necessity ; and George 
 Rogers Clarke broke the Indian power and occupied 
 the Northwest for Virginia with no greater force. 
 
 If Colonel Washington had surprised and routed 
 Contrecoeur at Fort Du Quesne — as was entirely 
 possible — his expedition would have been considered 
 a dashing exploit, whose vigor and celerity would 
 have redeemed its risk. Success is the only test of 
 merit in military matters. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 BRADDOCK. 
 
 The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, while it settled all 
 continental questions between France and England, 
 left the great dispute between Catholicism and Prot- 
 estantism on the new continent absolutely unad- 
 justed. James I had granted to Sir William Alexan- 
 der, his Scotch-English Secretary of State — created 
 Lord Stirling — the great territory of Nova Scotia 
 (New Scotland) lying on the north of the New Eng- 
 land grant, together with the river St. Lawrence and 
 a broad strip of territory along both sides of that 
 river, and the north border of the Great Lakes, to 
 the western extremity of Lake Superior, and thence 
 in a wide belt across the continent to the Pacific. 
 Lord Stirling had sold many baronetcies, with large 
 estates appurtenant to the titles, in Nova Scotia, to 
 raise funds to develop his great possessions. Eng- 
 lish gentlemen were settled in Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, and were building up in the wilderness 
 a vigorous, robust British Protestant society. The 
 French hemmed them in, the Jesuits surrounded 
 them, and they incessantly demanded protection 
 from home. 
 
 The French claimed the continent from the 
 mouth of the St. Lawrence to the head of the Mis- 
 sissippi and thence to the Gulf of Mexico, and from 
 4 
 
36 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the source of the Ohio to the western ocean. The 
 English held the Atlantic seaboard from the St. Croix 
 to the Savannah ; south of that the feared and hated 
 Catholics had seized the country. It is difficult now 
 to appreciate or sympathize with the terror, the 
 horror, and the hatred with which the English nation 
 regarded the Pope, and all his works and all his 
 people. 
 
 In this generation we are accustomed to consider 
 all such questions as matters of conscience, and, in 
 the general latitudinarianism, look upon physical 
 struggles over matters of faith as proofs of narrow 
 bigotry and contracted zeal. But it was not so, in 
 fact, then. England was the defender of the faith 
 of the rights of man, of free thought, of free con- 
 tract, of free labor, and of free commerce. The 
 Pope was the incarnation of the philosophy of pater- 
 nalism in faith, in morals, in conduct, and in trade. 
 He had never obtained absolute control of the race 
 of fair-haired, blue-eyed men in the British Isles. 
 
 From the day St. Augustine landed in Britain, the 
 native race had stood firm on their principle that " the 
 laws of England shall not be changed except by our 
 own consent." We make our own laws, we execute 
 them, and we receive no regulations for our lives, our 
 property, or our morals from any foreign prince or 
 power, pope or potentate. This was the spirit that 
 had resisted the pretensions of the Roman oligarchy, 
 from Alfred's time, to make laws for England in the 
 convocations of the clergy; this the spirit that, di- 
 rected by Henry VIII, had established a Free Church 
 of England — free from the direction or domination 
 of the Church of Rome. The fathers of the settlers 
 of Virginia, of New England, and of New Scotland 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 37 
 
 had fought the Armada. Some of the original 
 colonists had actually served under Lord Howard 
 of Effingham agamst Medina-Sidonia and Guise in 
 the struggle between the yeomanry of England and 
 the chivalry of Spain ; and when Englishmen were 
 pressed and hemmed in by the Pope and his follow- 
 ers, in the new homes they had carved for themselves 
 with their swords on the new continent, the old 
 Berserker blood fired, and the word was passed that 
 no Frenchman, Spaniard, or Papist should interfere 
 with the rights of Englishmen. 
 
 But the provincials, with a clear view of what were 
 their rights, had an equally distinct conception of 
 the duties of other people. It was their duty to drive 
 out the French; it was equally their right not to be 
 made cat's-paws, but to require proper support to be 
 given them from home; for it was the old home 
 quarrel and the ancient British battle they were to 
 renew on the Ohio. 
 
 The home government insisted that New York, 
 Virginia, and the colonies should supply men, money, 
 and subsistence for the war on France. The colo- 
 nies as firmly required that British men and British 
 money should support the British quarrel, while they 
 furnished their fair share of the means. They were 
 entirely willing to do most of the fighting, as they in 
 fact did. 
 
 Just here came in another influence of potent 
 force. It seems that all masterful races send out 
 colonies, to subdue and conquer. It follows, as of 
 necessity, that the sons look to their father for as- 
 sistance and advice; and reverence for superior 
 wisdom is added to love of home and of parents. 
 Therefore the provincial always occupies a position 
 
38 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 of inferiority to home people; and it is the peculiar 
 trait of the British that they are utterly unable to 
 comprehend that youth ever arrives at maturity; 
 that colonies can develop into independent societies, 
 capable of thinking and acting for themselves. 
 
 Acting on this general theory of the unapproach- 
 able superiority of the native-born and home-staying 
 Briton, the connection between the royal military 
 organization and the colonial establishments was 
 firmly founded on the theory, principle, and prac- 
 tice that the provincial must be inferior to the home- 
 born, and that a royal commission of any grade, from 
 the very nature of things, must supersede and over- 
 top any commission from a provincial governor ; that 
 an ensign, fresh from school, outranked a Virginia 
 colonel of many campaigns. 
 
 Lieutenant-Governor Dinwiddle, acting on this 
 theory, organized the new military establishment of 
 Virginia into ten companies of a hundred men each, 
 and offered the command of one of them to Colonel 
 Washington. The result of this organization would 
 have been that any understrapper from home, scion 
 of the bastard of a duke's mistress, would have com- 
 manded the experienced soldiers Virginia had already 
 produced and trained for her defense. Washington — 
 with the rank of colonel, which he had won by ardu- 
 ous service, and decorated with the thanks of Vir- 
 ginia, though her representatives — promptly resigned 
 his commission and retired to Mount Vernon. 
 
 The administration at home prepared a campaign 
 for America which would relieve them from pressure 
 on the continent. They proposed an attack on Nova 
 Scotia, directed from New York, and one on the Ohio, 
 moving from Virginia. Governor Horatio Sharpe, 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 39 
 
 of Maryland, was commissioned major general, to 
 command all the provincial troops raised, and to be 
 raised, for the war against the French on the Ohio. 
 Major-General Edward Braddock, an experienced 
 soldier in the wars in the Low Countries, was sent 
 out with two regiments of regulars, and the proper 
 train of artillery to support it. He established head- 
 quarters at Alexandria, on the Potomac. There, on 
 April 14, 1755, he called a council of war, which was 
 presided over by himself, and attended by Admiral 
 Keppel, commander in chief of the navy in Ameri- 
 ca, and the Governors of Massachusetts, New York, 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Major-Gen- 
 eral William Shirley, Governor of Massachusetts, 
 had been designated by the home authorities to rank 
 next to General Braddock, and to command the 
 forces to be directed against Nova Scotia. Major- 
 General Horatio Sharpe, Governor of Maryland, was 
 to command ail the provincial troops under General 
 Braddock. 
 
 It was determined that Wills Creek, at its junc- 
 tion with the Potomac, should be the base of oper- 
 ations. Supplies could be boated there from Alex- 
 andria, and collected from the rich valley of Virginia 
 and the fertile lands of western Maryland, just then 
 being occupied by emigrants from Alsace-Lorraine, 
 who had made homes in the wilderness, fugitives of 
 Protestantism from the Catholic King of France. 
 
 Governor Sharpe promptly prepared proper sup- 
 port for the movement. He secured from the Gen- 
 eral Assembly of Maryland sufficient supplies of 
 money to construct on the Potomac a substantial 
 bastioned work which he called Fort Frederick, and 
 his flatboats and canoes pushed up the Potomac, 
 
40 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 which sometimes presents rapids difficult to surmount 
 and then for many miles flows in a deep and sluggish 
 stream through mountain passes and primeval forest. 
 The Maryland part of the arrangement was thoroughly 
 carried out. 
 
 Colonel Washington of necessity was drawn from 
 Mount Vernon to the gay life of a garrison town. 
 He was a soldier of some experience ; he had led in 
 person a surprise party on an all-night march, and 
 had held an indefensible position to the verge of 
 rashness against an overwhelming force, and he had 
 seen some soldiers among the French; but he never 
 before had seen " real soldiers " — British soldiers, 
 whose invincibility for a thousand years was as well 
 established a fact as sunlight to the loyal mind, who 
 on every field had proved their superiority to French- 
 men. He had commanded frontiersmen, the lean, 
 gaunt, sinewy, bony Virginian of the woods and the 
 mountains, who knew as little of the manual of arms 
 as he did of fighting by word of command, and it can 
 well be imagined with what interest the bush-fight- 
 ing Virginian colonel inspected, observed, and pon- 
 dered the operations of that intricate machine, a regu- 
 lar army. 
 
 The form and ceremony must have been a reve- 
 lation. The dress parade, the guard mounting, all 
 the minutiae of camp life, presented to him many 
 problems. What was the reason of those ponderous 
 movements by which a column was displayed into a 
 line, and a front of a few was spread out into a line 
 of many ? To the untutored Virginian there must 
 have appeared a great loss of time and prodigious 
 increase of risk, and a consequent useless expenditure 
 of life; and during that short time of observation, 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 41 
 
 and criticism of soldiers in camp and of officers at 
 mess, curious comparisons must have been made by 
 the provincial, and grave doubts arisen as to whether 
 such a machine would work in the woods. 
 
 The rank and dignity and state of the commander 
 in chief required that he should be conveyed in a 
 coach-and-six. Colonel Washington made no specu- 
 lation about that, for he knew that that would cure 
 itself. If the coach ever got as far as Fort Cumber- 
 land, he was sure that its wheels would never go 
 farther except as wheels of ammunition tumbrels, 
 or provision carts. 
 
 Colonel Washington was a gentleman of distinc- 
 tion in the neighborhood. He had the handsomest 
 estate next to Lord Fairfax in the Dominion. He 
 was a man of the world, had been to the West Indies, 
 and thanked by the General Assembly of his colony 
 for gallantry in action, and was withal a gentleman of 
 force and experience beyond his years. Commanding 
 generals like smart, active, brave, useful young men 
 about them, and they are glad to attach them to 
 their service when they can do so as volunteers, 
 without rank or pay, where gallant conduct in action 
 often wins promotion and fame. It would have been 
 remarkable if General Braddock had not invited 
 Colonel Washington to accept the position of volun- 
 teer aid-de-camp on his staff. He did so, tendering 
 him the rank of captain by brevet, the highest rank 
 he was authorized to confer on a volunteer aid. 
 Captain Washington at once accepted the honor, and 
 was the most valuable man on the staff. 
 
 He knew the country and the people between 
 Alexandria and Fort Cumberland ; he had ridden or 
 marched over every foot of it. He knew the fords 
 
42 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 on the Shenandoah and the crossings of the Potomac, 
 the trails through the woods as far west as the 
 Monongahela and to the Ohio, and he knew what 
 could be done and what could not be done in that 
 country. He knew that a rapid march from Cum- 
 berland, of a column of a thousand men in light 
 marching order, carrying ten days' rations and their 
 ammunition in packs on their backs, each man for 
 himself, might get through the woods so fast as to 
 strike Du Quesne before re-enforcements could be 
 hurried to it from Lake Erie ; and he also knew that 
 no troops whose march was regulated by a six-horsed 
 coach could do any efficient work. 
 
 In the woods, fighting is done quite as much with 
 the legs as by the arms, and no soldier can, in the 
 nature of things, accomplish much who is tied and 
 shackled hand and foot by a cumbrous uniform. 
 The shako of the British grenadier will of itself 
 break down the best line of battle of its wearers, 
 lose a position, end a war, and settle a boundary. 
 
 Sir John St. Clair, Deputy Quartermaster General, 
 had come out to assist in the campaign, which was to 
 save a ministry and settle the dynasty on the throne 
 of Great Britain. Fort Cumberland was selected 
 as the base of military operations against western 
 Canada, and Governor Sharpe had collected maga- 
 zines of provisions and munition there. He had 
 drawn to him many hardy and enterprising pioneers, 
 who made contracts to supply beef on the hoof, and 
 wagons and horses. Sir John St. Clair required the 
 Governor of Pennsylvania to construct a road from 
 Philadelphia to Fort Cumberland, and from Fort 
 Cumberland west to the great crossing of the 
 Youghiogheny. 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 43 
 
 Braddock, upon the rising of the coun-cil of war, 
 moved his force from Alexandria up the south bank 
 of the Potomac, above the mouth of Rock Creek, 
 where he crossed into Maryland with the Forty- 
 eighth Regiment, Colonel Dunbar, the Forty-fourth 
 Regiment moving on to Winchester. He camped 
 for six days at the new palatine settlement of Fred- 
 erick, and became very indignant at the neglect of 
 the Pennsylvanians to construct the road and to sup- 
 ply the two hundred wagons demanded by Sir John 
 St. Clair as necessary for the transportation of the 
 expedition. He proposed to send out into the 
 country, and impress wagons and teams under the 
 direction of the quartermaster general. Captain 
 Washington, and Benjamin Franklin, postmaster 
 general of the colonies, defended their countrymen, 
 and excused the lack of provision made for the 
 army. But Franklin, with that shrewd insight into 
 common human nature which was to make him the 
 philosopher of the commonplace, at once discerned 
 the opportunity to make influence for himself and 
 money for his people. He noticed that Sir John St. 
 Clair wore a Hussar uniform. The German settlers 
 of Pennsylvania, by experience and by tradition, 
 well knew the atrocities of the Hussars in Germany 
 and the Low Countries, in the wars, from which they 
 had fled, and from which their ancestors had suf- 
 fered for generations. 
 
 "Hussar" was a name of terror to them — the 
 embodiment of war, of rapine, of fire and sword, 
 of famine and death. So, from Frederick, Franklin 
 wrote and published a letter to the inhabitants of 
 the counties of Lancaster, York, and Cumberland, in 
 which he informed them that the British officers 
 
44 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 " proposed to send an armed force immediately into 
 their counties, to seize as many of the best car- 
 nages and horses as should be wanted, and compel 
 as many persons into the service as should be neces- 
 sary to drive and take care of them." 
 
 He showed that if they furnished teams and wag- 
 ons and drivers voluntarily they would receive in 
 wages fully ^30,000 in gold and silver of the King's 
 money. " If you do not come forward and do your 
 duty," said he, "I shall be obliged to inform the gen- 
 eral in fourteen days, and I suppose Sir John St. 
 Clair, Uhe Hussar,' with a body of soldiers, will im- 
 mediately enter the province, which I shall be sorry 
 to hear of." The glittering suggestion of ;£3o,ooo in 
 gold and silver acted in an agreeable and persuasive 
 manner on the bucolic mind; but the touch of Na- 
 ture, the sly insinuation about "the Hussar," was 
 convincing. The roads were crowded with four- 
 horse teams, to earn the pay, and to escape *' the 
 Hussar," all of w^hich reported at Fort Cumberland 
 about the last of June. 
 
 On April 30th Braddock left Frederick in the char- 
 iot he had purchased from Governor Sharpe ; and, 
 escorted by his bodyguard, a troop of Virginia Light 
 Horse — the only cavalry in his command — passed 
 over the mountain north of Frederick, across Middle- 
 town Valley, through a gap in South Mountain, which 
 still bears his name (over what, in subsequent years, 
 became the battlefield of Antietam), to the mouth 
 of the Conococheague, where he crossed the Poto- 
 mac. The town of Williamsport is now at the ford 
 where he crossed, and Williamsport long afterward 
 became one of the principal competitors for the site 
 of the federal city. In the order of the day of April 
 
BRADDOCK. 45 
 
 „th the route is published, providing for the march 
 to Wills Creek, a total of one hundred and twenty- 
 nine miles to be made by May 9th. 
 
 The Forty-eighth, Colonel Dunbar, moved out 
 on the 29th and made the route as by orders direct- 
 ed first across Middletown Valley, then to Conoco- 
 cheague; there it crossed the Potomac, thence up the 
 
 th ba'nk of the Potomac by the mouth of Ut 
 Cacapon to Old Town, where it recrossed to the 
 to th bank, and thence to Fort Cumberland, where 
 it reported May 9th, according to the route and 
 time set out in orders. 
 
 A few miles below Wills Creek the command was 
 halted, and brought to a present, as the commander 
 in chief whirled by in his coach-and-six The drums 
 beat the Grenadier's March, the colors drooped 
 and all "the pomp and pride and circumstance of 
 tlorious war " was displayed. At the fort this gor- 
 geous apparition was saluted with seventeen guns- 
 the number appropriate to the commander of an 
 army in the field. In the afternoon the whole com- 
 „,and was assembled, the Forty-fourth, Sir Peter 
 Halkett, having arrived from Winchester; and on 
 the loth it was announced in the order of the day 
 that " Mr. Washington is appointed Aid-de-camp to 
 His E-xcellency General Braddock." On the 12th 
 the troops were brigaded, and the genera order in 
 Braddock's orderly book, the original of which is 
 in the Congressional Library at Washington, gives an 
 accurate statement of the troops present for duty, 
 and their number of effective men. ^ , ^ ,„ 
 
 The First Brigade, under the command of Colo- 
 nel Sir Peter Halkett, consisted of— 
 
46 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 MEN. 
 
 Forty-fourth Regiment, Grenadier Guards 700 
 
 Captain Rutherford's and Captain Gates's inde- 
 pendent companies of New York . . 95 
 
 Captain Poison's company of Carpenters 48 
 
 Captain Peronnu's and Captain Waggoner's Vir- 
 ginia Rangers 92 
 
 Captain Dagworthy's Maryland Rangers 49 
 
 Total, First Brigade 984 
 
 Second Brigade, Colonel Dunbar: 
 
 Forty-eighth Regiment 650 
 
 Captain Demerie's South Carolina detachment 97 
 
 Captain Dobbs's North Carolina Rangers 80 
 
 Captain Mercer's company of Carpenters 35 
 
 Captain Stevens's Virginia Rangers 48 
 
 Captain Hogg's Virginia Rangers 40 
 
 Captain Cox's Virginia Rangers 43 
 
 Total, Second Brigade 993 
 
 There was also a train of artillery and a force of 
 engineers, and a detachment of thirty sailors from 
 the British fleet. It was provided with one hundred 
 and fifty wagons and two thousand horses. 
 
 The First Brigade marched on June 8th, and the 
 next day the Second followed, under Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Gage, of the Forty-eighth. The perform- 
 ances of that march, if they were not proved by 
 absolutely indisputable proof, would be simply in- 
 credible. But Braddock's road is now (March, 1894) 
 perfectly well defined, north of Cumberland. It 
 looks as if intelligent purpose had exerted itself to 
 waste time and labor. It is located without the 
 slightest regard to grades or obstacles. Instead of 
 blasting rocks — or, still better, avoiding them when- 
 ever possible — the engineers seem to have tried to 
 
BRADDOCK. 47 
 
 leave monuments to their own stupidity. Great 
 bowlders in the road, instead of being rolled or 
 blasted out of the way, are carefully hewed down so 
 as to present no obstruction. The third camp was 
 only five miles from the first. 
 
 In seven days they reached the Little Meadows, 
 twenty miles from Cumberland. Here a council of 
 war was called by the commanding general, and he 
 decided to move out with a light column of twelve 
 hundred men and twelve guns, leaving Colonel Dun- 
 bar in charge of the reserve, the wagons, and re- 
 serve artillery, to push on as rapidly as possible. 
 On the 23d of June the advance reached the Great 
 Crossing of the Youghiogheny, thirty-seven miles 
 from Fort Cumberland-fifteen days for thirty-seven 
 miles. On the 8th of July he arrived at the Monon- 
 gahela, fifteen miles below Fort Du Quesne. A defile 
 on the north or right bank rendered it necessary to 
 cross the river, and then recross eight miles farther 
 down the stream. During the day before, small par- 
 ties of the enemy had been hanging on the flanks 
 and picking up stragglers, thus showing that the 
 movements of the invading force were known and 
 accurately observed. 
 
 The passage of the river then became a delicate 
 and difficult operation. At 3 a. m. of the 9th Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel Gage was sent with a detachment of 
 the Forty-eighth Regiment to occupy the crossing 
 and cover the movement. An hour later Sir John St. 
 Clair moved out with a working party, to construct 
 roads, and make the fords practicable for wagons 
 and artillery, by cutting down the banks, and at 6 
 A. M. the main body, under command of Braddock, 
 took up the route. He intended to take Fort Du 
 
48 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Quesne that day, and proposed that it should be 
 done according to the rules and regulations of civil- 
 ized war — by troops on dress parade, with colors 
 flying, drums beating, and trumpets sounding — and 
 not in a disorderly chance medley of wood rangers 
 and hunting-shirt-clad, moccasin-shod hunters and 
 scouts, who knew no more of the minutiae and ele- 
 gances of war than they did of Almack's or of 
 White's celebrated club. 
 
 After passing the first ford they reached the sec- 
 ond about noon. The low land on that side of the 
 river was level, open woodland, of heavy walnut 
 timber, and no undergrowth, the ground well cov- 
 ered with grass. The enemy were frequently visible 
 on the heights on the other side, and Braddock, to 
 impress them with the kind of war they were to ex- 
 pect from him, spent an hour in putting his troops 
 through battalion movements, in full sight of the 
 French and Indian scouts, and his men were given 
 their dinners. 
 
 A recent publication of the memoirs of Charles 
 de Langlade, the French officer who led the attack- 
 ing party, gives us a graphic description from their 
 point of view. When information of the approach 
 of Braddock with an army of over two thousand 
 men came, the commander of Fort Du Quesne was in 
 doubt whether to fight, to surrender, or to evacuate 
 and destroy the post. The first course was decided 
 on, and for this purpose De Beaujeu was ordered to 
 take a party out and attack the enemy before he 
 could invest the fort. He organized a force of two 
 hundred and fifty French and six hundred and fifty 
 Indians. Moving out at 9 a. m. of the 9th, De Beau- 
 jeu found himself at the ford of the Monongahela 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 49 
 
 at 12,30 p. M., just as Braddock was going through 
 his battalion drill, and witnessed the dinner of those 
 well-trained troops. 
 
 On the north side of the Monongahela there was 
 an open meadow or wooded glade, level, and with- 
 out undergrowth, spreading back a quarter of a mile 
 from the river ; then the high ground usual in river 
 formations begins to ascend until it rises into a ridge, 
 covered with heavy timber, bushes, and thick under- 
 growth. From this ridge run two ravines several 
 hundred yards apart down to the river's edge. 
 
 The column was put in motion about i o'clock, 
 the guides in front, then the engineers, with six light 
 horsemen ; then Lieutenant-Colonel Gage, with the 
 Forty-eighth Regiment ; then Sir John St. Clair, Quar- 
 termaster General, with two six-pounder guns and the 
 men, wagons, and tools of the working party ; then 
 General Braddock, with Colonel Sir Peter Halkett 
 and the Forty-fourth ; then the artillery and wagons ; 
 then the provincial troops for rear guard. 
 
 While the advance was crossing the ford and 
 moving into the forest the rear was cooking rations; 
 for the column moved so slowly, the head would 
 some days go into camp about the time the rear was 
 moving out of the camp of the day before. De Lang- 
 lade took in the conditions at once, and urged his 
 superior to attack, which was done with energy and 
 promptness. The first known by the British was 
 that the guides saw a force of French and Indians, 
 led by a Frenchman, De Beaujeu, gayly uniformed 
 in hunting shirt and gorget, charging on them out 
 of the woods in front. At the same instant a fire 
 broke out of the ravines on each side of the column. 
 
 Captain Washington, the volunteer aid, would 
 
so 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 have committed a grave breach of the proprieties 
 if on the field of battle he had volunteered to his 
 chief advice unasked ; but the emergency was so 
 pressing, and time so precious, that he begged his 
 commanding officer to let him bring up the provin- 
 cials, and cover the front and flank with skirmishers, 
 until the position and numbers of the enemy could 
 be developed. 
 
 The trained soldier could not consent to veterans 
 being protected by undrilled, half-armed, savagely 
 clad countrymen, and said that his men should fight 
 in line or not at all. The provincials had required no 
 orders; the first shot told the whole tale to them; 
 they were in the presence of the enemy in force, for 
 half a dozen Indians alone would never fire at such a 
 force. Killing was in order, and they proposed to be 
 killers and not killees, and do their part of the work. 
 Without waiting for word or order, they broke and 
 took to the trees. Braddock was loud in damning 
 their cowardice ; but before one of his staff could 
 ride up to Colonel Gage, the provincials knew all 
 about it and acted accordingly. They covered the 
 rear of the army, and the artillery and wagons. The 
 French attack spread with the rapidity of fire in the 
 dry grass. It ran along both sides of the English 
 column and closed round the rear. The British 
 stood in a road twelve feet wide, falling in their 
 tracks without firing a shot in reply. Braddock sent 
 an aid to the front to find out from Colonel Gage 
 what was the matter. 
 
 Struggling through a huddled column in a packed 
 road is slow work for man and horse, and it took 
 time to get forward, and as much to get back. The 
 fire in front increased, and Braddock, all afire, spurred 
 
BRADDOCK. 5 1 
 
 forward, assumed command of the Forty-eighth, and 
 ordered it to form by platoons, and charge the woods 
 to the right and left. A platoon can not be formed 
 in a wood road twelve feet wide. Each flank will 
 extend into the woods, and the line be pinioned, as 
 if its arms were tied. 
 
 In the confusion the men fell by rank. The 
 French account says that many officers were killed 
 with their dinner napkins pinned to their breasts. 
 This one incident lets in a clear beam of light over 
 the tragedy of folly and incompetence. When it was 
 once reported to "Stonewall Jackson" that his ad- 
 versary was marching up the valley attended by a 
 herd of four thousand beef cattle, his reply was, 
 " Good ! we can beat people who have to drive their 
 rations on the hoof with them." And he did. 
 
 So the Frenchman might have said : " We can 
 beat any soldiers who require dinner napkins on the 
 eve of battle." Napkins imply cooks, cooks require 
 cooking utensils, wagons, all the vast impedimenta 
 of a luxurious and overfed army, and prove lack of 
 endurance. But they do not imply lack of courage. 
 That the British breed has never shown, and the 
 gamest, most gallant, most daring, most chivalrous 
 class that ever lived is the English gentry, of which 
 the officers of the army were then composed, and 
 their American kin. On that field they proved them- 
 selves worthy of their blood. They showed every 
 soldierly trait except sense. 
 
 Braddock was on his horse in front of the column, 
 directing movements, shouting, gesticulating, swear- 
 ing at the stupidity of his men, who would not form 
 and would not charge. Said the men in the ranks, 
 " We'll fight men — we can't fight bushes," and as the 
 5 
 
52 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 slaughter increased they became rattled. The line 
 officers tried to lead squads into the bushes. 
 
 Colonel Gage planted the colors of the two regi- 
 ments in the road, to form on. Still the men fell, 
 and Braddock stormed. The line officers, " with din- 
 ner napkins pinned to their breasts," formed squads 
 of officers by themselves, and showed the way to 
 death. The bush fighters in the rear never lost their 
 self-possession for a moment. They were at their 
 accustomed work, and they went at it like days' la- 
 bor. Many of them knew Captain Washington per- 
 sonally and had served under him, and all of them 
 knew him by reputation. 
 
 Hurrying up and down the narrow road, when the 
 commanding general rode to the front and took 
 command there, his provincial staff officer naturally 
 was sent back to direct the provincials, and represent 
 the general on that part of the field. As the French 
 fire poured in on his flanks, Washington rushed Cap- 
 tain Waggoner's two Virginia companies by the right 
 down into the ravine, faced to the left, and then 
 charged straight up it, driving everything before him, 
 and relieved that flank of the British column. 
 
 In so doing, the command got up in advance of 
 Gage's column, when Braddock was swearing and the 
 line officers dying. As they passed the English in 
 the road, the latter, misled by the hunting shirts and 
 head gear of the Virginians, poured a volley into 
 their rear, and killed and wounded two thirds of 
 them. That ended all check to the French, and the 
 rest of it was merely a battue^ where the hunter shot 
 his game from cover, without risk, and hardly with 
 any excitement. 
 
 The English, huddled up, fired into the groups in 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 53 
 
 front of them, fired in the air. In the region of the 
 battlefield, tradition to this day alleges that Brad- 
 dock was not killed by Indian or Frenchman, but by 
 Tom Fossit, a private in Captain Cholmondeley's 
 company of the Forty-eighth Regiment. Fossit had 
 been enlisted at Shippensburg, Pa., and had a brother 
 in his company, who was killed in the battle. He 
 lived for many years, and doubtless enjoyed many a 
 '' treat " in exchange for his fable. 
 
 His story was that Braddock killed his brother < 
 for dodging behind a tree, and that he avenged his 
 brother on the spot. This story is merely incredible. 
 Braddock had five horses killed under him, and in 
 the close fighting all around him the miracle is that 
 he lived as long as he did. A mounted officer of the 
 striking appearance, with the conspicuous uniform 
 of a major general attracted a hundred bullets be- 
 fore the fatal one hit ; and it is incredible that a 
 private soldier should be guilty of the dastardly 
 treason of killing his commanding general in battle. 
 The military profession evolves a respect for rank 
 as representing power, that increases and intensifies 
 as rank rises and power enlarges, and in battle the 
 commanding officer is the god, the human provi- 
 dence of the private soldier. He holds his life in 
 the look of his eye or the crook of his finger, and 
 can order the private to instant death by a wave of 
 his hand, and does it constantly. Therefore no pri- 
 vate soldier who ever carried a musket or drew 
 saber, ever, anywhere could or ever did, in the heat 
 of battle, with death looking right into his eyes, con- 
 ceive of killing the superintending power which ab- 
 solutely controlled his destiny. 
 
 If Braddock did kill Fossit's brother — which is 
 
54 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 quite probable, for the general was likely to do so 
 foolish a thing — it is almost certain that Tom broke 
 for the nearest tree, and kept that between him and 
 the general until he had an opportunity to escape 
 official recognition. At last Braddock fell mortally 
 wounded. That ended it. Most of the field and 
 line officers were already on the ground, and when 
 the general in front of or up with his first line fell 
 over the neck of his horse, the first line broke and 
 went back on the second, they two on the third, and 
 the whole went sweeping down the road like a stam- 
 peded herd of buffalo. There was no withstanding 
 the tornado. Washington afterward said that it was 
 as impossible to stop them as to stop " a gang of wild 
 bears from the mountains, or a mountain torrent." 
 
 It bore everything before it, and ran over horses, 
 wagons, and men of the rear guard. Captain Wash- 
 ington held his provincials with a cool and steady 
 hand until the torrent rushed by, and then deployed 
 them across the road, and on each side of it, to check 
 the pursuit. He pushed back to where some sol- 
 diers were struggling to carry off the heavy and 
 cumbrous body of their general. Jumping from his 
 horse, he jerked the official silk sash from the waist 
 of the commanding officer, and using it as a litter, 
 pushed the carriers behind his line. He then dog- 
 gedly gave ground, for all that was left to be done 
 was to gain time and save Dunbar. 
 
 As the stampede swept by the wagons, the wag- 
 oners cut their horses loose and whipped for their 
 lives. After every great disaster the most fright- 
 ened are the fleetest, and they invariably spread 
 the news as they fly that "All is lost ! Everybody is 
 killed ! The command is cut up ! " So when the ter- 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 55 
 
 rifled wagoners flew through Dunbar's camp, not a 
 word of explanation was needed. The harnessed 
 horses, the riders belaboring them at every jump, as 
 they sped toward Fort Cumberland, told the story of 
 rout and flight without words. 
 
 Colonel Dunbar by strict discipline held his com- 
 mand firm. He was forty miles in rear. As soon as 
 the remnants of the army recrossed the Mononga- 
 hela that evening, Braddock sent Captain Washing- 
 ton back to Dunbar to bring up wagons and pro- 
 visions. The old soldier was thinking more of his 
 wounded than of himself, and he sent back the best 
 man about him to get help for them. His other aids 
 were killed or wounded. 
 
 Captain Washington rode back that night on one 
 horse, when the darkness was so intense, and the 
 road so obscure, that he passed much of his time 
 leading his horse and kneeling on the ground feel- 
 ing for the road. Notwithstanding this, he and his 
 two orderlies reached Dunbar's camp at sunrise, and 
 immediately returned with supplies and re-enforce- 
 ments to the army. He met it at Gist's plantation, 
 and, returning, reached Dunbar's camp that night, 
 where they halted for two nights and a day. 
 
 Then continuing the retreat on the 13th, they 
 reached the Great Meadows, where Braddock died 
 and was buried before day next morning in the mid- 
 dle of the road. Captain Washington reading the serv- 
 ice of the Church over him. The wagon train was 
 driven over the grave to save it from the Indians. 
 From Little Meadows Washington wrote to Colonel 
 Inness, at Fort Cumberland, asking for aid, which that 
 officer promptly dispatched to him. The melancholy 
 party arrived at the fort on the i6th and 17th. 
 
56 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Dunbar arrived there on the 20th, and was obliged 
 to stop until August 2d to take care of the wounded. 
 On that day, with his entire command, consisting of 
 the survivors of the Forty-fourth and Forty-eighth 
 Regiments and of the Virginia battalion, and of the 
 independent companies, numbering in all about fifteen 
 hundred men fit for duty, he left the fort and marched 
 eastward to Philadelphia. 
 
 He left Fort Cumberland in charge of Colonel 
 Innes, with one company of Virginians and one of 
 Maryland Rangers. About 1824, what were supposed 
 to be the remains of General Braddock, were found 
 by some workmen repairmg the National Road. 
 They were removed, reburied near the road under 
 an oak, and marked Braddock's grave. Some years 
 afterward, English gentlemen visiting the spot caused 
 a plain fence to be erected around it, and thus it 
 stands now, after nearly threescore and ten years. 
 
 This affair began about i p. m. and ended by five 
 o'clock. It was short and sharp. De Beaujeu, the 
 French commander, was killed early in the action. 
 There were two hundred and fifty French and Ca- 
 nadians and six hundred and fifty Indians in the at- 
 tacking force. On the English side were the two 
 regular regiments of seasoned veterans of five hun- 
 dred each recruited up to seven hundred, five com- 
 panies of Virginia troops, fifty Maryland Rangers, 
 one hundred South Carolinians, one hundred North 
 Carolinians, but in the advanced column actually 
 engaged only twelve hundred men were present. 
 There were no Maryland troops in the expedition 
 except Captain Dagworthy's. The French account 
 says they counted thirteen hundred and fifty dead 
 on the field and on the retreat. There is no doubt 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 57 
 
 that all they did count were dead^ but only twelve 
 hundred were engaged. 
 
 Colonel Sir Peter Halkett, of the Forty-fourth, 
 his son, who was brigade major, and William Shirley, 
 son of General and Governor Shirley, of Massachu- 
 setts, were killed. Colonel Burton, of the Forty- 
 eighth, and Sir John St. Clair, were wounded. Of 
 eighty-nine commissioned officers in the two regi- 
 ments of regulars in the fight, twenty-six were killed 
 and thirty-seven wounded ; four hundred and thirty- 
 seven men were reported killed and three hundred 
 and eighty-five wounded — a total loss of eight hun- 
 dred and fifteen men. 
 
 All the wounded who were left on the field were 
 killed by the Indians, with the exception of two re- 
 markable men. Dr. Hugh Mercer and a comrade, who, 
 left wounded, made his way through the woods to 
 give up his life, as General Mercer at the battle of 
 Princeton, fighting the king he came so near dying 
 for at the battle of the Monongahela. The oppos- 
 ing force lost not thirty men and their commander. 
 
 Captain Washington was untouched, although he 
 had two horses killed under him and several bullets 
 through his clothes. He reported to the Governor 
 of Virginia that his rangers had '' fought like soldiers 
 and died like men." Beyond a peradventure, his 
 coolness, his self-control, his will saved all that was 
 saved. If it had not been for him, every British 
 soldier would have been scalped. Twelve of them, 
 taken prisoners, were burned alive at Fort Du Quesne 
 the next evening. 
 
 And the endurance of the Virginian captain is won- 
 derful. After the entire day, from four o'clock in 
 the morning of the 9th until dark of the loth, in the 
 
58 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 saddle, four hours of it under the fiercest fire, which 
 is the most exhausting excitement known to man, he 
 rode and walked all night back to Dunbar's camp 
 and returned at once to his wounded chief, and from 
 the 9th until the i6th never took his clothes off or 
 laid down to sleep undressed. The iron will was 
 equaled by the iron frame and the iron constitution, 
 and this prodigious effort was made by a man who 
 had been left behind at Dunbar's camp, too ill to ac- 
 company the command, and had only reached the 
 army the evening before the battle, hauled in a 
 wagon because he was too weak to ride. The ex- 
 hibition of endurance by Captain Washington for 
 seven days after the battle exceeded that of courage, 
 coolness, and self-control by him on the disastrous 
 field. He was then in his twenty-fifth year. 
 
 The immediate consequence of the rout, of Brad- 
 dock was a more vigorous effort on the part of the 
 Government, which resulted in the Treaty of Paris 
 of 1763, whereby Canada and Florida were both 
 ceded to Great Britain, and the Roman Catholic 
 power was eliminated as a political element on the 
 North American continent from the Arctic circle to 
 the Gulf of Mexico and from the Atlantic to the 
 Mississippi River. West of that river the Spanish 
 Americans claimed jurisdiction to the Pacific — a 
 claim to be entirely extinguished in the next two 
 generations. 
 
 The far-reaching results of that campaign were, 
 first, the annihilation of British prestige among the 
 provincials; second, fraternity and a tendency to co- 
 operate among all the English in America ; third, a 
 distinct bias toward independence of the mother 
 country. The seven years' war in America was dis- 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 59 
 
 tinctly a war of race and religion. The English 
 Protestants were pressed on the North by the French 
 and on the South and West by the Spaniards, both 
 adherents of the Church of Rome. 
 
 The conquest of Canada and the cession of Florida 
 immediately relieved the provincials from the hostile 
 pressure of the Roman Catholics and the Indians, 
 and from their dependence on home. They had co- 
 operated together during the war, each province by 
 its own General Assembly voting men and money 
 for the common defense, according to its judgment 
 of what was just and necessary, and at the battle of 
 the Monongahela with the two regiments of British 
 regulars there were present companies from Virginia, 
 New York, Maryland, and the Carolinas, who in the 
 North had fought the French and Indians, and in 
 the South the Spaniards and Indians — all Roman 
 Catholics. 
 
 An extract from a newspaper of the day will give 
 some idea of the sentiment pervading the English in 
 America, for in the Catholic province of Maryland, 
 the birthplace and nursery of freedom of thought in 
 all the world, the fire of bigotry burned as fiercely 
 as in Massachusetts Bay, where the idea of liberty of 
 conscience had as yet never penetrated. In Green's 
 Maryland Gazette, published at Annapolis on July 
 3ij i755> is contained an account of Braddock's de- 
 feat on July 9th, three weeks previous. " After the 
 engagement," says the newspaper, *' the Indians pur- 
 sued our people to the Monongahela, and scalped and 
 plundered all that were left on the field, except five 
 or six, who, not being able to keep pace with the 
 victors in their return to the fort, were all treated in 
 the same manner, one Virginian only surviving it. 
 
6o GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 [Oh, horrid barbarity, to kill in cold blood! But, 
 Protestant reader, such is the treatment we may ex- 
 pect to receive from his most Christian Majesty's 
 American allies if ever we should be so unhappy as 
 to fall in their hands, except we give up our re- 
 ligious liberty, and everything that is dear and valu- 
 able, and submit to be his vassals, and dupes of the 
 Romish clergy, whose most tender mercies are but 
 hellish cruelties, wherever they have the power to 
 exercise them.] " 
 
 The French Minister of War began immediately 
 to intrigue to stir up dissension with the mother 
 country, and to encourage the growing feelmg of 
 strength and maturity which began rapidly to per- 
 vade the English in America. The New England 
 colonies had never been loyal to the Crown or to 
 the traditions of their ancestors. Planted by refu- 
 gees from social and religious ostracism, they had 
 always been in sympathy with discontent at home. 
 Enterprising, energetic, and intellectual, the necessi- 
 ties of their environment, the rigors of their climate, 
 and the constant struggle with the forces of Nature, 
 had developed a character which for self-control and 
 concentration has rarely been equaled, and never ex- 
 celled, in the history of the world. Their position 
 had created a trade, arising out of natural conditions, 
 which was very profitable. They smuggled sugar 
 from the West Indies, converted it into rum in New 
 England, carried the rum to Africa, where they bar- 
 tered it for negroes, and the negroes to Virginia and 
 Maryland, where they exchanged them for tobacco, 
 which they sold at their home. 
 
 The breaking up of this profitable exchange by 
 the enforcement of the regulations of trade between 
 
BRADDOCK. 6l 
 
 the colonies and the mother country, whereby all 
 products of any colony could be shipped to any other 
 colony only through home ports in home bottoms, 
 naturally and justly enraged the New Englanders. 
 They had never been monarchists, and they had be- 
 come hostile to aristocratic institutions. 
 
 But in Maryland and Virginia the social organiza- 
 tion was entirely different. Many cadets of noble 
 families had settled in these colonies, or been pro- 
 vided with offices under the provincial governments. 
 All their sympathies were with the established order 
 at home. They were the pets of the monarchy. The 
 trade regulations did not disturb them ; they had no 
 ships or commerce of their own, and there was no 
 radical reason why they should participate in a move- 
 ment that must, beyond a doubt, result in a separa- 
 tion from the mother country. 
 
 And there existed a sentiment in the two colonies 
 on the Chesapeake widely differing from the sym- 
 pathies of New England. Jacobitism, sympathy 
 with the Stuarts, had never been extinguished in the 
 old cavalier colonies. Their leading families were 
 almost all cavalier. George Mason's grandfather 
 had commanded a royalist troop at Marston Moor, 
 and Washington's ancestor had held Worcester for 
 the King. The grandfather of Thomas Johnson, a 
 leader of the Revolution in Maryland, who nominated 
 Washington for commander in chief, came over in 
 1690, and in 1693 was arrested and recognized for 
 good behavior by the Governor and council for say- 
 ing, " The people are all rogues to the King, and that 
 he would swear to no king but King James." 
 
 Charles II was proclaimed King as soon as the 
 news of the death of his father reached St. Mary's, 
 
^2 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and Charles was King of Maryland eleven years 
 before he was King of England. The ancestor of 
 Richard Henry Lee, author of the resolution of in- 
 dependence, had been sent by Virginia to Breda, to 
 induce Charles to come to Virginia and establish his 
 government there; and although the Commonwealth 
 did send a fleet "to reduce the settlements on the 
 Chesapeake," and the old governments were recon- 
 structed and Commonwealth governments actually 
 set up by the bayonet in these two provinces, they 
 never had the respect, sympathy, or support of the 
 body of the people. They fell as soon as the prop 
 was removed. 
 
 When New England began to move in resistance 
 to the royal authority, the first impulse of the Eng- 
 lish on the Chesapeake was to stand by them, for 
 with them and their ancestors, from time immemo- 
 rial, the controlling element of character has been 
 that "blood is thicker than water"; and the next 
 feeling that stirred the people was that now they 
 could get rid of the House of Hanover and all its 
 disgusting surroundings. 
 
 Dr. Hugh Mercer, of the Braddock campaign — 
 afterward General Mercer, of the battles of Trenton 
 and of Princeton — had been on the staff of Prince 
 Charles at Culloden, and both colonies were full of 
 the defeated and disappointed adherents of the Stu- 
 arts. It is not probable that sympathy for the Stu- 
 arts and dislike to the House of Hanover was the 
 dominating force that created the revolution, but it 
 was one of the forces. 
 
 The Jacobite sentiment was strong on the Chesa- 
 peake, and led men more easily to recur to the funda- 
 mental principles of English liberty. Their ancestors 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 63 
 
 had always insisted that they would be governed only 
 by laws of their own making, made by their repre- 
 sentatives in Parliament assembled. Every English- 
 man's house was his castle. Every man's property 
 was his own, and no part of it could legally be taken 
 for public use, to defend the State, or to support the 
 Government, without his consent, freely given by his 
 representative. 
 
 The belief was firmly imbedded in their hearts 
 that there could be " no taxation without representa- 
 tion." And another right, the inheritance of Eng- 
 lishmen, was the right to resist illegal government, 
 by force and arms. The right of rebellion was as 
 well defined as the right of representation, and rebel- 
 lion was not necessarily revolution. Rebellion cor- 
 rected the abuses of government; revolution over- 
 turned government itself. Rebellion secured new 
 guarantees for liberty; revolution created new 
 government. 
 
 Thus had the barons wrung from John the guar- 
 antees of the great charter — a grant from the Crown 
 of security for rights to a class. Thus had the Par- 
 liament resisted the exactions of the Star Chamber 
 and its attempt to levy ship money, taxes without the 
 consent of the taxed. Thus had the body of the 
 people overthrown the Commonwealth when it at- 
 tempted to govern England without a king or House 
 of Lords, and thus revolutionize the ancient consti- 
 tution of the realm ; and thus had the grandfathers 
 of the leaders of the American Revolution expelled 
 James Stuart when he purposed to establish abso- 
 lute government in England. The idea of forcible 
 resistance to illegal government was deeply imbed- 
 ded in the American heart. 
 
64 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 The convention between the Commonwealth and 
 Virginia, in 165 1, secured to the Virginians the right 
 to make their own laws and to tax themselves. The 
 charter of Maryland guaranteed to the people of 
 that province the same rights; and when the Gov- 
 ernor attempted to levy taxes by proclamation, fix- 
 ing the fees of the land office, the General Assembly 
 promptly denounced the illegal act, and, in a report 
 on the inalienable rights of Englishmen — which, it 
 has been said, was worthy of the most distinguished 
 statesman of England — demonstrated that taxes 
 could only be legally levied by the representatives 
 of the people who were taxed. 
 
 When the Governor of North Carolina attempted 
 to coerce the North Carolinians into paying taxes 
 without their consent — disguised as illegal fees — 
 they promptly applied the ancestral remedy, and in 
 arms resisted the King's Governor and the King's 
 troops at the battle of the Alamance, in 1771. They 
 were defeated with heavy loss, and some were 
 promptly hung as traitors; but that only proved 
 that the King's troops were better armed, better 
 disciplined, and better commanded than the regu- 
 lators. It settled nothing as to the right of taxa- 
 tion and the right of rebellion. In 1772 the people 
 of Rhode Island captured and burned to the water's 
 edge the Royal armed vessel the Gaspe, in Narra- 
 gansett Bay, for attempting to enforce the revenue 
 laws; and Stephen Hopkins, Chief Justice of Rhode 
 Island, refused to issue warrants for the guilty par- 
 ties or to recognize their arrest as legal. 
 
 When the Stamp Act was passed, in 1765, requir- 
 ing that all process of courts, conveyances, and legal 
 papers should be on stamped paper, the County 
 
BRADDOCK. 
 
 65 
 
 Court of Frederick County, Maryland, in November, 
 1765, decided that the act did not bind the freemen 
 of Maryland, who had had no voice in its enactment, 
 and committed their clerk to prison for contempt in 
 refusing to obey their order to issue process without 
 stamps. Thus in all the English colonies the right 
 of resistance and rebellion had been claimed, as- 
 serted, and exercised. 
 
 A common sentiment, a common danger, and a 
 common cause are potent forces toward creating 
 sympathy and concerted action. The hearts of men 
 are more efficient allies than their heads, for they do 
 not calculate consequences. With the destruction 
 of British prestige came of necessity the obliteration 
 of provinciali'im — the admitted superiority of every- 
 thing home-born or home-produced to everything 
 colonial. Thackeray faithfully paints the picture of 
 the time when he describes the young Virginian vis- 
 iting the home of his fathers as regarded as a young 
 Mohawk, and an object of surprise because he was 
 white. Braddock himself and his officers did not 
 measure up to the colonial standard of manners, of 
 education, or of intelligence. Their superiors in 
 every respect could be found in the routs at Wil- 
 liamsburg and Annapolis, or the parlors of Philadel- 
 phia, New York, and Boston ; and in place of the 
 provincial feeling of inferiority, rapidly developed a 
 continental sentiment of present equality, with a 
 swelling sense of a great destiny, when America 
 would fill and act a great part in the future of the 
 human race. 
 
 When the Stamp Act was passed the continent 
 called the comrades of the battle of the Mononga- 
 hela to come together and consult as to what the 
 
56 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 common right was entitled to, and what the common 
 interest required to be done. The Braddock cam- 
 paign was the author of the Stamp Act congress, as 
 that was of the Articles of Confederation, and they 
 of the Constitution of the United States. They 
 were all the product of great historical forces which 
 direct the march of nations and the development of 
 races, and lead to results beyond human prevision, 
 human fears, or human hopes. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE planter's LIFE AND MARRIAGE. 
 
 During the years prior to the breaking out of the 
 rebellion, Washington devoted himself to his large 
 estate on the Potomac, his servants, his crops, and his 
 stock. The most curious disquisitions have been 
 written and most extraordinary analyses been made 
 as to the wonderful traits of this astonishing youth. 
 He is a prig, or a phenomenon, according to the 
 point of view and the medium through which he is 
 examined. In one of his youthful letters, unfortu- 
 nately preserved, reference is made to a " lowland 
 beauty " to whom his adolescent fancy had turned ; 
 and half a dozen Virginian families still claim that 
 their ancestress was the lowland beauty. He fell 
 in love with Mary Bland, of Westmoreland ; with 
 Lucy Grimes, who afterward married " Light Horse 
 Harry " Lee, and became the mother of Robert E. 
 Lee — greatest of the line of Lees ; with Mary Gary, 
 of Vaucluse ; with Betsey Fauntleroy, of Richmond 
 Gounty ; and with Mary Phillipse, the heiress, of New 
 York — not to mention the hundred other girls from 
 Boston to Annapolis with whom the young Vir- 
 ginian colonel flirted and made love. 
 
 There is a portrait of Golonel Washington, 
 painted by Gharles Wilson Peale, at Mount Vernon, 
 in 1772, as colonel of the Twenty-second Regiment, 
 6 
 
68 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Virginia Militia. It is in the uniform of a Virginia 
 colonel — blue coat, scarlet vest and breeches, and 
 represents a young man. His smooth-shaven face 
 and natural hair show a complexion as clean and 
 clear as perfect health, happy surroundings, and good 
 habits, with constant life in the open air, can give, 
 and is as fine a specimen of manly beauty as is ever 
 seen. The frontispiece to this volume is copied from 
 Peale's admirable portrait. The caricatures of Stuart 
 and Trumbull, and the rest, when life had become a 
 burden to escape the portrait painters, give no idea 
 of the young Virginian of ly^S-'jz. 
 
 The Virginian way always has been to make 
 love to every pretty girl with whom he was thrown. 
 Young, handsome, with the second fortune in the 
 province, and family as good as any — for Lord Fair- 
 fax's Scotch barony did not outrank, in the esti- 
 mation of the cavalier Virginians, the position in 
 society and claim for respect of the descendant of 
 that Colonel Washington who held Worcester for the 
 king and for so long answered to every summons for 
 surrender "at his Majestie's pleasure" — with the 
 first military reputation among the soldiers Vir- 
 ginia's wars against the French and Indians had 
 trained — with the grave, decorous manners of his 
 generation, no man in Virginia would naturally 
 be received by the matrons and maids who clus- 
 tered at the country houses along the Potomac, the 
 Rappahannock, the Pamunkey, and the James, with 
 more cordial welcome than Colonel Washington, of 
 Mount Vernon. 
 
 At Belvoir with the Fairfaxes, at Vaucluse with 
 the Carys, at Eagle's Nest with the Fitzhughs, at 
 Stratford House with the Lees; with the Carters at 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE AND MARRIAGE. 
 
 69 
 
 Sabine Hall, and with the Fauntleroys in Richmond, 
 then as now, a well-born and agreeable, handsome, 
 rich, distinguished young gentleman was a welcome 
 guest, and George Washington became the toast of 
 the tide-water country. What wonder, then, that he 
 fell in love with every pretty girl and told her so, 
 in his visitings among his neighbors, and on his 
 official journeys to and from Williamsburgh, when 
 his habitual stopping places were at these very 
 country houses, and his customary hostesses these 
 girls and their mothers! 
 
 Washington was a man all over — a man with 
 strong appetites, fierce temper, positive, belligerent, 
 and aggressive. The quality in which he differed 
 from almost all men was his absolutely perfect con- 
 trol over his passions and his mind. In his boy- 
 hood he appreciated the weak points of his character 
 — his tendency to be moved by impulse and sudden 
 tempests of emotion — and he set himself deliberately 
 to work to correct these infirmities. His fortitude, 
 his patience, his perseverance, his tenacity, were all 
 the result of this introspection, and, taken with the 
 severe physical training of his youth, in the woods 
 with his horse and gun, in the forest with his hatchet 
 and surveyor's compass, fitted him for control over 
 the wills of other men, and rendered him capable of 
 dealing with great affairs, when the time called for 
 those qualities. As soon as Fort Du Quesne fell he 
 resigned his commission and returned to Mount Ver- 
 non. On January 6, 1759, he married Martha Dan- 
 dridge Custis, the widow of Daniel Parke Custis, a 
 Virginia gentleman of family and estate, and herself 
 of a well-established Virginia family. Daniel Parke 
 Custis was the grandson of John Parke. 
 
^O GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 By one of those curious turns of fortune, Mrs. 
 Custis and her children — she had two by her first 
 marriage — were possessed of the estate of the White 
 House on the Pamunkey River, which had been origi- 
 nally granted to William Claiborne, once Secretary of 
 the province, to whom it had been given for a great 
 victory over the Pamunkey Indians. He had been 
 expelled from his legal possession of Kent Island, 
 in Maryland, by the Calverts, and for eight genera- 
 tions has been stigmatized as " rebel." '' Rebel " is 
 one who has unsuccessfully resisted wrong. It always 
 has been so, and always will be so. The defeated 
 are always wrong, and there is no greater crime in 
 the category of politics than failure. The estate 
 of the White House passed from the Claibornes to 
 the Parkes, to the Custises, to Washington's step- 
 children, and through them to the Lees, where it 
 now vests. 
 
 The marriage took place at the little church near 
 the White House, near Tunstall's station on the York 
 River Railroad, from which the site of the original 
 White House may still be seen embowered in trees 
 on the south bank of the Pamunkey. The wedding 
 was attended by Governor Fauquier and all the gen- 
 try from Williamsburgh and the Northern Neck, with 
 all the bravery of London coaches and new London 
 liveries, and, as may well be imagined, was a social 
 event of the first magnitude. After the wedding the 
 newly wedded couple drove to Mount Vernon in their 
 coach and four, bright with the Washington colors 
 of red and white, and attended by a troop of 
 friends — for a Virginian wedding is not a brief 
 ceremonial ; it is a prolonged festivity, and every 
 relative, friend, and well-wisher is expected to enjoy 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE AND MARRIAGE. 71 
 
 the hospitalities of all the family within practicable 
 distance. 
 
 A man on horseback would be sent ahead, from 
 stopping place to stopping place, to notify the cousin, 
 or the uncle, or the aunt, living on the route, that the 
 party would be there at such a time. And so they 
 went, twenty, thirty, forty, or fifty kinspeople, with 
 their horses, their dogs, and their servants, and with 
 them came mirth and jollity, innocent and simple 
 pleasures, enjoyed by healthy, robust natures, abso- 
 lutely devoid of selfishness and intrigue. 
 
 By day and by night the girls enjoyed themselves 
 in dancing and flirting, and the men were hunting 
 the deer or the fox, or shooting the Virginian par- 
 tridge, or the ducks, geese, and swans with which the 
 waters were thronged. At night the younger men 
 courted the girls and the older ones played cards, 
 until the day wound up with a supper of game, fish, 
 oysters, ham, turkey, beef and mutton home-raised, 
 with plentiful bowls of punch, apple toddy, and egg- 
 nog in season. While these people drank freely and 
 frequently, the life in the open air, the constant exer- 
 cise indoors and out, prevented or cured excess, and 
 drinking brought no ill effects, physically or morally. 
 When the newly married couple were settled at 
 Mount Vernon, they entertained, as was the custom 
 of the country, frequently and generously. Colonel 
 Washington understood that hospitality was one of 
 the customs and the duties of his station, and he 
 ordered his life to do his duty by his position, his 
 wife, his servants, his property, and himself. 
 
 The management of a great estate of necessity 
 must require organization and order. Everything 
 must be done in the proper way and at the proper 
 
^2 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 time, and a record must be kept of all the events of 
 the little world — the microcosm of the plantation. 
 Every marriage among the dependents must be duly- 
 recorded in the Almanac or the Farm Book ; every 
 birth must be put down ; every increase or diminu- 
 tion of stock entered ; all crops raised and all ex- 
 penses accounted for, and a diary kept preserving a 
 statement of diurnal transactions. 
 
 It has been the fashion to depict Washington as 
 a young man of preternatural pomposity and grav- 
 ity, of ponderous courtesy, and prodigious and elab- 
 orate manners. But he certainly was neither. He 
 was a Virginian gentleman of his epoch, with all the 
 characteristics of his day and generation. He loved 
 a glass of wine, a game of cards, a pretty girl, a 
 good horse, a fast run after the hounds, and a rat- 
 tling rush through the woods after the deer — and he 
 loved these animal pleasures intensely. He was 
 grave and decorous in deportment — so was every 
 gentleman ; he was careful and painstaking about 
 his property affairs — so were many heads of fami- 
 lies. But he was absolutely and perfectly self con- 
 trolled. He never let go his hand on himself for an 
 instant. Several times during his life the fiery tem- 
 per got away from the hand of iron — as with the 
 Connecticut colonels at New York, with Charles Lee 
 at Monmouth or with Hamilton at Philadelphia; but 
 generally the control of his strong nature was entire- 
 ly unshaken. 
 
 The government of a plantation was like the 
 discipline of a regiment. Without firmness, intelli- 
 gence, and order everything goes to pieces ; and what 
 might with proper direction and control be made to 
 accomplish useful purposes, becomes a broken, dis- 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE AND MARRIAGE. 73 
 
 arranged machine, with every part misfitting and out 
 of order. The estate of Mount Vernon was no such 
 mismanaged organization. Its master and mistress 
 were both capable, courageous, and conscientious 
 people, who did their duty most fairly and fully by 
 themselves, their men-servants and their maid-serv- 
 ants, their oxen and their asses, and everything that 
 was theirs. 
 
 Colonel Washington was the representative of 
 Fairfax County in the House of Burgesses at Wil- 
 liamsburgh, and a vestryman of Truro Parish on the 
 Potomac. As vestryman, he did his part toward 
 overseeing the comfort of his neighbors by giving 
 them good roads, and administering proper police 
 regulations against the roaming of servants from 
 plantations after nightfall. 
 
 When he attended the House of Burgesses, soon 
 after his marriage, Mr. Speaker Robinson, says tra- 
 dition, upon calling the House to order, took oc- 
 casion to thank " the gentleman from Fairfax for 
 his service to Virginia " ; and the gentleman from 
 Fairfax, rising in his seat to make his acknowledg- 
 ments, was so overcome with bashfulness that he 
 could not speak. Whereupon the Speaker called out, 
 " Take your seat, Mr. Washington ; your modesty 
 excels your valor, and that exceeds the power of 
 language to express." 
 
 Like many of the demigod myths and fables of 
 Washington, this story smacks of the incredible. 
 In the first place, those people at that time, as now, 
 were not inclined or partial to dramatic perform- 
 ances by themselves. Among the Virginians there 
 has never been the slightest tendency toward gush. 
 With the deepest feeling of love or resentment, of 
 
74 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 devotion or of hatred, they never make public dem- 
 onstrations of them. Pickett's men marched up the 
 slope at Gettysburg without a cheer, right into the 
 jaws of death. 
 
 And, further, the Speaker of the House of Bur- 
 gesses was an experienced and well-read parliamen- 
 tary lawyer, and he knew that for the Speaker to 
 compliment or reprimand a member in his place was 
 one of the highest prerogatives of the House, and 
 could only be done by express authority of the 
 House. When, therefore, the Speaker by order of the 
 House presented its thanks to Colonel Washington, 
 the dignified and becoming thing for Colonel Wash- 
 ington to do was to rise in his place, bow to the 
 Speaker, and take his seat as he did. The idea of 
 his attempting to "answer back " originated in an- 
 other latitude — never among Virginians. 
 
 Everywhere in Virginia he was of the first repu- 
 tation and of the highest influence. One of the 
 local stories is that, the parish requiring a new 
 church, the question was much debated whether it 
 should be located at a more central place, or the 
 ancient one preserved. George Mason, one of the 
 vestry, was ardent, enthusiastic, and eloquent in 
 urging them to stand by the old landmarks, con- 
 secrated by the ashes of their worthy ancestors and 
 sacred to all the memories of life, marriage, birth, 
 and death. 
 
 Colonel Washington replied by producing a plat 
 of the parish, drawn by himself with his well-known 
 accuracy, on which every road was laid down and 
 the house of every gentleman was marked, and 
 which showed that the new location advocated by 
 him was more convenient to every member of the 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE AND MARRIAGE. 75 
 
 parish, and that the old one was exceedingly inac- 
 cessible. The parochial meeting decided in favor of 
 the new location and the plat. George Mason put 
 on his hat and stalked out of the meeting, saying in 
 not smothered tones, "That's what gentlemen get 
 for engaging in debate with a d— d surveyor ! " But 
 notwithstanding this little tiff, the owners of Gunston 
 Hall and of Mount Vernon had the highest respect 
 and warmest affection for each other. 
 
 Mason was much the older man, a scholar and 
 a student rather than a man of affairs. He re- 
 garded his young neighbor, soldier-planter, manager 
 of the Ohio Company, projector of the transconti- 
 nental water line by the Potomac, the Monongahela, 
 the Ohio, and the Wabash to the Lakes, with the 
 respect and admiration with which the man of ideas 
 looks upon the man of affairs; while Washington 
 revered the older man with the veneration with 
 which the youth with life and the world before him 
 regards the sage who lives in the past. 
 
 Mason was well known in the Dominion as a man 
 with the highest ideals of duty and of character, of 
 vigorous intellect, a student of men and books. He 
 was the author of the Bill of Rights of Virginia, 
 wherein, following the example of his ancestors in 
 the Petition of Right and the Bill of Rights, he fur- 
 nished the precedent for all American common- 
 wealths up to this time. It is unfortunate for pos- 
 terity that he refused to participate in Continental 
 politics. Elected to Congress, he declined to accept 
 the place; and although he served in the Constitu- 
 tional Convention, he failed to procure acceptance 
 of his ideas by that body, as experience has proved, 
 greatly to the injury of posterity. 
 
^6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 When, following the lead of Virginia and Massa- 
 chusetts, committees of correspondence were formed 
 all over the country, county committees were organ- 
 ized for the purpose of disseminating information 
 and educating the people. The county meeting is 
 the descendant of the folkmote, and is as old as the 
 race. Whenever and wherever any attack has been 
 made on the common right, the neighborhood meets 
 in council for co-operation and organization. The 
 county committees in England assumed the govern- 
 ment of the counties in i64i-'45, disciplined the 
 " disloyal," and made the disaffected contribute to 
 the support of the common cause against the king. 
 
 The very first movement of sedition and rebel- 
 lion in America was made in the county committees 
 and town meetings. In New England local govern- 
 ment was administered by town meetings. In Vir- 
 ginia and the South it was by the vestries, which 
 met every month for the purpose of regulating the 
 police affairs of the parish. 
 
 The first step in rebellion was to substitute 
 county committees for vestries, so that the whole 
 posse coinitatus^ the entire power of the county, 
 might be centralized and wielded by one authority. 
 The meeting of Fairfax County was presided over 
 by Colonel Washington, of Mount Vernon, and 
 adopted a declaration of the right of the people of 
 each province to govern themselves, a protest against 
 the vindictive treatment of Massachusetts, and a rec- 
 ommendation that the Continental Congress should 
 forward a petition and remonstrance to the king, and 
 pray him to reflect " that from the king there was 
 but one appeal." 
 
 No gentleman of Washington's position in the 
 
THE PLANTER'S LIFE AND MARRL\GE. ;; 
 
 community could afford to threaten or bluster. The 
 language of the vestries and county meetings in 
 Maryland and Virginia was calm, clear, and positive. 
 They said exactly what they intended to say— no 
 more, no less—" From the king but one appeal." 
 What was that ? The appeal which their ancestors 
 had made against John, against Charles I, against 
 James II— an appeal to the God of battle ! 
 
 That was the alternative presented by the Eng- 
 lish on Chesapeake to the British beyond sea— an ad- 
 mission of the right to govern themselves as they saw 
 fit, forever and forever, or war ! Directly after the 
 passage of the Fairfax resolutions. Colonel Washing- 
 ton set out for Williamsburg to attend to his duties 
 in the House of Burgesses. 
 
 That body promptly backed the county meetings, 
 called a Continental Congress to meet in Philadel- 
 phia, and chose six delegates to it, of whom Wash- 
 ington was one. In the discussion as to measures to 
 be taken for the support of Massachusetts in the 
 position she had taken, and the relief of Boston 
 from the attack made on her liberties by the British, 
 he said : " If need be, I will raise one thousand men, 
 subsist them at my own expense, and march them to 
 the relief of Boston." 
 
 And he could have done so by the raising of his 
 hand. " Rally to Colonel Washington ! " would have 
 been the slogan. Up the Potomac to Fort Cumber- 
 land, across the mountains to Fort Pitt, down the 
 Ohio to the Kanawha, up the Kanawha to the Gauley, 
 the word would have passed by fleet runners, and the 
 hunters under Michael Cresap and Mordecai Gist 
 would have flocked to him over the Blue Mountains, 
 down the river valleys, up from tide water in Mary- 
 
78 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 land and Virginia, and twenty days would have given 
 him more than one thousand men such as General 
 Morgan afterward led at Saratoga or Lord Stirling 
 at Long Island. He was promptly in his place in 
 Philadelphia at the opening of Congress. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 The failure of the Americans to adequately sup- 
 port with men and money the campaigns against the 
 French in Canada created the idea at home that 
 proper means should be taken to compel them to do 
 so. It was decided that they could not be trusted 
 to raise money by taxing themselves to support im- 
 perial objects, and therefore it was necessary to de- 
 vise methods by which they could be made to do 
 their duty to the empire. The method proposed 
 was by imperial taxation, imposed by the imperial 
 Parliament. 
 
 In the Parliament America was not represented, 
 and it was perhaps impracticable to grant the pro- 
 vincials representation there. Such a measure was 
 suggested, considered, and rejected. The plainest, 
 simplest form of taxation, and one which was fa- 
 miliar to the English, was to require all legal pro- 
 cess, papers, conveyances, and wills to be written on 
 stamped paper which was supplied by the Govern- 
 ment. This form of taxation does not incommode 
 the great body of the people, but touches mainly 
 the class which deals with purchase and sale, with 
 exchange, with transactions in money, and with the 
 business of the people. But, like all taxation, it dis- 
 tributes itself through the entire community, and 
 
8o GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 falls equally on all property and on every class. It 
 had been in force in England for generations, and 
 was acquiesced in as just, equal, and convenient. 
 
 The idea of a central government for the New 
 England in America had been conceived and dis- 
 cussed by statesmen on either side of the Atlantic 
 long before the pressure of New France brought 
 the question of continental union up for decision. 
 As far back as 1701, Robert Livingston, of New 
 York, had suggested that all the colonies should be 
 united under one government; and, in 1752, Lieu- 
 tenant-Governor Dinwiddle, of Virginia, urged upon 
 the Lords of Trade the establishment of two separate 
 confederacies in the North and South. It was agreed 
 on all hands that concentration of the resources of 
 all the colonies was necessary for the common de- 
 fense ; but it was with equal unanimity that each 
 colony claimed the sole right to regulate all of its 
 internal affairs. 
 
 In 1754 the impending war with France brought 
 this question to a decision, and several of the royal 
 governors, upon the recommendation of the Earl of 
 Holdernesse, Secretary of State, called a congress of 
 all the colonies to be held at Albany. The object 
 was to secure co-operation of the colonies against the 
 French and the alliance of the Indian tribes, and 
 thus divide the hereditary enemies of the English in 
 America, and also to prepare and propose for adop- 
 tion some plan of confederation which would be ac- 
 cepted by all the colonies. Only seven out of the 
 thirteen sent delegates — New Hampshire, Massa- 
 chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
 Pennsylvania, and Maryland. 
 
 On the 4th of July, 1754, this congress adopted 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 8 1 
 
 a plan of union proposed by Benjamin Franklin, a 
 deputy from Pennsylvania. This plan provided 
 that a Federal Grand Council should meet every 
 year at Philadelphia, to be composed of " members " 
 from each colony, proportioned to its military 
 strength, which was to elect its own officers. The 
 Grand Council was to be elected by the General 
 Assembly of each colony selecting "members of 
 the Council " to which the colony was entitled. The 
 plan is particular to designate them ''members of 
 the Council," and nowhere " representatives, dele- 
 gates, or deputies," so carefully was it guarded from 
 possible inference from designations or words. 
 After the first term, " members " were to be selected 
 for three years, proportioned to taxes paid into the 
 common fund. 
 
 The government was to be administered by a 
 president-general to be appointed by the Crown, who 
 was to appoint all military officers subject to the 
 confirmation of the Grand Council and to have a 
 veto on its acts. The Grand Council was to have 
 entire control over the questions of peace and war, 
 defense against and trade with the Indians. As to 
 Continental matters, it could raise armies and im- 
 pose taxes. The plan utterly failed, and was no- 
 where received with favor, except by Governor Shir- 
 ley, of Massachusetts. Neither to the provincial 
 nor to the home government was it acceptable. But 
 notwithstanding this futile attempt at union the fact 
 was as imperative as ever. 
 
 The French in Canada barely exceeded fifty thou- 
 sand souls — men, women, and children ; the English 
 on the Atlantic numbered nearly eleven hundred 
 thousand; but the French, scattered over a wide 
 
82 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 territory, were controlled by one will and wielded by 
 one arm — a governor, always a soldier ; while the 
 English were divided into thirteen separate govern- 
 ments, each independent of all the rest, and only 
 connected by the ties of common blood, laws, race, 
 and language. Thus the first movement for a Con- 
 tinental union for defense against the Indians and 
 Roman Catholics failed ; but the germ of the move- 
 ment was planted, and as soon as necessity arose 
 for united action, co-operation was had. 
 
 When the Stamp Act was passed, in 1765, Massa- 
 chusetts promptly called a Congress to meet at New 
 York, the headquarters of the British army in Amer- 
 ica. There the deputies from nine colonies out of 
 the thirteen met, each colony having an equal vote. 
 They were from Massachusetts, South Carolina, 
 Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, 
 Maryland, New Jersey, and New York. The Gov- 
 ernor of Virginia prevented that province from being 
 represented by refusing to convoke the General As- 
 sembly, and by executive influence New Hampshire, 
 North Carolina, and Georgia were also unrepresent- 
 ed. But the people everywhere were in full accord 
 with the sentiment of resistance to the illegal act of 
 government. 
 
 This Congress, under the lead of Christopher 
 Gadsden, of South Carolina, asserted in moderate but 
 positive terms that the English in America were en- 
 titled to all the essential and common rights of Eng- 
 lishmen at home. " We should stand," said Gads- 
 den, "' upon the broad common ground of those natu- 
 ral rights that we all know and feel as men, and as 
 the descendants of Englishmen." 
 
 This was the keynote, this the general feeling 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 83 
 
 through all the colonies, " that we are Englishmen," 
 and entitled to equal rights with Englishmen at 
 home, greatest and chiefest of which was the right to 
 enforce, obtain, and defend those rights, with arms, 
 at the expense of life, blood, and fortune. The pure- 
 blooded race of English in New England and on the 
 Chesapeake were unanimous for resistance in arms. 
 The mixed population of New York, New Jersey, 
 and Pennsylvania were neither unanimous nor deter- 
 mined on such a course. In North Carolina the 
 English were for resistance, and the Scotch High- 
 landers, the representatives of the Jacobite feeling, 
 many of whom were fugitives from Culloden, were 
 zealous in the support of the House of Hanover, for 
 the overthrow of which they had given fortune, 
 blood, and native land. But they held themselves 
 bound by their parol and their oath of allegiance, 
 and the bloodiest conflicts of the Revolution were to 
 take place between the friends and kinsmen of Flora 
 McDonald in North Carolina, where she lived, and the 
 descendants of the English who fought them or their 
 ancestors in 1715 and 1745. The Irish everywhere 
 were prompt for rebellion, and the Roman Catholics, 
 principal of whom were the great landholders and 
 leaders of Maryland, were firm in defense of their 
 rights as Englishmen. 
 
 There has never been a day in which the English 
 Roman Catholic has not been clear in claiming 
 hereditary rights and courageous in defending them. 
 Whether under Lord Howard of Effingham, against 
 Medina-Sidonia, and Guise, and the Grand Armada, 
 or against the Scotch irruptions under the Stuarts, 
 or against threats of invasion by Napoleon, when- 
 ever and wherever the rights of Englishmen have 
 7 
 
84 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 been threatened or the integrity of the realm en- 
 dangered, the English Roman Catholics have been 
 foremost in defense of them. 
 
 The ultimate consequences of the Braddock cam- 
 paign, therefore, were to relieve the colonies from the 
 pressure of threats of invasion from the French in 
 the North and the Spaniard in the South, and to im- 
 pel them toward Continental union to defend them- 
 selves from the inroads of the Indians from the 
 West and the English from the East. 
 
 The rebellion of 1775, the Revolution of i776-'8i, 
 were the logical consequences of Braddock's defeat, 
 which made the conquest of Canada, or the loss of 
 North America, the sole alternatives to the English 
 nation, and which produced the supreme effort which 
 resulted in the subjection of the continent to the 
 English, and, as a consequence of that, the independ- 
 ence of the English in America, of the English be- 
 yond sea. 
 
 It was just and proper that the English in Amer- 
 ica should provide means and men for their own de- 
 fense. They had done so from the first settlement, 
 raising and subsisting their own troops ; but they had 
 done so by their own legislatures, themselves being 
 judges of what was necessary and proper to be done. 
 The taxing power was retained in their own hands. 
 When, therefore, the British ministry proposed in 
 Parliament to raise funds for the common defense 
 by imposing a stamp tax on the colonies, the propo- 
 sition was met by indignant protest all the way from 
 Boston to Savannah. 
 
 Washington, at Mount Vernon, engaged in the 
 supervision of his plantation, his family, and his 
 servants, was deeply impressed with the prodigious 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 85 
 
 importance of the proposition. His neighbor, 
 George Mason, of Gunston Hall, the profoundest 
 political thinker of his generation in Virginia, thor- 
 oughly informed as to history, and especially the his- 
 tory of the English race and its reiterated struggle 
 in arms against unrestrained absolute power of gov- 
 ernment, thoroughly sympathized with him. 
 
 He demonstrated to the self-contained soldier- 
 planter the inevitable consequences of yielding to 
 the first encroachment of power on liberty, and that 
 only two courses were possible — prompt and early re- 
 sistance or abject submission. And he foresaw that 
 resistance meant separation. Freed from the threat 
 of the French and the Spaniard, abundantly able to 
 deal with the Indian, he knew that when once the 
 issue was joined the provincials would promptly vin- 
 dicate their ability to meet the British regulars in 
 the field, and the colonies their capacity for govern- 
 ing themselves, and that thereafter it would be im- 
 possible to reconcile them to subordination to the 
 British Parliament. 
 
 Washington was, before everything, a Virginian ; 
 but he was an Englishman as well. The Braddock 
 campaign had emancipated him from that provincial- 
 ism which exaggerated all the high characteristics of 
 the home people, and he appreciated them at their 
 fair value. He considered the Virginian Englishman 
 the equal in every way of the Briton at home. The 
 Stamp Act, therefore, shocked him, and the repeal of 
 the law, with the reservation of the power and right 
 of Parliament to tax the American colonists, filled 
 him with gloomy forebodings. 
 
 He did not want a separation from friends and 
 kindred at home. He was not m favor of secession, 
 
86 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and it was not until flagrant war demanded all the 
 assistance that could be brought to support it that 
 he consented to the Declaration of Independence. 
 He was a member of the House of Burgesses of 
 Virginia, from which, under the lead of Patrick 
 Henry, came the first defiance of the British Parlia- 
 ment and the first assertion of the principle on which 
 resistance to it was to rest. " The taxation of the 
 people by themselves, or by persons chosen to repre- 
 sent them, ... is the distinguishing characteristic of 
 British freedom, without which the Constitution can 
 not exist," was the declaration of Henry's resolutions 
 passed by the House. They further declared that 
 any attempt to vest the power of taxation in any 
 other body than the Colonial Assembly was a menace 
 to British no less than to American freedom; that 
 the people of Virginia were not bound to obey any 
 law enacted in disregard of these fundamental princi- 
 ples ; and that any one who should maintain the con- 
 trary should be regarded as a public enemy. 
 
 But, looking back over the century and a quarter 
 that has intervened, it is still impossible to under- 
 stand the utter fatuity which controlled the British 
 Cabinet in the twenty years that passed before the 
 Declaration of Independence. Deep down imbedded 
 in the heart of the race, from its emigration from 
 Germany to the British Isle, was a conviction that 
 no man should be deprived of life, liberty, or prop- 
 erty except by the judgment of his peers and the 
 law of the land. His peers were his neighbors im- 
 paneled into a jury of twelve men, who, sitting in 
 judgment, administered justice in the light of his 
 life, his character, and his career, more or less known 
 to them. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 87 
 
 In the reign of Charles II a law had been passed 
 to enforce revenue laws — that when smuggled goods 
 were suspected to be concealed in any hous«e, a 
 writ of assistance might be issued from the ad- 
 miralty, commanding the marshal to search all sus- 
 pected places and seize all suspected goods and ar- 
 rest all suspected persons, and, if necessary, to sum- 
 mon to his assistance such force as might be in his 
 judgment necessary. An act of William III granted 
 to revenue officers in America all the powers they 
 were entitled to in England. In addition, an act was 
 passed to preserve timber for the royal navy, and 
 many trees were blazed and marked with the broad 
 arrow in the forests of Maine, the two Carolinas, 
 and Georgia, and thus dedicated to the use of the 
 navy. Any trespass on this royal preserve was pun- 
 ished in the admiralty by stripes, fine, and impris- 
 onment. 
 
 By the Statute of Treasons of Henry VIII, all 
 treasons committed anywhere under the British do- 
 minion were triable in England. On the charge that 
 American juries could not be relied on to convict 
 their fellow-subjects for violation of revenue laws, 
 the old statutes of Henry VIII and Charles II were 
 revived to secure convictions and deprive them of 
 trial by jury. All ordinary offenses against the rev- 
 enue laws were triable by one judge, without a jury, 
 in admiralty. All extraordinary offenders were to 
 be deported to England and tried by a jury, when 
 conviction was sure. Thus the right to tax them- 
 selves, and the right to trial by a jury of their neigh- 
 bors, were alike denied by the British Government to 
 the provincials. The writ of assistance authorized 
 the marshal to search every suspected place for proof 
 
88 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 of suspected crime. It laid every house open to the 
 menials of the admiralty. His house was no longer 
 a man's castle, but was open on demand to any offi- 
 cer of the Admiralty Court. 
 
 The attempt to extend the admiralty jurisdiction, 
 and thus deprive freeborn Englishmen of their 
 hereditary right of trial by jury, the assertion of the 
 power of the writs of assistance, which were general 
 warrants authorized to search all suspected places, 
 seize all suspected goods, and arrest all suspected 
 persons, roused the people like a fire-bell by night, 
 and the coast, from Maine to the Gulf of Mexico, 
 blazed with bonfires burning in effigy the obnoxious 
 admiralty judges and minions who sought to perpe- 
 trate this outrage on the freeborn. 
 
 The controversy between the common law and 
 the admiralty courts had raged in England from 
 the time when the Count of the Saxon shore was 
 necessarily vested with authority to call out all the 
 power of the sea and land to resist invasion by 
 Saxon, or Dane, or Norseman ; and only as the power 
 of the central government of king, lords, and 
 commons was crystallized into regular forms and 
 developed into governing force to establish security 
 for home, life, and property, were the King's courts 
 of sufficient authority to protect the King's subjects 
 against the usurpations and aggressions of the ad- 
 miralty ; and it was not until the time of Lord Coke 
 that his rugged English brain and courage estab- 
 lished on immutable foundations the principle that 
 the jurisdiction of the admiralty was bounded by the 
 tide, and controlled only the doings of men on the 
 great deep. 
 
 So deeply seated is this desire of power to ex- 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 89 
 
 tend itself on the one side, and the desire of the 
 freeborn to resist usurpation on the other, that the 
 struggle between the admiralty and the common 
 right has been continued from the colonies to the 
 States, until the fourth generation after the Declara- 
 tion of Independence has not been able sufficiently 
 to check or bridle the admiralty jurisdiction within 
 the limits established by Lord Coke. 
 
 The use of stamps was so universally repudiated, 
 the law requiring the use of them so generally ig- 
 nored, that they passed out of existence and made 
 no sign. The stamp officers everywhere were forced 
 to resign their offices, and the stamps were burnt or 
 reshipped home. The stamp officer for Annapolis 
 in Maryland escaped to New York, where, under the 
 guns of the British fleet and the protection of the 
 British army, he hoped to live in peace. But the 
 irate Marylanders pursued him there, and a com- 
 mittee from Annapolis forced him, at the point of 
 the sword, to resign his place. The courts of Mary- 
 land required public and private business to be tran- 
 sacted without stamps, and the bar of Charleston, 
 South Carolina, unanimously signed an application 
 to the court that the law should be ignored in that 
 jurisdiction, because it was manifestly contrary to 
 the fundamental rights of Englishmen. 
 
 The repeal of the Stamp Act amounted to noth- 
 ing. It reasserted the right of Parliament to tax 
 the colonies, and while experience had just proved 
 that this right of taxation would never produce rev- 
 enue, for it could not be enforced, the insistence on 
 this theoretical right gave grave offense to the Eng- 
 lish in America. It is the peculiarity of the race 
 that they feel ideas like facts, and the assertion of 
 
90 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 an obnoxious principle is with them as bad as the 
 enforcement of it. 
 
 The levy of a few shillings ship-money on John 
 Hampden did not inconvenience him, nor did it 
 threaten his neighbors, but the assertion of the right 
 to take his property without his consent implied the 
 right to take the property of any man for any pur- 
 pose, and thus no man's home was safe, and he held 
 everything at the pleasure of the King. On that 
 issue the English took arms, overthrew a dynasty, 
 and after many battles on many bloody fields have 
 established a government where security for life, lib- 
 erty, and property has never been exceeded in the 
 history of the world. 
 
 In 1761 the revenue officer of Boston applied to 
 Chief-Justice Hutchinson for a writ of assistance — 
 that is, a general warrant to search all suspected 
 places for all suspected goods and persons, specifying 
 none of them. James Otis appeared before the court 
 as counsel for the people, and with fiery eloquence 
 demonstrated that general warrants were contrary 
 to the Constitution, and that no one was bound to 
 respect them. He did not point out the logical con- 
 sequence — the common sense of the people did that 
 — that no man could interfere with any other man's 
 rights of person or property without the authority 
 of the law, and that whoever did so, without legal 
 warrant, was a trespasser, and might legally be re- 
 sisted by force. 
 
 If a private trespass might thus be met by force — 
 and that has been a maxim of the common law from 
 the time "beyond which the memory of man run- 
 neth not " — so much the more was it the duty of 
 the loyal subject as of the free citizen to take 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 91 
 
 arms to resist trespass on the common right, the 
 right of all men to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
 happiness. The British Administration withdrew the 
 stamp tax. It cost more to collect it than it could 
 be made to yield, but it put in a " continual claim " 
 of the right to tax the provincials, and arranged to 
 enforce the regulations of trade more rigorously. 
 
 Under the British navigation acts — remnant of 
 the Commonwealth and of Cromwell's policy — all 
 trade with the colonies was required to be carried 
 on through home ports in British bottoms. Thus 
 sugar from Jamaica to Maryland must first be 
 shipped to Bristol or London or Portsmouth in Brit- 
 ish ships, and thence to the James River or the Po- 
 tomac. It was this violation of the natural laws of 
 trade that forced the traders of New England, who 
 flew as free and fearless sails as any Viking under 
 the raven flag, to defy the law and run sugar into 
 home ports. 
 
 But, as population increased in the intervening 
 century, the navigation acts operated in unforeseen 
 ways, and imposed unheard-of burdens on the people. 
 In York, Pennsylvania, there was a manufactory of 
 beaver hats, which were needed in Maryland. They 
 could not be wagoned to Baltimore, forty miles off, 
 because direct trade between the colonies was for- 
 bidden. The Virginians on the Rappahannock pro- 
 duced a high quality of pig iron, which was needed 
 in Baltimore and elsewhere, to be manufactured into 
 plows, axes, and hoes. But the same law prevented 
 the direct trade. And, ten thousand times worse, 
 from the minute either hats or iron started on their 
 roundabout journey to the consumer, they became 
 subject to admiralty law and were deprived of the 
 
92 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 right to a trial by jury. A dozen hats smuggled 
 across the border rendered every house liable to 
 search, every box to seizure, and every person to 
 arrest. Every province was surrounded by an iron 
 wall of protection ; interstate trade was absolutely 
 prohibited, and the interchange of products among 
 neighbors was forbidden. 
 
 Under natural conditions, the great fisheries of 
 the Chesapeake would have been the source of untold 
 prosperity to their possessors and their neighbors. 
 Their rich yield could have been exchanged for the 
 hats, cloths, leather, and industrial products of 
 Pennsylvania, and both sides made a profit and pros- 
 pered. But the British intellect is mcapable of tak- 
 ing in the idea of the equality of other men. 
 
 Though the provincials were in the main of their 
 own blood, they never did understand, never could 
 appreciate, the fact that societies are born, grow, 
 develop, and arrive at maturity precisely as men do, 
 and, as men require different treatment from boys, so 
 mature provinces occupy different positions in the 
 world from infant colonies. It is this incapacity 
 that is now risking the British hold on her colonies, 
 and which will certainly lose her Canada and Aus- 
 tralasia, unless she recognizes them as her equals and 
 associates with them on terms of equal rights. 
 
 The pretensions of the admiralty were steadily 
 resisted. James Otis's attack on general search 
 warrants, or writs of assistance, was followed up in 
 every other colony except Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
 and New York. Perhaps the inducements of trade 
 were more dominating in those colonies, and peace 
 and thrift were preferred to the tempestuous struggle 
 of civil war for the preservation of hereditary rights. 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 
 
 93 
 
 During the discussions about the stamp tax, the 
 provincial governors had represented to the Lords 
 of Trade that, while the Americans would resist 
 every attempt at direct taxation, they would be 
 satisfied with indirect contributions to the imperial 
 treasury for the common defense, raised by means of 
 regulations of trade — tariff taxes, as we now under- 
 stand them. Accordingly, the Administration, under 
 the lead of Charles Townsend, Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, imposed a tax on glass, paper, lead, paints, 
 colors, and tea, imported into the colonies. This 
 act was to be enforced by a board of revenue com- 
 missioners for the whole country, to sit at Boston, and 
 general writs of assistance were expressly authorized. 
 That is, that a board at Boston was to issue a gen- 
 eral warrant to search all houses in Maryland, to 
 seize all property, and to arrest all persons that the 
 revenue collector for the district chose to search, 
 seize, and arrest. 
 
 The King was to appoint governors and judges 
 and create a general civil list, and grant pensions in 
 every colony, all of which were to be paid out of 
 the fund raised by tariff taxation ; that is, that the 
 people were to be deprived of all influence over 
 their executive and judicial officers, as their legis- 
 latures were superseded by the imperial Parliament, 
 and they were to be delivered into the hands of the 
 Crown, with life, liberty, and property absolutely at 
 its disposal, utterly stripped of their right of trial by 
 jury. 
 
 No such scheme of absolutism was ever applied 
 to people of English blood before. Not Strafford, in 
 his wildest dreams of "thorough," ever imagined 
 such a plan of subjugating a freeborn people to 
 
94 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 absolute authority. The tariff on imports was 
 promptly met by the colonists by agreements among 
 themselves not to import anything from home, or pur- 
 chase or use anything imported. The Townsend 
 Tariff Act was passed in 1767, but so fierce was the 
 opposition to it, that in 1769 Parliament repealed all 
 except the duty on tea. 
 
 Tea was probably selected because a tax on it 
 would be the least annoying, and would touch fewer 
 people than any other tax whatever. The retention 
 of it would assert the right of Parliament to tax the 
 colonies. The tax would not produce over three 
 hundred pounds ; and as tea was unknown to the 
 great mass of the people, and used only by the few 
 rich and traveled families, it was supposed that a 
 tax on it would pass unnoticed, and the principle as- 
 serted be universally acquiesced in because it in- 
 convenienced nobody. So little was the use of tea 
 known, that tradition says that a gentleman in Vir- 
 ginia gave his overseer a pound of tea as a present 
 to his wife, who, thinking it was some new-fashioned 
 "greens," promptly boiled the whole of it in a pot 
 with a big ham ! 
 
 At this period few people anywhere meditated se- 
 cession, and independence of the home government. 
 It was dimly crystallizing in the mind of Patrick 
 Henry, but without definite form. Samuel Adams, 
 of Massachusetts, claimed that from the passage of 
 the Declaratory Act asserting the omnipotence of 
 Parliament, he became fixed in purpose and clear 
 in intention to produce a complete separation, as the 
 only defense from the constant intermeddling of the 
 mother country with the affairs and domestic rights 
 of the provincials. But George Mason, George 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION. 95 
 
 Washington, Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, Thomas 
 Johnson and Charles Carroll, of Maryland, Richard 
 Caswell, of North Carolina, and Christopher Gads- 
 den and Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, of South 
 Carolina, all patriotic Englishmen, all devoted to the 
 traditions and the institutions of " home," the birth- 
 place and grave of their ancestors for generations, 
 had no desire for separation, and certainly no inten- 
 tion to prepare for it. 
 
 George Mason was of too philosophic a mind not 
 to understand that a combination by people to resist 
 law— law enacted with all the guarantees, securities, 
 forms, and sanctions ever thrown around any law — 
 on the vague ground that such a law was no law, 
 because contrary to common right and the fundamen- 
 tal principles of justice, Mason was too well read in 
 history, and too sagacious, not to appreciate that the 
 first step was being taken to arouse resistance to 
 government ; that such rebellion was very different 
 from the rebellion against Charles I and the Star 
 Chamber, and that against James II, when the re- 
 sult of resistance must of necessity be not a revolu- 
 tion in the principles, but a change in the adminis- 
 trators, of government. 
 
 The combination against law, beginning with the 
 repudiation of the Stamp Act, followed by the non- 
 importation agreement, organized in provincial con- 
 gresses, could only result in absolute defeat and sub- 
 jection to the will of Great Britain, when the colo- 
 nies would be governed by military law applied by 
 soldiers, as the Southern States were while under the 
 reconstruction governments, or in complete success, 
 which would secure the colonies absolute control of 
 their own destinies, and this, once secured, must result 
 
96 
 
 GENERAL WASFIINGTON. 
 
 in independence, for the victor never yet has submit- 
 ted to the sway of the vanquished. 
 
 But while a few prophetic and enthusiastic minds 
 and hearts, aflame with the divine frenzy of pas- 
 sion, of sentiment, of devotion to high ideals, felt 
 that the issue was between subjugation and slavery 
 or liberty and independence, the great mass of the 
 property holders, the churchmen, the landholders? 
 were faithful in their love of home and kin, and 
 had not the remotest idea that they were being led 
 in the path of a separation, to be achieved at the ex- 
 pense of so many tears and lives and so much blood 
 and property. 
 
 The tariff on tea, therefore, though it touched no- 
 body or annoyed any one, was taken by the leaders 
 North and South to be more insidious and more 
 dangerous than an open notorious violation of com- 
 mon right. A tax levied and collected by the King's 
 tax-gatherer from door to door would have aroused 
 the people like the fiery cross of Clan-Alpin, and 
 the representative of the royal authority would have 
 been booted from the mountains to the sea. But in 
 order to confuse the question of right, the import 
 duty paid by the East India Company on tea im- 
 ported into England was remitted to the company 
 on tea exported to America, so that the price of tea, 
 with Townsend's tariff on it, was no greater than be- 
 fore it was imposed. 
 
 Tea was made the test, and when, in the fall of 
 1773, vessels loaded with tea were sent to Boston, 
 New York, Philadelphia, and Charleston, prepara- 
 tions were made to prevent the landing of the car- 
 goes. At Boston, after a public meeting called to pre- 
 vent the landing of the tea, a party of men, disguised 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION, ^j 
 
 as Indians, at night threw the tea overboard in the 
 harbor. At Charleston the tea was landed, but com- 
 pelled to be stored in damp cellars, where it was 
 speedily destroyed by moid. 
 
 But at Annapolis the boldness of the rebels sur- 
 passed all experience. On the arrival of the ship Peg- 
 gy Stewart in that port, consigned to her owner, one 
 Stewart, a Scotch factor, the Whig Club of Anne 
 Arundel County were convened by their president, 
 Dr. Charles Alexander Warfield, and with hatbands 
 inscribed " Liberty or Death," they rode on Annapolis, 
 and in open day gave Stewart the alternative of be- 
 ing hung before his own door or of firing his own 
 ship with his own hand. He naturally chose the 
 latter, and the Peggy Stewart was burned at her wharf 
 in open day, by the direction of the principal people 
 of the county, without disguise, who acted openly, 
 and assumed the responsibility for their acts. 
 
 The tax on tea was, therefore, as conspicuous a 
 failure as that on stamps had been, and it was aban- 
 doned. But Boston was required to pay for the tea 
 destroyed by her mob, and did pay for it. A de- 
 mand for payment on Maryland would have met with 
 prompt refusal. Theirs was not the spirit to tempo- 
 rize, nor to draw back from a position deliberately as- 
 sumed. But while the commercial sense of Boston 
 led it to seek to obviate the consequences of the acts 
 of its people — extra-legal, illegal, or rebellious — the 
 body of the people, when their spirits are aroused, 
 never temporize. On any question of right or honor, 
 of faith or trust, the mass of feeling, in the mass of 
 free people, may always be counted on as being on 
 the right side, as they understand it. 
 
 And the people of Massachusetts were far above 
 
gS GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the traders and business men of Boston in their 
 standard of the rights of Englishmen, and their will- 
 ingness to make sacrifice of property to maintain 
 them, and their unselfish devotion and faith in the 
 eternal truth and life of them. Boston was selected 
 by the ministry at home for the experimentum in 
 corpore vili. Her port was closed by act of Parlia- 
 ment, and her commerce obliterated. Major-General 
 Gage, who had commanded the Forty-fourth Regi- 
 ment as Lieutenant Colonel in Dunbar's Brigade of 
 the rear guard at the Battle of the Monongahela, was 
 sent to restore order in Boston with four regiments 
 of regulars. 
 
 The provincial authorities would make no pro- 
 vision for billeting the troops. The experience of 
 James II in billeting troops on the people in time of 
 peace was too recent for the royal governor or royal 
 general to dare to billet troops on Boston, so they 
 lived under canvas on Boston Common, all through 
 a Boston winter. The unnecessary hardships to 
 which the soldiers were exposed, their consequent 
 rheumatism and pleurisy, were not calculated to 
 beget or to cultivate good feeling between citizens 
 and soldiers, and consequently there were collisions, 
 attacks on single soldiers, or on detached parties of 
 them, until at last, in an affray in open day, the sol- 
 diers shot down several citizens who were leading 
 the mob which was driving them into their quarters. 
 
 This was called " the Boston Massacre." Six 
 men lost their lives in it. It is a miracle that every 
 red-coat in Boston was not shot down that night. 
 There were plenty of old soldiers of Louisburgh and 
 old sailors of Marblehead in Boston, and they could 
 have wiped out the British garrison as completely as 
 
THE BEGINNING OF THE REVOLUTION, qq 
 
 that other British garrison was wiped out at Delhi. 
 But for self-control and prudence the men of New 
 England are unsurpassed. Gage arrested the officer 
 and his detachment who fired on the mob, and turned 
 them over to the civil authority for trial. James Otis 
 and John Adams defended them, and they were ac- 
 quitted on the plea of self-defense. This remarkable 
 though proper verdict may perhaps be explained on 
 the ground of a healthy respect for General Gage's 
 guns, and a reasonable doubt whether any other 
 verdict would have been carried out. 
 
 During the days of reconstruction, while Virginia 
 was Military District No. i, a Federal sentinel shot 
 and killed a citizen for not respecting his challenge 
 on post. The man was doubtless amenable to the 
 articles of war, but the commanding officer preferred 
 to turn him over to the civil courts for trial and pun- 
 ishment. He was defended by an ex-Confederate offi- 
 cer. The Hustings court of the city of Richmond 
 promptly acquitted him, on the ground that as a sol- 
 dier he was bound to obey orders, and that the offi- 
 cer who gave the order was responsible, if anybody 
 was; and, further, that the officer of the guard was 
 not subject to civil jurisdiction during the military 
 occupation of a conquered territory. So the cool- 
 ness and judgment of the Boston jury may have 
 been tempered by some like considerations to those 
 which controlled the Virginia court. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS — NEW ENGLAND IN 
 THE WAR. 
 
 On September 4, 1774, the first Continental Con- 
 gress assembled at Philadelphia. Eleven colonies 
 were there, North Carolina delegates not arriving un- 
 til the i6th, and Georgia was not represented at all. 
 Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was chosen president, 
 and their first resolution was to reassert and indorse the 
 Massachusetts declaration that a king who violates 
 the chartered rights of his people forfeits their al- 
 legiance ; that an act of Parliament contrary to the 
 common right was void, and ought to be disregarded. 
 This was another way of asserting the duty of the 
 people to resist invasion of their rights by arms. It 
 was the first act of nullification in America. The 
 Congress agreed upon and passed a declaration of 
 rights which claimed for each colony the exclusive 
 right of control over its police, its taxation, and its 
 expenditure, echoing the sentiment of the Fairfax 
 resolves, and sent out addresses to the King, to the 
 people of Great Britain, and to the other British 
 colonies in America. 
 
 With the English race the appeal to reason has 
 always preceded the appeal to force, but time and 
 again in its history, resolves, remonstrances, and 
 declarations have been backed by the sword in 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. iqi 
 
 manly hands. There was not unanimity in the desire 
 for the accession of the Canadas, for twenty genera- 
 tions of struggle with the Roman Catholic and the 
 Frenchman at home or in America had left feelings 
 not to be obliterated at once. 
 
 But the desire for the purely English colonies of 
 the Bermudas was strong, and it was not until long 
 after, when experience had demonstrated that con- 
 trol of the sea guaranteed possession of the islands 
 to Great Britain, that the statesmen of the Continent 
 gave up all hopes of their joining the Confederacy. 
 In fact, the address to the people of Great Britain 
 enumerated as one of the grievances for repair of 
 which they appealed to their fellow-subjects at 
 home, that the Quebec Act, regulating the govern- 
 ment of Canada, guaranteed security to the Roman 
 Catholic Church, its priests and property, and pro- 
 tected them in the free exercise of their religion. 
 Of course, when the Congress afterward sent com- 
 missioners to Canada to solicit co-operation and 
 union, with John Carroll, Provincial of the Society 
 of Jesus in North America, at their head, the com- 
 missioners were met by the solid opposition of the 
 Roman Catholic Church, clergy and laity, and made 
 an utter failure. 
 
 Nothing further was done, but this meeting still 
 further mingled the spirits of the different colonies 
 into a medium which prepared crystallization. The 
 personal association between John Adams, of Mas- 
 sachusetts, Patrick Henry and Edmund Randolph, 
 of Virginia, Thomas Johnson and Mathew Tilgh- 
 man, of Maryland, and Christopher Gadsden, of 
 South Carolina, in the daily intercourse of a month 
 gave them better appreciation of the personalities 
 
102 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 which would be united in their undertaking of re- 
 sistance, than correspondence of a year would have 
 afforded. 
 
 By the written word, ideas are expressed and im- 
 parted ; by the spoken language, force, intelligence, 
 sympathy, directness, manliness, are understood, and 
 the controlling powers of life lie much more in per- 
 sonal qualities than in intellectual ones. The fac- 
 ulty of expression lessens the power of force of will. 
 No great orator or philosopher ever was a great 
 soldier, and a great soldier rarely is a great thinker. 
 The sphere of physical action and intellectual effort 
 lie in different planes. These are unlikely to cross. 
 When they do, a phenomenon like Moses, or Alex- 
 ander, or Napoleon Bonaparte is produced. 
 
 Leaders of revolutions do not create them. They 
 express in words, or in action, the common feeling, 
 and are successful just in proportion as they faith- 
 fully, accurately express the emotions which stir all 
 hearts. Samuel Adams may have foreseen the ne- 
 cessity for separation, Patrick Henry may have 
 declared the duty of resistance by force, but neither 
 created the idea of independence, nor originated 
 that of revolution. 
 
 The sentiment was in the hearts of the English 
 in America. They felt that they had grown up ; that 
 they were men, and had the right and duty to control 
 their own destinies, and the logic of Nature marched 
 with irresistible and inevitable steps to resistance 
 and separation. General Gage had occupied Boston 
 and sought to intimidate Massachusetts since the 
 previous April, 1774, when he had been appointed 
 military Governor of the colony, turned into a mili- 
 tary district, just as Virginia was in 1867-1870. 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 103 
 
 During the summer the colony nullified the act 
 of Parliament known as the Regulating Act, which 
 assumed to control the legislative power of the col- 
 ony by vesting in the Governor appointed by the 
 Crown the power to appoint councilors to the Gov- 
 ernor, to hold during the pleasure of the appointing 
 power and to be paid by it. 
 
 Committees of correspondence were organized 
 throughout the colony and with all other colonies, and 
 careful provision of gunpowder and lead began to 
 be made. On every village green the young men 
 and boys began to be drilled by the old soldiers of 
 Pepperell, Wolfe, and Prescott. During the winter 
 Washington occupied himself in arranging his affairs 
 for a long absence. He committed the Mount 
 Vernon estate to the care of Battaille Muse, his old 
 adjutant of Fort Necessity. In April, 1775, he at- 
 tended the second Congress at Philadelphia. 
 
 It has been remarked that he wore to the sessions 
 of this Congress his uniform of a Virginia colonel of 
 blue and buff, as significant that in his opinion the 
 time for action had arrived. The uniform he did 
 wear was of blue coat and scarlet waistcoat and 
 breeches, as proved by Peale's portrait, and the rea- 
 son he wore it is probably that it was the best suit 
 he had. It had been made by a London tailor. The 
 Articles of Nonimportation which he had signed, and 
 of which he was a conscientious observer, had cut off 
 supplies of appropriate dress from home, and the 
 uniform of a man's rank was considered the dress 
 suit for occasions of ceremony in the society to 
 which he had been accustomed. 
 
 The military preparations in Massachusetts had 
 occasioned discussion as to the orgfanization of a 
 
104 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Continental army, and it was the clearest policy to 
 commit Virginia fully and completely to the move- 
 ment of force. Consultations by correspondence 
 were going on through the winter between the 
 leaders in all the provinces as to the proper per- 
 son to be placed in command. The only ones who 
 could furnish soldiers of experience and reputation 
 for command were Massachusetts and Virginia. 
 While Massachusetts had Ward and Prescott, who 
 had served against the French, Virginia had Andrew 
 Lewis and Washington. 
 
 Lewis, at the battle of Point Pleasant, with Vir- 
 ginia militia alone — the veteran and seasoned rangers 
 of the border — had defeated the allied forces of the 
 Indians, shattered their power, and driven the de- 
 moralized fugitives beyond the Ohio. But Thomas 
 Johnson, of Maryland, was the neighbor and friend 
 of Washington. He had been associated with him 
 since 1762 in the Ohio Company, and in the great 
 enterprise to secure a free water way from the head 
 of tide on the Potomac, where Washington now 
 stands, by the Potomac, the Monongahela, the Ohio, 
 and the Wabash, to Lake Erie. Johnson, better than 
 any man of his cotemporaries, knew the broadness 
 of view, the grasp of mind, the tenacity of purpose, 
 united with self-control, concentration, and phys- 
 ical fortitude and endurance of Colonel Washing- 
 ton. It may well have been, as John Adams claims, 
 that he indicated the choice of Washington as com- 
 mander in chief on account of his conspicuous posi- 
 tion and the considerations of policy. Johnson, 
 however, took the initiative, and on June 15, 1775, 
 moved in the Congress that that body assume the 
 responsibility for the army which the affair of Lex- 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 
 
 [05 
 
 ington had assembled before Boston, and that Colo- 
 nel George Washington, of Virginia, be appointed to 
 the command in chief. 
 
 Johnson says that on going into the hall, on the 
 morning of the isth, he met Adams and proposed to 
 him the nomination of Colonel Washington for the 
 supreme command, and that Adams turned off im- 
 patiently, as if the subject were distasteful to him. 
 Therefore the deputy from Maryland proceeded to 
 make the motion which had been agreed upon. As 
 soon as Colonel Washington's name was mentioned 
 he withdrew from the hall, as was decorous and 
 proper, and upon being informed of the passage of 
 the resolution he resumed his place, where he was 
 informed by the President of the action of the body. 
 
 He at once arose and thanked his colleagues for 
 the confidence they had reposed in him, assured 
 them of his unfeigned diffidence as to his ability to 
 justify their action, for he thought that there was 
 another gentleman better qualified and more worthy 
 of the great responsibility, and stated that, as no 
 pecuniary inducement controlled him in the matter, 
 he would receive no pay or allowances as attached 
 to his place, but would keep an exact account of his 
 expenses, which he would rely on the justice of Con- 
 gress to reimburse. 
 
 The habit of the Plantation Book, and the atten- 
 tion to detail of every kind, stood him in good stead 
 in the business of governing an army of ten thou- 
 sand men in the field, as it had done a detachment 
 of five hundred inferiors on a plantation ; and after 
 the war was over the account of Washington's ex- 
 penses, kept in his own handwriting, was submitted 
 to Congress and the sum total reimbursed him. 
 
I06 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 These autograph accounts may still be seen among 
 the archives of the United States at Washington. 
 He never received a shilling of pay. Immediately 
 on his appointment, without a moment's delay, he 
 began to prepare for the field. He sent home to 
 Mount Vernon for money and horses, and supplied 
 his wardrobe for the campaign. He bought five 
 saddle-horses, and sent his carriage and its horses 
 back to Virginia. On June 23d he left Philadelphia 
 on horseback to ride to Boston. He was escorted 
 by the First City Troop — a troop of cavalry well 
 mounted, well drilled, well equipped, and well offi- 
 cered, consisting of the Jeunesse dore oi Philadelphia. 
 He was accompanied by Generals Charles Lee and 
 Philip Schuyler. Lee was a lieutenant colonel in 
 the British army, but this did not prevent him from 
 accepting the rank of major general in the Conti- 
 nental army, third in rank to the commander in chief, 
 Ward, of Massachusetts, being second. 
 
 Twenty miles from Philadelphia they met the 
 courier bringing the news of Bunker Hill. " Did the 
 militia fight?" was the Virginian's first inquiry; and 
 when it was made clear to him that they had held on 
 to their rude earthworks with rifles and shotguns 
 against the British bayonet, until their last cartridge 
 was fired, and had been pushed out only after in- 
 flicting a loss of thirty-three per cent on the regulars 
 and suffering a loss of twenty-five per cent in their 
 own ranks, he rode on, perfectly satisfied that lati- 
 tude and climate had not modified or lessened that 
 solid English pluck that had saved the routed, fren- 
 ized fragments of the regulars on the Monongahela. 
 He was everywhere welcomed with cordiality and 
 distinction, for he represented chivalrous aid to kith 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 
 
 107 
 
 and kin in a cause in which they had not so close 
 material interests. 
 
 Washington arrived in Boston on July 2, 1775, 
 and the next day assumed command of the army, 
 displaying for the first time the Continental flag bear- 
 ing the scarlet and white bars from the Washington 
 arms, thirteen in number for the thirteen colonies, 
 and in the union the red cross of England and of 
 Scotland, of St. George and of St. Andrew, forming 
 the Union Jack of Great Britain. Under this flag, 
 emblematic of the united colonies and of their re- 
 lation to the mother country. General Washington 
 asserted the right of war in defense of hereditary 
 rights and ancestral liberty. 
 
 The army at Boston consisted of eleven thousand 
 five hundred men from Massachusetts, two thousand 
 three hundred from Connecticut, one thousand two 
 hundred from New Hampshire, and one thousand 
 from Rhode Island — sixteen thousand in all. They 
 were the levy e7i masse of New England in response 
 to the guns of Lexington, of farmers' sons, of city 
 and town clerks, of the enthusiasm and ardor of 
 the English of New England. They were sent by 
 county committees, and town meetings, on all sorts 
 of terms of enlistment, and on all kinds of promises 
 of pay. They were armed with the old weapons of 
 the Indian and French wars, and clothed with the 
 products of their fathers' farms and their mothers' 
 looms and fingers. In an outburst of enthusiasm, 
 when aspiration and devotion to duty absorbs every 
 energy and overwhelms egotism, selfishness, vanity, 
 and self-assertion, push themselves to the front, 
 assert control, and require to be repressed, as they 
 always are repressed, by the stern reality of action. 
 
I08 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 In the radical democratic society of New Eng- 
 land, where social distinctions had for generations 
 been resented as remains of aristocracy, and where 
 universal equality was recognized as the only rule of 
 life, the military organization necessarily reflected 
 the conditions from which it arose. The men elected 
 their officers, from colonel to junior lieutenant, and 
 in the inexperience of men, the result of youth and 
 a country life, frequently made great mistakes in 
 their selections. The Virginia soldier, accustomed 
 to the discipline of the border, the campaign, and 
 the plantation, found his army a mob, courageous, 
 earnest, and ignorant. Very many of the officers of 
 the line were utterly worthless. 
 
 Cowardly, thieving braggarts, they were peculat- 
 ing in the provisions and clothes sent from home to 
 the boys in the field, and defrauding them of their 
 pay. The commander in chief at once inspected his 
 command, organized a staff, and made himself mas- 
 ter of details. He broke two captains for cowardly 
 behavior in the action at Bunker Hill, two captains 
 for drawing more pay and provisions than they had 
 men in their companies, and one for having been ab- 
 sent from his post when the enemy appeared and 
 burned a house just by it. In addition, he put under 
 arrest and sent before a court-martial under charges, 
 one colonel, one major, one captain, and two subal- 
 terns. He set himself to stamp out selfishness and 
 self-seeking, and to imbue his command with a high 
 sense of patriotism, a love of liberty and of coun- 
 try, and devotion to duty, as the vital forces which 
 should control and direct every member of it, from 
 the highest to the lowest. But among the officers 
 were some of the highest merit. 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 
 
 109 
 
 Israel Putnam, Benedict Arnold, Nathanael 
 Greene, Henry Knox, and John Stark were all there, 
 whose names were afterward to become illustrious 
 from great and distinguished service, the second un- 
 happily infamous by an unparalleled act of treachery. 
 During July Congress re-enforced him by the addi- 
 tion of three thousand Virginian and Maryland 
 troops under Morgan and Cresap — that Indian fighter 
 who has come down to us unjustly branded with the 
 murder of Logan's family, a crime with which he 
 had absolutely no connection, and of which he was 
 entirely guiltless. 
 
 The summer was passed in drilling and organiz- 
 ing the troops, and collecting ammunition. He sent 
 a swift vessel to Bermuda to capture a cargo of 
 powder there, which was done. He strengthened 
 his lines around Boston. The lesson of Fort Neces- 
 sity had been beneficial, and experience had taught 
 him what immense advantage topographical position 
 gives in war. Here he began to develop those great 
 conceptions of conditions in which he excelled all 
 men in America. From his youth accustomed to 
 great distances, and to appreciate the advantage of 
 grand operations as manager of the Ohio Company, 
 he had, by personal observation and constant inter- 
 course with scouts and traders for twenty years, ar- 
 rived at Continental ideas of the strength and the im- 
 portance of the *' back country," the Western lands. 
 
 The Quebec Act had added the valley of the Ohio 
 to Canada, and Washington was the first American 
 thoroughly imbued with the fatalism of " manifest 
 destiny." He understood, as no man else in America 
 did understand, that civilization seeks and will ob- 
 tain the nearest, easiest access to the sea — the com- 
 
no GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 mon highway of communication among nations in 
 all ages — and that the people who in time must domi- 
 nate the shores of the Great Lakes and banks of the 
 rivers would seek their outlet to the sea by the flow- 
 ing water, the St. Lawrence or the Mississippi, unless 
 they were bound to the English on the Atlantic by 
 short and easy means of access. 
 
 New York was the vulnerable point of the con- 
 federation. The capture of the line of Lake Cham- 
 plain and the Hudson would separate New England 
 and the South, and leave each section an easy victim 
 to the British arms. The military instinct of the 
 people had sent Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen to 
 capture Ticonderoga and Crown Point before the 
 Congress at Philadelphia had moved in the direction 
 of a Continental army, and the New Englanders had 
 secured their communications with the South by seiz- 
 ing the line of New York. 
 
 As soon as his command was in any condition to 
 work, Washington sent Montgomery by Ticonderoga 
 to Montreal, and Arnold by the forests of Maine to 
 Quebec, to force co-operation between Canada and 
 the confederation, thereby relieving "the Western 
 lands " from the pressure of Indian domination and 
 Canadian influence. The conception was a grand 
 one. Montgomery captured Montreal, and the cam- 
 paign would have been a success save for one of 
 those accidents which so often in war determine the 
 event of a battle and the fate of a government. 
 Montgomery was killed and Arnold wounded at the 
 head ^f their respective storming parties at Quebec, 
 and by these chances Canada was saved to Great 
 Britain. 
 
 Had Quebec been captured, Canadian deputies 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. m 
 
 would have been sent to the Continental Congress, 
 and Canada would have been the fourteenth " free, 
 sovereign, and independent State " acknowledged by 
 the treaty of 1783. As it was, Canada sent two regi- 
 ments to the Continental army, which were mus- 
 tered into service as " Congress's Own." The death 
 of Montgomery saved Canada to the British, and 
 changed the course of history ; but the campaign 
 originated by Washington will be carried out by 
 some future generation of Americans, who will not 
 permit the flanks of the great republic to be threat- 
 ened forever. As the army became more soldierly 
 and manageable, the commander in chief became 
 more impatient for action. Armies are made for 
 fighting, and soldiers to be killed, and long periods 
 of inaction seriously disorganize the one and destroy 
 the other. 
 
 The debating society at Philadelphia was con- 
 stantly urging an attack on Boston. Gage had twelve 
 veteran regiments, supported by a well-armed fleet 
 in the harbor, and an attack on the city would have 
 resulted probably in the loss of the attacking force, and 
 certainly in the destruction of the town. But " On to 
 Boston ! " was the cry in Philadelphia, just as " On to 
 Richmond ! " was the cry in Washington in the other re- 
 bellion. The Virginian commander in chief of 1775 was 
 made of stronger material than the Virginian of 1861, 
 and no urgency or appeals could make him move until 
 his judgment decided that the time was propitious. 
 He could not neutralize the British fleet without heavy 
 artillery. The only heavy guns within the control 
 of the Continentals were at Ticonderoga, from which 
 there were neither roads nor transportation. When 
 the snows came and the ground froze hard, ox-teams 
 
112 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 could drag them on sledges over the fields to the 
 camp, and then something could be done. 
 
 Washington also had knowledge the Congress 
 could not have. He knew Gage. He had served 
 with him in the Braddock campaign, where he com- 
 manded the Forty-fourth Regiment as lieutenant 
 colonel, Colonel Sir Peter Halkett being in command 
 of the brigade. He had seen Gage at mess, at drill, 
 on the march, in camp, and in battle, and had meas- 
 ured every faculty and quality. He understood how 
 much intelligence, fortitude, pertinacity, and patience 
 he had, and how much he had not. He knew Gage's 
 hand, and he played his own accordingly, just as 
 Lee afterward played his against McClellan, Pope, 
 and Grant. But while the weather was open, sledges 
 were prepared in the woods of Vermont, and ani- 
 mals collected at convenient depots. Of this no one 
 knew but the commander in chief. To communicate 
 it to the Congress would have been to inform Gage, 
 and bring on an attack before he was prepared. 
 Congress was very leaky, and several members were 
 inclined to make things easy by hedging, and by 
 keeping open the door of reconciliation. 
 
 In August he was called upon to define the rela- 
 tions the two armies should occupy to each other, 
 and to settle the question once for all whether the 
 conflict should be war, regulated by the rules of civi- 
 lized warfare, or whether the one side should treat it 
 as an insurrection, to be suppressed by any means 
 the loyal side deemed necessary. The solid sense of 
 the English had long before settled all questions 
 growing out of the right of armed resistance to ille- 
 gal laws and wrongful usurpations of authority, for 
 an act of Richard H had declared that adherence to 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 113 
 
 the King de facto should not be considered to be 
 treason. 
 
 But Gage, with that fine contempt for the rights 
 of others which has always distinguished a domi- 
 nating race, decided that all Englishmen taken in 
 arms against their lawful King were rebels, and were 
 to be treated as criminals, imprisoned in jails, tried 
 by loyal juries, sentenced by loyal judges, and hung 
 by loyal sheriffs. Acting on this plain proposition 
 and simple axiom, he had confined in the common 
 jail of Boston some officers of the Continental army 
 who had fallen into his hands, and treated them with 
 great indignity. The commander in chief at once 
 called General Gage's attention to this conduct as 
 contrary to the rules which controlled officers and 
 gentlemen, in war. 
 
 The ex-lieutenant colonel of the Forty-fourth 
 took occasion to read his ex-provincial militia com- 
 rade a lecture on the iniquity of rebellion and the 
 impiety of treason, and to suggest that the halter 
 was the only logical, just, and necessary way of 
 dealing with such conduct. Washington first put 
 his British prisoners in jail, and then gave Gage a 
 little lesson in manners by showing him that gentle- 
 men do not scold nor vituperate, but that they act. 
 The act of retaliation settled the question. The 
 status of war was conceded and acknowledged, and 
 there was never thereafter any question of rebel or 
 traitor, treason or rebellion, between the British and 
 the Continental authorities. 
 
 The Continental line extended around the west, 
 south, and northwest sides, of Boston, about sixteen 
 miles in length, and was defended by a series of forts, 
 redoubts, and earthworks, held by sixteen thousand 
 
114 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 men — a man to every six feet. It was vulnerable at 
 several points. It was pierced about the center by 
 the Charles River, a navigable stream, practicable 
 for General Gage's fleet. 
 
 He had been re-enforced up to twenty veteran 
 regiments, and could at any time, from July until 
 November, have moved a force up the river, pierced 
 the center, and rolled back the left wing, under 
 Major-General Charles Lee, or the right wing, under 
 Major-General Artemus Ward, on itself, and de- 
 stroyed Washington's army. But the lieutenant 
 colonel of the Forty-fourth had had a lesson on the 
 Monongahela, and another one at Breed's Hill, of 
 the fighting qualities of the militia, and was disin- 
 clined to risk an enterprise against them. He was 
 roundly denounced in England for his inaction and 
 cowardice, as they stigmatized it, and in October was 
 relieved by General Sir William Howe, the brother 
 of Lord Howe commanding the fleet. The Howes 
 were grandsons of George II by Miss Kilmansegg, 
 commemorated by Hood, and nephews of the king, 
 and connection, not merit, gave them these important 
 commands, the most responsible at that time in the 
 British army and navy. 
 
 The Congress chafed greatly under the delay, 
 but made no impression on Washington. In Sep- 
 tember he proposed an attack on Boston by means 
 of boats, in co-operation with an attempt on the Brit- 
 ish lines at Roxbury, but the council of war unani- 
 mously agreed " that it was not expedient to miake 
 the attempt at present at least." Washington wrote 
 to Congress communicating this decision, and said, " I 
 can not say that I have wholly laid it [the attack] 
 aside ; but new events may occasion new measures." 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 115 
 
 The pugnacious disposition of the man was not 
 satisfied with the inaction of a council of war, and as 
 soon as the Charles River froze over he proposed to 
 cross on the ice and attack. The council of war 
 again thwarted him. But he was determined to get 
 at the enemy by water if he could not reach them by 
 land. He fitted out and commissioned six armed 
 vessels to operate in their rear on their transports 
 and storeships. The militia of Marblehead and the 
 fishermen on the coast of New England supplied the 
 bravest, most daring sailors that ever flew a flag 
 since the British buccaneer of the Spanish main, and 
 for a time the commander in chief of the army was 
 also lord high admiral of the sea force, just as his 
 British ancestors had been a thousand years before, 
 to defend their homes and altars from the Saxon and 
 the Dane. He was chief judge in admiralty as well, 
 and decided all questions of prizes and contraband 
 of war, and distribution of prize money. His ships 
 were called pirates, but they were not treated as such. 
 
 During the winter the accumulation of ammuni- 
 tion and collection of siege guns continued, until 
 early in March, 1776, he was ready to strike. Dor- 
 chester Heights is an elevated piece of ground to 
 the south of Boston, and commands the harbor and 
 south side of the city. The possession of it is abso- 
 lutely essential to the security of the port and it 
 passes comprehension why Gage did not occupy and 
 fortify it during the six months he was penned up in 
 Boston. Washington had seen its dominating im- 
 portance on his first ride along his lines. Its pos- 
 session was of no use to him without heavy artillery. 
 Held with long-range guns, it made Boston and Bos- 
 ton harbor untenable. It neutralized both army 
 9 
 
Il6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and navy at one move, and for months the resources 
 of the quartermaster and commissary's department 
 were taxed to their utmost to supply means for this 
 checkmate. 
 
 By March the guns of Ticonderoga had arrived, 
 hauled over the snow and ice and frozen ground by 
 oxen, and some ammunition had been collected and 
 prepared. There was not enough to carry on a pro- 
 longed cannonade, but Washington knew his man, and 
 judged rightly that the moral effect of the exhibi- 
 tion of force would be sufficient. Consequently, on 
 the night of the 4th of March all his guns from Rox- 
 bury to East Cambridge, everything north of Charles 
 River, opened on the redoubts and forts opposite 
 them, and kept up a noisy demonstration all through 
 the night. 
 
 The British commander concentrated his troops 
 behind the expected point of attack at the place of 
 firing, and Washington placed two thousand men with 
 proper intrenching tools on Dorchester Heights, 
 where before day they had covered themselves with 
 sufficient intrenchments and the heavy guns of Ti- 
 conderoga. As daylight disclosed the disaster, the 
 commander of the fleet in the harbor sent w^ord to 
 the commander of the troops on land, that if the 
 Americans stayed where they were he could not stay 
 where he was. 
 
 General Howe prepared at once to storm the 
 threatening intrenchment, and ordered out Lord 
 Percy with three thousand men to take the works. 
 A storm came up, the assault was abandoned, and 
 Howe decided to evacuate his untenable position. 
 He informed some of the principal inhabitants of his 
 determination ; they conveyed the information to 
 
THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. 117 
 
 the camp at Cambridge, and Washington, acting on 
 the maxim of a bridge of gold for a flying enemy, 
 forbore to molest or hinder the movement. 
 
 On March 17, 1776, the British general em- 
 barked his troops on the fleet of transports in the 
 harbor, and, carrying with him nine hundred of the 
 principal inhabitants, sailed to Halifax. Sir Henry 
 Clinton in the preceding January had carried off a 
 part of the force to subjugate North Carolina. In 
 the abandoned town Washington secured two hun- 
 dred cannon of various calibers, and an immense 
 quantity of small arms, ammunition, and military 
 stores of every kmd. The British army was liberal 
 in the supplies furnished to equip its adversary, and 
 the ammunition captured in Boston was larger in 
 amount than all that had been collected and used by 
 the Americans in the process of their expulsion. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 WAR, AND THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 For twelve months the colonies had resisted the 
 Government troops, nullified the Government laws, 
 defied the Government, Governors, and courts. 
 They had met the King's troops at Lexington and 
 Concord, hunted them back to Boston, and then 
 bottled them up in that town until by force they had 
 expelled them from the colony. In Virginia, the 
 royal Governor Dunmore had been defeated at 
 Great Bridge in a battle on December 9th, 1775. 
 In North Carolina, Richard Caswell had met the 
 Highland Tories under Donald McDonald at Moore's 
 Creek, February 27, 1776, and routed them with a 
 loss of nine hundred prisoners, two thousand stand 
 of arms, and ^15,000 in gold. Connecticut and 
 Massachusetts had captured and held Crown Point 
 and Ticonderoga, the gateway to Canada. On May 
 10, 1775, Montgomery had captured Montreal, and 
 the conquest of Canada was averted only by the 
 accident of the death of Montgomery and the wound- 
 ing of Arnold. 
 
 The rebel flag was flying on the Atlantic from 
 Bermuda to Newfoundland, and British commerce 
 was dominated in the North Atlantic by piratical 
 cruisers. In the summer of 1775 Gage had been 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, ng 
 
 made by Washington to recognize belligerent rights 
 in treatment of prisoners of war, but the British 
 Government still insisted upon regarding the move- 
 ment as rebellion. Now, in rebellion — resistance to 
 the laws — every individual is held responsible for his 
 own action, in his own person and his own property. 
 The status of war changes all that, and transfers 
 responsibility from the individual to his government, 
 or supreme authority, which is waging the war, and 
 responsibility ceases to be personal and becomes 
 national. 
 
 Considering the rebellion as necessary to be re- 
 pressed, the Government first read the Riot Act to 
 the rebels in the way of the Boston Port Bill, then 
 sent in the troops to disperse disorderly assemblies 
 and suppress turbulence. The disorderly assemblies 
 at Bunker Hill, at Moore's Creek, at Great Bridge, 
 all refused to disperse, and, after a manner, mainly 
 dispersed the posse comitatus sent against them. 
 Therefore, without recognition and acknowledgment, 
 the fact of war made itself known and appreciated, 
 and it got to be understood in London that a fact 
 can not be waived or suppressed by a preamble of 
 Parliament or an Order in Council, or by a deci- 
 sion in the Court of King's Bench. War must be 
 met by war, and war is not only fighting and killing 
 and burning but requires thinking and brains, reason 
 and intelligence, a directed plan, a method, to accom- 
 plish results. Over such a territory as that occupied 
 by the colonies, the possession of certain positions 
 were necessary in order to dominate it, and the con- 
 trol of certain lines of communication imperative. 
 
 Geography remains unchanged from century to 
 century, and the same geographical conditions will 
 
120 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 require substantially the same movements. The ad- 
 vance of the Russians on the Bosporus is by the 
 same lines that Alaric and Attila marched to the 
 west. Napoleon's inroad into Italy was on the 
 track of Hannibal. The same things to be done, 
 the identical obstacles to meet with, the means em- 
 ployed will always be the same in substance, whether 
 in the first, the twentieth, or the thirtieth century. 
 The invasion of Europe by the hordes of Asia will be 
 round the eastern shore of the Black Sea ; and the 
 mountain ranges of middle Europe will be used and 
 held as defenses against them, just as they were 
 against the Huns and the Goths. 
 
 The physical conformation of the United States, 
 as long as Canada is occupied by an alien power, 
 renders the line of Lake Champlain and the Hudson 
 its weakest point. A force moving down the lake 
 could easily unite with a force coming up the Hud- 
 son, and thus isolate New England. In the summer 
 of 1759, the British, under General Amherst, had 
 secured Forts Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and 
 thus closed the postern by which the French could 
 move between the middle, southern, and eastern 
 colonies. The possession of Canada gave assur- 
 ance of the control of this outwork. But the cap- 
 ture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point by Allen and 
 Arnold had nearly neutralized the position of the 
 northern province, and destroyed the great advan- 
 tage the St. Lawrence secured. 
 
 With the control of deep water, British arms 
 would threaten the northern settlements, and the 
 troops of Vermont and New Hampshire be called 
 back to defend their homes and their farms. Howe 
 and Gage had both served in this campaign on 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 12 1 
 
 Champlain, and had an idea of the importance 
 of the line. Whether they suggested it or not, 
 the ministry at length arrived at the determination 
 to treat the insurrection as war, and to operate 
 against it on defined lines of strategy. They pro- 
 posed to move Howe from Boston to New York, 
 take possession of the sea and the city, and move up 
 the Hudson to Albany, to meet a force coming down 
 Champlain under command of General Sir Guy 
 Carleton, Governor of Canada, which was to retake 
 the lake forts, and complete the British line from the 
 Atlantic to the St. Lawrence, and separate New Eng- 
 land from Virginia. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton had taken off two thousand 
 men from Howe at Boston to reduce the Carolinas, 
 but the Highland rout at Moore's Creek gave him 
 check on the Cape Fear, and his prompt repulse by 
 Moultrie in Charleston harbor made him pause in 
 his campaign of subjugation. Howe had moved to 
 Halifax, but the military instinct of Washington 
 convinced him that Clinton could not stay South, nor 
 Howe North. They could not remain idle after 
 their repulse at Boston, at Great Bridge, at Moore's 
 Creek, at Sullivan's Island ; to do so would be not 
 only confession of defeat, but defeat itself. In the 
 game that Washington had been playing for ten 
 months in the trenches at Boston, he had foreseen 
 the next move, and had provided against it as far as 
 his means would allow. New York and the line of 
 the St. Lawrence— the lake and the river— must be the 
 next move of the enemy. At least it ought to be, for 
 it was the proper move to make. 
 
 Therefore, when Washington occupied Boston on 
 March 17th, he put his entire energies to work in 
 
122 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Stamping out smallpox there, and collecting the 
 arms and munitions of war left by the enemy, and on 
 the 2oth started his advance on the march for New 
 York. He himself set out on April 4th, and on April 
 14th reported to Congress the arrival of himself 
 and army at New York on the day before. 
 
 His army present for duty was 8,101 ; aggregate 
 present and absent 10,235 ; which shows a high 
 standard of discipline and efficiency in an army of 
 green troops after a year's service in camp without 
 marching and fighting, and after a long march of 
 twenty-four days. Under such circumstances, a loss 
 of only twenty per cent of the aggregate present and 
 absent and the number for duty proves fidelity and 
 devotion in the troops, and firmness and capacity in 
 the commander. A march of twenty-four days by 
 troops not inured to the discipline, the fatigue, and 
 the customs of the march, fresh from ten months* 
 camp duty, was a severe test for men and officers, 
 and the way they stood it was in the highest degree 
 satisfactory. This was the end of the war in New 
 England. With the exception of Stark's fight at 
 Bennington, August 16, 1777, and Sullivan's abortive 
 attempt on Newport, August 29, 1778, the scene of 
 war moved south and west of the Hudson. 
 
 It was a fixed delusion of the British mind that 
 the insurrection in America was instigated, organized, 
 and supported by a small minority of malcontents 
 composed of ignorant agitators and needy adventur- 
 ers. The gentry, the property holders, the educated 
 class, were all believed to be " loyal," and rebellion 
 to be promoted in the main by the " low Irish " and 
 the radical descendants of the Puritans of the Com- 
 monwealth. This conviction constrained action and 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 123 
 
 directed sentiment in the great mass of the English 
 people. Disunion was to them the direst disaster, 
 for it would bring the loss of the American trade, 
 and with it the downfall of British dominion of 
 the seas. But added to this material consideration 
 was the honorable sentiment that it would be base 
 to desert kith and kin engaged in a death-struggle 
 with faction in defense of the rights of the mother 
 country, when desertion meant defeat, and defeat 
 destruction of life, liberty, and property. 
 
 Although in England there was a large and in- 
 fluential sentiment against the coercion of America 
 by arms, there was absolutely none in favor of dis- 
 solving the union and permitting the colonies to 
 establish an independent and separate government. 
 Every party was agreed upon the necessity of bring- 
 ing them back — George II and Lord North by force 
 of arms and by conquest, the Earl of Chatham and 
 the Duke of Richmond by conciliation and guarantee 
 of local self-government. But this extraordinary 
 delusion on the part of the mother country, like the 
 identical one believed in by the Northern States 
 toward the Southern States in the war of secession, 
 i86i-'65, was absolutely unfounded in each case. 
 The resistance to British laws did not mean, in the 
 first place, revolution. The right of rebellion had 
 been always the right to resist illegal acts of gov- 
 ernment by arms, and was the method by which the 
 balance of liberty had been preserved and the Eng- 
 lish Constitution developed. It was the check on 
 absolute power. 
 
 The men of New England and of Virginia were 
 close to the Revolution of 1688. They were only 
 four generations from that of 1649, and they under- 
 
124 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 stood that the right of petition was backed by the 
 right of resistance. " Resistance to tyrants is obe- 
 dience to God," had always been the foundation 
 creed of the race ; and when the King's officers at- 
 tempted to do illegal things in Boston, or in Norfolk, 
 or in Alamance, or on the Cape Fear, or on Sulli- 
 van's Island, the English took arms and resisted. 
 The affairs at Lexington and at Breed's Hill, the 
 attacks at Great Bridge, at Moore's Creek, and at 
 Fort Moultrie, had developed the rebellion into war, 
 and the English colonies were almost unanimous in 
 support of it. They were led by no minority. It 
 was an uprising of the whole people. New Eng- 
 land rushed to arms as one man at the sound of the 
 guns at Lexington. The countrymen of Virginia, 
 from the Blue Mountains to Old Point Comfort, 
 marched on Lord Dunmore when he attempted to 
 incite their servants and negroes against them and 
 add the horrors of servile to the barbarities of sav- 
 age warfare. 
 
 The conditions in North Carolina were peculiar. 
 After the rebellion of 1745 large numbers of the fol- 
 lowers of Prince Charlie had been deported to the 
 Cape Fear, and had been voluntarily followed by 
 their friends and relatives. They were entirely Jac- 
 obite and bitterly anti-Hanoverian. But they had 
 been spared death and confiscation on condition of 
 taking the oath of allegiance to the House of Han- 
 over, and had given their paroles never to take up 
 arms against the Hanoverian King. When, there- 
 fore, the question of resistance came up, the inflex- 
 ible Presbyterian conscience controlled them, and 
 they were bound by their oaths and their paroles. 
 
 This was true of the Highlanders. The Scotch- 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 125 
 
 Irish of the western part of the colony about Meck- 
 lenburg took up the question of conscience and 
 solemnly debated it, and decided that, inasmuch as 
 the King of England had broken his oath to do jus- 
 tice and obey the laws, their oath of allegiance bound 
 them no longer. They arrived at the same conclusion 
 that the Virginians under Patrick Henry and the 
 Massachusetts men under James Otis and Samuel 
 Adams did, that protection and allegiance are re- 
 ciprocal, and that the failure of the King to do his 
 duty absolved them from all obligation to him. 
 
 It became manifest to all that the condition of 
 resistance to law must of necessity be temporary; 
 that either the Government must abandon its pre- 
 tension of the right to make laws for the colonies, 
 and that they must govern themselves, or that they 
 must be reduced to the condition of conquered prov- 
 inces. They must be governed by England, or they 
 must govern themselves. The logical result of the 
 situation was, that victory was absolutely necessary 
 to success. It was clear that victory could not be 
 achieved by the colonies alone. The sea was en- 
 tirely controlled by the British. Every port, bay, 
 sound, and river could be closed by their fleets, and 
 while they could be prevented from penetrating the 
 country, as long as they held the sole means of 
 communicating with the world at large no recogni- 
 tion of the right of self-government could ever be 
 wrested from them. 
 
 Samuel Adams says that from the beginning he 
 saw clearly that the only safe and permanent secur- 
 ity from the aggressions of the mother country was 
 disunion and a separate government. It is certain 
 that Virginia did not enter into the war with any such 
 
126 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 view or intention. She intended to resist usurpation 
 until usurpation ceased, and she desired to go no fur- 
 ther. The first and second Continental Congress had 
 no other view. They sent petitions to the King and 
 addresses to the people of Great Britain, of Canada, 
 and of Bermuda, insisting that their cause — the pres- 
 ervation of liberty and the right to be taxed only 
 by their own representatives — was the cause of every 
 British freeman at home and in every colony. 
 
 As events unfolded, and the great exhibition of 
 military force in the occupation of Boston and the 
 concentration of troops and ships against the col- 
 onists got them to understand that war was being 
 waged against them, they fully appreciated the 
 necessity and the duty of meeting war with war ; 
 and war could only be carried on by a state — a gov- 
 ernment ; therefore it became necessary that the 
 colonies should become States, should undertake the 
 responsibility of war, and should protect their citi- 
 zens from the penalties of rebellion. 
 
 The movement of public opinion in the colonies 
 had tended to this conclusion, since the passage of 
 the Boston Port Bill and the affair at Lexington. The 
 garrison of Boston with an army had arrayed all 
 New England in armed resistance. The proclama- 
 tion of Lord Dunmore, offering liberty to servants 
 and slaves in Virginia, was followed by the victory 
 at the Great Bridge. The rising of the loyal High- 
 landers on the Cape Fear was dispersed at Moore's 
 Creek, and the attack on South Carolina had been 
 defeated at Fort Moultrie. New England, Virginia, 
 and the Carolinas were at w^ar with the mother coun- 
 try. Between the two sections the Middle Colonies 
 lay neutral. 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 27 
 
 Maryland was contented with her government 
 and her charter. She felt secure in her right of local 
 self-government, and had asserted it in her General 
 Assembly from the foundation of the colony. The 
 right of free thought secured by Caecilius Calvert, 
 and never impaired while the proprietaries and the 
 native Marylander controlled the Government, had 
 evolved a type of character distinct and sharply de- 
 fined. The delightful climate of the bay, and its 
 great rivers, the picturesque scenery of meadow and 
 forest, of plain and of mountain, made life one con- 
 tinual delight, cultivated an aesthetic enjoyment of 
 beauty and pleasure, and produced a race liberal in 
 thought, tender in sentiment, brave, chivalric, and 
 generous. It was frank, manly, courageous, and de- 
 termined. When its rights were infringed by the 
 Stamp Act, the county court of Frederick County 
 decided that the law was void, because contrary to 
 common right, and required its officers to disobey and 
 ignore it, by its recorded action. When tea was at- 
 tempted to be imported on the 19th of October, 1775, 
 at Annapolis, the Marylanders burnt ship and cargo 
 in open day, and no attempt was ever made to extort 
 from them apology or compensation. No British 
 garrison ever affronted their borders, no British sol- 
 dier ever trod their soil ; but when Boston was at- 
 tacked and New England invaded, the chivalry of 
 the race rose at once, declared that the cause of 
 Boston was the cause of all, and, feeling that "blood 
 is thicker than water," rallied from mountain to sea, 
 and marched to the relief of their kin beyond the 
 Hudson. And from the hour Cresap marched from 
 Frederick to the day of the surrender at Yorktown, 
 the Maryland line on every stricken field — at Long 
 
128 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Island, at White Plains, at Brandywine, Germantown, 
 Trenton, and Monmouth, and the long roll of South- 
 ern battles — bore the standard of the black and gold 
 in the front of fire, sometimes to victory, oftentimes 
 to defeat — always to glory. 
 
 But Maryland loved the mother. The ties of 
 blood were as close to her as to brethren in New 
 England. They were faithful to their friends, and 
 they stood fast by them in the test of trial. No Tory 
 regiment was ever raised and served in Maryland. 
 One was organized on the eastern shore, but it was 
 promptly moved to New Jersey, and soon afterward 
 to Nova Scotia and dispersed. The pressure of the 
 war drove all men's minds in the same direction. 
 The Scotch-Irish of Mecklenburg County, North 
 Carolina, first reached the logical conclusion that 
 final separation and disunion could afford the only 
 guarantee of future peace, and security for local self- 
 government. 
 
 A meeting at Charlotte, on the 20th day of May, 
 1775, solemnly resolved "That we, the citizens of 
 Mecklenburg County, do hereby dissolve the polit- 
 ical bands which have connected us to the mother 
 country, and do hereby absolve ourselves from all 
 allegiance to the British Crown, and abjure all polit- 
 ical connection, contract, or association with that 
 nation, which has wantonly trampled on our rights 
 and liberties, and inhumanly shed the blood of 
 American patriots at Lexington. That we do here- 
 by declare ourselves a free and independent people; 
 are, and of right ought to be, a sovereign and self- 
 governing association, under the control of no power 
 other than that of our God and the General Govern- 
 ment of the Congress, to the maintenance of which 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 129 
 
 independence we solemnly pledge to each other our 
 mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our 
 most sacred honor." And they adopted a rule of 
 law, and organized a government to enforce the 
 law and carry out their determmation. The simi- 
 larity of some expressions of this declaration with 
 those of the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, 
 has led to vehement denial of its genuineness, and 
 the overwhelming proof of there having been a 
 meeting at Charlotte in May, 1775, which made some 
 hostile declaration, has been sought to be met by 
 substituting the action of a meeting which, it is con- 
 ceded, did take place there on May 31st, but which 
 did not declare independence. 
 
 But the evidence that Mecklenburg County did 
 declare independence in May, 1775, is absolutely 
 conclusive. The contemporaneous records of the 
 county court show more than twenty deeds recorded 
 between 1785 and 1793, which date the independence 
 of North Carolina from May, 1775, and of the United 
 States from July, 1776. Patents for land, issued by 
 the Governor of North Carolina about the same time, 
 date the independence of the State from May, 1775. 
 Therefore, though much denied, it must be agreed 
 that Mecklenburg County did declare independ- 
 ence on the 20th of May, 1775. A copy of theii 
 resolutions was sent to the Provincial Congress at 
 Halifax, which promptly passed resolutions direct- 
 ing their deputies in the Continental Congress to 
 vote for independence and to form foreign alliances. 
 Events had lagged for a year. At Lexington, on 
 April 19, 1775, and Breed's Hill, June 17, 1775, at 
 Ticonderoga and Crown Point, May 10, 1775 — New 
 England had made the issue of war. The summer 
 
1^0 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 was occupied in carrying on correspondence, discus- 
 sion, and conference. 
 
 The Continental army, under its Virginian com- 
 mander, held Gage fast in Boston. In November, 
 Dunmore offered freedom to the servants of Virginia. 
 The Virginians rose, drove him from his fortification 
 of Great Bridge, December 9, 1775, and on New 
 Year's day, 1776, he burnt Norfolk. On February 27* 
 1776, the Whigs routed the Highlanders at Moore's 
 Creek. On June 28, 1776, Rutledge and Moultrie 
 defeated Sir Henry Clinton on Sullivan's Island, in 
 Charleston harbor. These fast following events 
 were heating the hearts of the people. 
 
 In May, 1776, Virginia instructed her deputies in 
 Congress ^' to propose to that respectable body to 
 declare the United Colonies free and independent 
 States, and to give the assent of the colony to meas- 
 ures to form foreign alliances, and a confederation, 
 provided the power of forming governments for the 
 internal regulations of each colony be left to the colo- 
 nial legislatures." Maryland, on June 28th, instruct- 
 ed her deputies to assent to a declaration of inde- 
 pendence, and to foreign alliances, and on July 3d 
 issued her solemn declaration that Maryland was, 
 and of right ought to be, a free, sovereign, and inde- 
 pendent State. On May 4, Rhode Island omitted the 
 King's name from all writs and proclamations, and 
 the May town meetings throughout Massachusetts 
 declared for independence. In June, Connecticut, 
 New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
 Delaware, all declared for independence. 
 
 On June 7th, Richard Henry Lee, a deputy from 
 Virginia, submitted to the Congress a resolution 
 " That these United Colonies are, and of right ought 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 131 
 
 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. 
 That a plan of confederation be prepared, and trans- 
 mitted to the respective colonies for their consider- 
 ation and approbation." This resolution was 
 promptly seconded by John Adams, of Massachusetts, 
 and opposed by Dickenson and Wilson, of Pennsyl- 
 vania, and Robert Livingston, of New York. The 
 issues presented were, first. Independence ; second, 
 Foreign Alliances. Attachment to home, home peo- 
 ple, and home ties arrayed a large section of public 
 sentiment against the first. Inherited race antago- 
 nisms of a thousand years forbade sympathy with 
 the second. There never had been a time since the 
 Crusades when Englishmen were in alliance with 
 Frenchmen and Spaniards. They were the natural- 
 born enemies of the English race, and it was just 
 as natural for Englishmen to attack them on sight 
 as to kill a snake. 
 
 The grandfathers of many of the colonists had 
 won fame and fortune by the plunder of treasure 
 galleons on the Spanish main, and the present gener- 
 ation had fought them and their savage allies from 
 the Lakes to the Gulf, on the Ohio, along the French 
 Broad, the Chattahoochee, and the St. Mary's. The 
 very idea of foreign alliance was distasteful and 
 hateful to very many earnest Englishmen who sin- 
 cerely desired to preserve their rights, but they 
 doubted whether such alliance would not lead to sub- 
 ordination to their hereditary foes. The Congress 
 10 
 
132 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 was divided. Independence with alliance, subjugation 
 without alliance, undoubtedly led to future danger ; 
 but subjugation was present and pressing. In the 
 debate the aggressive, radical thought — as it always 
 has and always will — prevailed over the conservatism 
 which is in the main timidity. Action, which is 
 courage, must overcome non-action, which is always 
 cowardice. 
 
 And therefore the timid counsels of New York 
 and Pennsylvania were overridden by the positive 
 enthusiasm of Virginia, backed by Massachusetts, 
 and on July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence was adopted. The whole weight and influence 
 of Washington were thrown on the side of action. 
 With patient, persistent correspondence, he urged on 
 the governors of the States the necessity of foreign 
 alliance to prevent subjugation, and the necessity of 
 a declaration of independence to secure alliance. It 
 is not just to say that his influence contributed 
 largely to secure the declaration. It did not — nor 
 did any one man's, nor any one State's. Independ- 
 ence was the necessary consequence of armed resist- 
 ance to the laws ; and when the issue was made 
 between the supremacy of the law or the supremacy 
 of force, one or the other must prevail. If Great 
 Britain was resolved to hold to the right to make 
 laws for the colonies, she alone would have the 
 power to decide what laws she would make. If, on 
 the other hand, it be held that the colonies had the 
 right to make their own laws, that fact made them 
 independent. 
 
 The supreme intelligence of a race, of a great 
 mass of people, takes in and appreciates such an 
 issue, as clearly, as strongly, and as vividly as the 
 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 
 
 13: 
 
 highest intellect or the most vigorous mind, and the 
 people think with their hearts. They arrive at con- 
 clusions independent of and superior to ratiocination 
 and to logic. They knew that they must be free — free 
 to govern themselves according to their own ideas of 
 justice — or that they must be governed and controlled 
 by the ideas of Great Britain. All along the sea- 
 board, in the township meetings of New England, 
 in the vestries of Maryland and Virginia, in the 
 county meetings of the Carolinas, the body of the 
 people were meditating, ruminating, discussing, de- 
 bating these problems. What Henry, and Lee, and 
 Adams, and the leaders did, was to point the way. 
 The people had resolved on independence before 
 the Congress acted or the provincial assemblies had 
 taken ground. 
 
 Independence was a popular movement, originat- 
 ing among and propagated by the great mass of the 
 people, and it is error to think that any one man, or 
 set of men, contributed largely to it. It would have 
 come if the leaders had never lived; it would have 
 created leaders. If Washington had not lived at that 
 particular epoch, the rebellion of i775-'76 would 
 probably have failed, but it would have arisen again 
 and been successful in the next generation. For 
 when men mature from boyhood, they must emanci- 
 pate themselves. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. 
 
 When Washington arrived at New York his situ- 
 ation was still most unsatisfactory. He was to hold 
 a position on deep water, without ships, without 
 heavy artillery, without scientific or skilled engi- 
 neers. Though his own genius and experience 
 showed him the points to occupy and fortify in 
 order to control the waters around New York, he 
 was utterly unable to accomplish what was abso- 
 lutely necessary for success. 
 
 The British vessels could anchor within easy 
 gunshot of New York, and with the means at his 
 command the occupation of Long Island afforded 
 the only chance for delaying them. Delay was the 
 only thing possible for the Americans. The war 
 was greatly opposed at home. The Continental na- 
 tions were slowly awakening to the fact that a tre- 
 mendous blow impended over Great Britain, and 
 that a wound was threatened which would seriously 
 impair her prestige, inflict great loss of material re- 
 sources, and, by the creation of a great maritime 
 nation such as the Americans of the seaboard — with 
 their bays, their rivers, and their fisheries, must of 
 necessity become in course of time — would neutral- 
 ize her supremacy on the high seas. The French 
 had seen this from the first, and industriously fanned 
 
THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. 135 
 
 the flame of discontent by emissaries in the colonies, 
 by sympathy in Paris, and by secret and adroit sub- 
 ventions of money. It was the counter move of the 
 French Minister in retaliation for the loss of Canada. 
 
 Washington understood, as few Americans of his 
 day did understand, that the way to win respect is 
 to compel it, and that his first duty was to show the 
 world that the Americans could fight, that he could 
 lead them, and that their resistance would be long 
 and obstinate. The control of the deep sea gave 
 Great Britain absolute control of the coast from 
 Halifax to Florida, and largely that of commerce on 
 the high sea. It made the occupation by the Ameri- 
 cans of any position within reach of the guns of the 
 fleet precarious. The strategy of the war, there- 
 fore, must of necessity be defensive. Allies and re- 
 enforcements were sure to come from the ambition, 
 the necessities, and the antipathies of Continental 
 Europe. They would certainly embrace this oppor- 
 tunity to humble the mistress of the seas, if it was 
 an opportunity. But to secure allies, the colonists 
 must prove that they could furnish a solid basis for 
 alliance; to draw re-enforcements, they must show 
 armies to re-enforce. 
 
 Therefore Washington's business was to fight 
 enough, but not too much ; to retreat when he could 
 not help it, but not too far or too often; to keep 
 his troops encouraged by enough taste of blood to 
 brace them up ; and to satisfy Europe that there 
 was a prospect of success. To do this required 
 an army, ordnance, arms, ammunition, men, rations, 
 wagons, horses, and forage. Some of these requi- 
 sites were furnished by the colonies to their own 
 troops. The Maryland Convention, for instance, 
 
36 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 appointed a committee to inquire, report, and con- 
 tract for as many rifles, muskets, and bayonets, with 
 belts and cartridge-boxes, as could be furnished by 
 the mechanics of the colony. They reported the 
 name of every gunsmith, and the number of guns, 
 bayonets, cartridge-boxes, and belts that each could 
 furnish per month, and contracted with every man 
 who could wield a hammer or a file, from Penn's line 
 to the Potomac and from the Susquehanna to the 
 Pocomoke, for all the guns and accoutrements they 
 could supply. This system was pursued through 
 the whole war. The Maryland line thus was kept 
 armed whenever it was possible to manufacture 
 arms. But the energy of the rebellion was in the 
 army and in the colonial congresses or conventions. 
 
 The Congress at Philadelphia did not attract the 
 best men. It had no power; it could do nothing. 
 The places where work was done were Annapolis, 
 or Williamsburg, or Halifax, or Charleston, or at 
 Salem. It could and did issue at times promises to 
 pay, which were promptly repudiated by the general 
 sense of the community, but in the whole course of 
 the war the Continental Congress never raised a 
 man for the army nor a dollar by taxation of the 
 people. It was a league of independent colonies 
 differing widely from each other in race, affinities, 
 and traditions, in political institutions, and in re- 
 ligious faith. The Puritan of New England was per- 
 meated with an intense conviction of the solemnity 
 of life — a " little space of time between two eterni- 
 ties " — and was impressed with a profound sense of 
 the duty of preparing himself, his family, his friends, 
 and everybody he could make do as he thought prop- 
 er, for this eternity of torture and suffering. 
 
THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. 
 
 n 
 
 This theological creed or subjective training has 
 made the Puritan type a distinct one in the evolu- 
 tion of races. His super-abnormal conscience, add- 
 ed to severe rigors of climate, have produced a char- 
 acter which, for self-reliance, endurance, courage, 
 and perseverance, is unequaled in history, though it 
 may lack the graces and decorations which alleviate 
 the troubles of life. The Cavalier population, on 
 the other hand, on the Chesapeake, on Pamlico and 
 Albemarle sounds, and on the Cape Fear, the Ashley, 
 and the Cooper rivers, regarded life not as a gloomy 
 preparation for a future state — the terrors of which 
 could only be escaped by skillful avoidance of the 
 decrees of Providence, or by constant and stern ad- 
 herence to duty — but as a bright and beautiful gar- 
 den, full of lovely flowers, delightful odors, fragrant 
 herbs; where the rose, when plucked too roughly, 
 avenged the indignity with its thorns; and the bee, 
 when robbed of his honey, punished the marauder 
 with his sting; where the pleasure of living justified 
 " life " ; where every sensation was a delight and 
 every sentiment a gratification. 
 
 Love, charity, gratitude, friendship, were the 
 cardinal virtues. Revenge, malice, hatred — ignoble 
 vices. They lived to live; they loved to love; they 
 enjoyed being friends. Between these two civiliza- 
 tions there could never be sympathy entire and cor- 
 dial. It was the feeling of family, blood, race, that 
 first drew the Cavalier to the side of the Puritan to 
 defend him and his rights from aggression ; and 
 once there, it was contrary to every theory of his 
 life ever to leave it. Loving ease and pleasure, self- 
 indulgent to a degree, they sacrifice everything they 
 have for kin or friends, and stake everything on the 
 
138 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 side they espouse. These two diametrically dis- 
 cordant societies could not possibly be welded into 
 a perfect union. They were jealous of each other, 
 and each was too suspicious to trust any neighbor 
 with any influence over its destinies. 
 
 North Carolina and South Carohna, Virginia, 
 Maryland, and Pennsylvania, New York and New 
 Hampshire, had bitter boundary disputes, and all 
 were watchful, lest alliances might sacrifice some 
 of their charter rights instead of strengthening 
 them. Therefore the Continental Congress lacked 
 coherence, force, power, and enthusiasm. It had 
 the jealousy of small men against military dictator- 
 ship, such as was subsequently felt against McClellan, 
 Grant, and Sherman by the Congress of the United 
 States. It passed resolutions calling upon the colo- 
 nies to furnish men and means. It had no power to 
 enforce its own requisitions. It left to the colonies 
 the power to appoint regimental officers, and assumed 
 to itself that of selecting general officers. It ap- 
 pointed generals, but it could not enlist a man. It 
 selected commissaries, but could not provide a barrel 
 of beef. It sent out quartermaster generals, but had 
 not a wagon or a horse of its own. 
 
 Therefore the war and the strategy of the war was 
 to be devised and executed by Washington, and this 
 labor was far more arduous than the marches, the 
 bivouacs, the battles of the ensuing five years. It 
 is a fact that the Continental Congress was a hin- 
 drance and not a help. Many members were ardent 
 patriots ; they risked their lives and their fortunes 
 for the cause. But not a few were time-servers, 
 patriots for the present, to avoid risk to person and 
 property, but prudent as well to keep up a secret tie 
 
THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN, 
 
 139 
 
 with the mother country and its friends in this. 
 With such a body behind him, utterly useless to help 
 but quite efficient to hinder, Washington was forced 
 to rely on himself. He was one of the greatest letter- 
 writers that ever lived. The last collection of his 
 letters contains six or seven thousand in fourteen 
 good-sized volumes, and still it is very incomplete, 
 having left out hundreds as yet unpublished. 
 
 But from the day Washington left the Congress, 
 on June 22, 1775, to December 23, 1783, when he re- 
 signed his commission at Annapolis, not a day passed 
 without his addressing a long letter to the Congress, 
 to the Governor of one of the States, or to one of 
 the leading men in the respective States, pointing out 
 the means by which the common cause could be 
 furthered, and urging persistently, with never-failing 
 patience and courage, that these means and measures 
 be utilized to the last degree. When, therefore, the 
 army v/as collected at New York, everyone knew 
 that the position was untenable. Sir William Howe 
 had gone to Halifax with the great body of the 
 garrison of Boston, and Sir Henry Clinton had sailed 
 south with another part of it, to reduce the Carolinas. 
 Georgia gave no trouble. 
 
 The affair at Moore's Creek had warned Sir 
 Henry out of the Cape Fear, and he proceeded to 
 Charleston, where he lay until the fleet of Sir 
 Peter Parker, from Ireland, re-enforced him. On 
 June 28, 1776, the Palmetto Fort on Sullivan's 
 Island, commanded by Moultrie, colonel of State 
 troops under direction of John Rutledge, President 
 of South Carolina, drove off the British fleet and 
 British troops landed by Clinton, to carry it by 
 assault. Therefore early in July Washington knew 
 
140 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 that the inevitable was about to take place. Sir Guy 
 Carleton, Governor of Canada, would move down 
 Lake Champlain, Sir William Howe and Sir Henry 
 Clinton, re-enforced by Sir Peter Parker, would con- 
 centrate in New York harbor, sail up the East River, 
 cut off the Long Island garrison, and then proceed up 
 the North River, communicate with General Carleton 
 at Lake George, and cut the rebellion in half. 
 
 It was the business of the American general to 
 checkmate this game, and to do it without fighting, 
 for a pitched battle would have been swift, certain 
 ruin ; but to do it also without fleeing, for that would 
 have been equally disastrous. He was to handle 
 green troops so as to blood them sufficiently, and 
 then get them out without destructive loss. There- 
 fore when his army reached New York, on April 23, 
 1776, he placed half of it' — nine thousand men — under 
 command of Putnam, on Brooklyn Heights, on Long 
 Island, v/hich dominated New York city and bay, 
 just as Dorchester Heights had controlled Boston. 
 But the position on Long Island was surrounded by 
 deep water. Sir William Howe, the British com- 
 mander in chief, had more than twenty-five thousand 
 veteran troops, and an efficient fleet carrying as 
 heavy guns as were then used in maritime war. The 
 East River, between Long Island and New York, is a 
 mile wide, and navigable for the heaviest ships. It 
 is approached from the lower bay of New York 
 through the Narrows, or from Long Island Sound 
 through Hell Gate. 
 
 On August 22, 1776, Sir William Howe, landed 
 twenty thousand men at Gravesend Bay. On the 
 26th he sent the fleet under command of his brother, 
 Admiral Lord Howe, to make a feint on New York. 
 
THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. 
 
 41 
 
 On the 27th he moved on the American position, 
 which he had flanked in the night. General Grant, 
 with the Highland Regiments, advanced on the 
 coast road, the outposts of which were held by 
 the Maryland line under command of Major- 
 General William Alexander, of New Jersey, who 
 called himself Lord Stirling, after a Scotch earldom 
 of James I's creation which had lapsed, and was 
 claimed by the New Jersey Alexanders, and the 
 claim disallowed by the Scotch courts. The Mary- 
 landers were the first Americans who ever met the 
 British in line of battle in the open field. Handled 
 skillfully, and gallantly led by Alexander, Small- 
 wood, and their regimental and line officers, the 
 Marylanders, by reiterated charges, checked pursuit 
 until nightfall. 
 
 Washington saw the engagement from the 
 Brooklyn side. The result was anticipated and 
 provided for, and two nights afterward the whole 
 American army was safely ferried over the East 
 River and at once marched north, clear of the town. 
 This movement was going on all night on the 
 water, where sound travels easily and far. The 
 British man-of-war Roebuck lay off Red Hook, just 
 below Governor's Island, and why her lookout or 
 watch did not hear this movement of nine thousand 
 men, their artillery and their transportation, is one 
 of the unexplained mysteries of the time. Howe 
 pushed into the city of New York. Washington with- 
 drew to the line of the Harlem River, the northern 
 boundary of Manhattan Island, and the movements 
 were so rapid on both sides, that Putnam, with a de- 
 tachment of four thousand men, was isolated in the 
 lower part of the town. 
 
142 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Washington, in person, led two New England 
 brigades down the streets to rescue Putnam, but on 
 the appearance of fifteen or twenty red-coats, eight 
 regiments ran like quarter horses ; whereupon the 
 commander in chief, failing to make the colonels 
 stop stampeding, belabored them with much energy 
 and profuse emphasis, with a cane he was riding with. 
 Neither cane nor malediction stayed the courant 
 colonels; but a lady — Mrs. Murray — with a fine resi- 
 dence on what is now known as Murray Hill, know- 
 ing the weakness that commanding officers have for 
 the good things of the table, prepared an elegant 
 and substantial lunch, and invited Sir William and 
 his staff to alight and enjoy it. No soldier who ever 
 rode a horse ever refused an invitation to eat, and 
 the British general stopped to refresh while his ene- 
 my escaped. Putnam rejoined the army at Harlem, 
 and Washington was extricated by the very difficult 
 feat of withdrawing an inferior army from its envi- 
 ronment by a superior army and fleet. Washington 
 took position along the line of the Harlem River, 
 across the upper end of the island, and the next day 
 Howe attempted to storm the position. The attack 
 was repulsed. 
 
 The Hudson River was defended at the Palisades 
 above New York, on the east side, by Fort Washing- 
 ton, under command of Gen. Putnam, and on the 
 west by Fort Lee, under Gen. Greene. Howe's next 
 move clearly was to force the two forts with the 
 fleet, while at the same time he landed an infantry 
 force by way of the East River and pushed it in 
 Washington's rear. He began on October 9, 1776, 
 by driving two frigates over Putnam's and Greene's 
 obstructions in the river and between their forts, and 
 
THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. 143 
 
 on the 12th he landed the larger part of his army at 
 Throg's Neck, to move in behind the American, and 
 cut his line of supplies from Connecticut. 
 
 Washington, fully anticipating the movement, had 
 destroyed the bridge across the creek at the place of 
 landing, and posted a sufficient force behind the marsh 
 across which the British must move to attack him. 
 Howe wasted six days trying to get at him, and 
 Washington moved back up the river to White Plains, 
 abandoning the whole of Manhattan Island except 
 Fort Washington. Howe pushed on after him, and 
 on October 28th carried an outpost at Chatterton 
 Hill. The Maryland line, which under Lord Stirling 
 had won its spurs at Brooklyn Heights, gathered 
 fresh laurels here. Attacked by the Hessians under 
 Rahl, it held on until surrounded, and then forced 
 its way out with clubbed rifles under Griffith. It 
 fought six to one, and lost one hundred and forty, 
 to two hundred and twenty-nine lost by the enemy. 
 This affair is known as the battle of White Plains. 
 The attack was not pressed, and Washington fell 
 back to a strong position at North Castle, where it 
 was useless to think of attacking him. 
 
 These movements and the resulting position made 
 the two forts untenable, useless, and mere traps. 
 The Congress and the New York Convention pro- 
 tested strongly against abandoning them, as local 
 authorities always do against abandoning territory 
 to invasion ; but Washington ordered Putnam and 
 Greene to get their troops and munitions away with- 
 out delay, allowing Greene, in whom he had great 
 confidence, a discretion as to the time and the ne- 
 cessity of evacuation. Congress sent Greene a per- 
 emptory order to hold on save on the direst extrem- 
 
144 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 ity. Washington was absent, superintending the 
 fortification of West Point, higher up the river. 
 Greene believed that Fort Washington could be 
 held, and so re-enforced it. Washington returned on 
 the 14th, but that very night several British vessels 
 passed up between the forts, and on the 15th Howe 
 moved on the place with an overwhelming force. 
 He carried it by assault on November i6th, after a 
 gallant defense, when the British lost five hundred 
 men, to the American loss of one hundred and fifty; 
 but the British general captured three thousand of 
 the best troops the Americans had in the field, and 
 an immense quantity of artillery and small arms. 
 
 Washington was on the Jersey side of the river 
 with six thousand men, and Lee on the east side with 
 seven thousand. He ordered Lee to join him, but 
 Lee, then senior major general and next in rank to 
 the commander in chief, dallied, and lost time in 
 obeying. His own ambition and his own promotion 
 were the only motives for his conduct, and he was 
 engaged in exaggerating his services in the Southern 
 campaign and aggrandizing his reputation among the 
 inefficient Congressmen at Philadelphia. He was a 
 traitor in his heart then, as he was certainly a traitor 
 in fact and deed soon after ; but no proof has yet 
 been discovered as to his treachery at this precise 
 period. It seems as if he intended by his desertion 
 of his commander in chief to secure his destruction 
 in New Jersey, when he would have certainly suc- 
 ceeded to the chief command, and then might have 
 enacted the rdle of General Monk and become the 
 Duke of Manhattan, as that traitor became the Duke 
 of Albemarle. 
 
 But neither *' malice domestic," nor treachery, nor 
 
THE NEW YORK CAMPAIGN. 145 
 
 cowardice in subordinates, nor incompetence in Con- 
 gress, could shake the will, the patience, the fortitude, 
 or the courage of the man who had spent four days 
 and nights in the saddle in saving Braddock's rout. 
 The American forces were nearly disarmed by the 
 losses at Fort Washington. It was almost dispersed 
 by the capture of men there, and by Lee's deser- 
 tion. If Howe turned shortly across the river and 
 pressed rapidly on Philadelphia, the rebel capital 
 would be captured and the rebel Congress dispersed, 
 and the nucleus of rebellion destroyed. It was im- 
 possible to save Philadelphia, but it was possible to 
 interpose an army as a protection to Congress and as 
 a rallying point for the country. Sir Guy Carleton 
 had gone into winter quarters at St. John's, on Lake 
 Champlain, The campaign of division had failed. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN THE DICTATORSHIP. 
 
 The conditions which confronted Washington, 
 then, were the necessity of saving New England and 
 covering Philadelphia at the same time with an army- 
 demoralized by defeat and retreat, starvation and 
 physical want, reduced by the expiration of enlist- 
 ments, and without hope or expectation of final suc- 
 cess. A new expedition, under Sir John Burgoyne, 
 was being prepared in Canada to move on the old 
 French line of invasion by Lake Champlain. Lord 
 Cornwallis was placed in command of a flying column, 
 to operate in New Jersey by a move on Philadelphia, 
 while Sir William Howe was collecting a fleet at 
 New York for an object as yet unrevealed. It was 
 so clear that he ought to have moved a land force 
 up the Hudson, convoyed and supported by his fleet, 
 and joined Burgoyne, who was marching south, that 
 Washington could not persuade himself that he was 
 not about to do so. His observation of General 
 Howe during the campaign on Long Island, and the 
 subsequent operations on Throg's Neck, White Plains, 
 and Fort Washington, had convinced him that the 
 British general was quite as likely to make an im- 
 proper move as a proper one, and he was therefore 
 much puzzled to divine his intentions. 
 
 Burgoyne captured Ticonderoga without a strug- 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 147 
 
 gle, and the northern line was opened. On Novem- 
 ber 2ist Howe crossed his infantry over the Hudson, 
 and then had the shorter line to Philadelphia. He 
 started Cornwallis toward that place, and nothing 
 could be done but to interpose the American army 
 between the attack and the objective. Washington 
 fell back until, on December 8, 1776, he crossed the 
 Delaware into Pennsylvania with three thousand 
 starved, naked, and badly armed men — the remnant 
 of the army of Boston and New York, but with all 
 his ammunition intact. He destroyed all the boats 
 on the river for miles up and down. When Corn- 
 wallis came up, the evening of the crossing, he was 
 for pushing on at once; but Howe, who had joined 
 him, thought it not worth while, as the contest was 
 virtually ended, and it was useless to expend un- 
 necessary energy in pursuit of an enemy whose army 
 had nearly dissolved in the preceding twenty days of 
 pursuit and retreat. 
 
 Congress fled to Baltimore, where they passed a 
 resolution making Washington dictator, and then 
 waited, panic-stricken, for what might happen. At 
 this time an incident occurred which might have 
 been disastrous, but was rather fortunate to the 
 American cause. Lee followed Cornwallis, on his 
 flank, through New Jersey. He would not help 
 Washington. He could not desert openly, for that 
 would have destroyed his value, and he would have 
 commanded no price for his treachery. An interview 
 with the British commander in chief was absolutely 
 necessary to arrange the terms of what was to be 
 sold and what to be paid. A conference under a flag 
 of truce would have attracted attention and required 
 explanation. W^ritten communications were tedious 
 II 
 
148 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and dangerous, as was afterward proved in the case 
 of Andre and Arnold. 
 
 So Lee, with that profuse versatility of resource 
 and that wide experience of expedients which service 
 under many flags and divers religions and in various 
 countries had given him, resorted to the simple one 
 of camping outside his picket lines and sending word 
 to the nearest British picket where he was. He was, 
 of course, gobbled up by the cavalry, and the second 
 in command of the Continental army became a pris- 
 oner. He had his conference and arranged his terms. 
 What they were has not yet been discovered, but 
 Time, the inexorable foe to secrets and concealments 
 of state matters, will surely reveal his entire turpitude. 
 Within this generation there has been discovered 
 among the family papers of Sir Henry Strachey, 
 General Howe's secretary from 1775 to 1778, a decu- 
 mbent in Lee's handwriting and indorsed by Sir Henry 
 — " Mr. Lee's plan, March 29, 1777." * 
 
 In this paper Lee shows that, if Maryland could 
 be overawed and the people of Virginia prevented 
 from sending aid to Pennsylvania, then Philadelphia 
 might be taken and held, and the operations of the 
 " rebel government " paralyzed. The Tory party 
 was known to be strong in Pennsylvania, and the 
 hesitation and tardiness of Maryland in acquiescing 
 in the move for independence seemed to prove that 
 the loyalist feeling was very strong there. Lee as- 
 serted, of his own personal knowledge — he owned a 
 plantation on the upper Potomac, in Virginia, on the 
 Maryland border — that the people of Maryland and 
 Pennsylvania were nearly all loyalists, who only 
 
 * Vide Appendix A. 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. j^q 
 
 awaited a British army to declare themselves for the 
 Government and King George. 
 
 He therefore recommended that fourteen thou- 
 sand men should drive Washington out of New Jer- 
 sey and capture Philadelphia, while the remainder of 
 Howe's army, four thousand in number, should go 
 by sea to the Chesapeake and occupy Alexandria 
 and Annapolis. Four days after the date of this re- 
 markable document Howe wTote to Lord George 
 Germaine that he had another expedition in mind, 
 which might modify the plan of the campaign of the 
 Hudson. With this paper in the hands of the British 
 commander in chief, Lee was exchanged, and received 
 in the American army with distinguished honors. All 
 the general officers went out to meet him and escort 
 him to headquarters, and the entire body of troops 
 was paraded to salute him; and he in the pay of the 
 enemy, with the commission of second in command 
 of the American army in his pocket ! 
 
 Whatever judgment posterity and the world may 
 pass on the motives or the conduct of the actors 
 in the great war between the States of i86i-'65, 
 Americans at all times will be proud of the great 
 pregnant fact, that when the men conspicuous on 
 each side in that Titanic struggle had once taken 
 sides not one ever faltered in his faith, but all were 
 firm to the end. Among the million of Americans in 
 that war, arrayed in arms, not one Charles Lee or 
 Benedict Arnold ever lived or died. This proves 
 that the American has, in the intervening century, 
 developed a higher standard of duty, a nobler ideal 
 of fidelity to honor, than prevailed with the genera- 
 tion that made and fought the War of the Revolution. 
 
 The capture of Lee was a great surprise to, and 
 
I^O GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 made a profound impression on, the Americans. He 
 was a showy, noisy swash-buckler, and his loud voice 
 and blatant braggadocio had imposed on the public. 
 He had been a lieutenant colonel in the British army, 
 had served under kings and emperors, and was dec- 
 orated with sundry ribbons and brummagem stars and 
 crosses, and the simple-minded country folk thought 
 he must of necessity be a great soldier. This provin- 
 cial admiration for the ways and habits and manners 
 and morals of the aristocracy is not yet extinct among 
 Americans, and may still be observed flourishing on 
 Manhattan Island, or at Newport, Rhode Island. 
 
 Washington was absolutely destitute of it. His 
 experience in the Braddock campaign had obliterated 
 the sentiment of reverence and admiration for home 
 people and home ways in which he had been bred, 
 and he believed and knew that Americans were in 
 heart, brain, muscle, fidelity — in every intellectual 
 and moral attribute — the peers of any race who ever 
 lived. He considered Arnold, Morgan, and Greene 
 as good soldiers and as qualified generals as Sir John 
 Burgoyne, or Lord Cornwallis, or Sir Henry Clinton. 
 Rank and titles did not confuse his mind in the least, 
 and he looked straight through all embellishments 
 into the very hearts of men and of things. Lee was, 
 however, second in command, and the cause would 
 lose prestige, and the army morale^ if its second officer 
 were permitted to remain a prisoner of war. He 
 therefore exchanged Lee, not because he considered 
 him of value, but in loyal discharge of his duty to 
 his comrade and the cause. 
 
 By the middle of December, Howe, believing 
 that the rebellion was crushed, withdrew to New 
 York, leaving strong detachments at Trenton and 
 
BATTLE OF 
 T K E N T O K 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 151 
 
 Burlington. Cornwallis accompanied him, with the 
 intention of carrying the news of the great achieve- 
 ment to England. After the capture of Lee, Sulli- 
 van and Gates promptly reported with his command 
 to Washington, who was thus re-enforced to about 
 six thousand men. But he dare not remain idle. 
 Congress had dispersed, and the army was dissolv- 
 ing. He determined on an aggressive movement, 
 the daring of which would greatly increase the chance 
 of success. He arranged a plan of attack — for Gates 
 to cross the river and attack Donop at Burlington ; 
 Ewing to cross directly on Trenton ; while he, with 
 twenty-four hundred men, was to pass the river nine 
 miles above and move down to support Ewing in his 
 attack on Rahl and his Hessians. Gates begged for 
 a leave of absence, and left his command in charge 
 of John Cadwalader, while he posted to Baltimore to 
 intrigue for promotion into Congress. 
 
 Washington proposed to move on Christmas Day, 
 1776; but the weather became very cold, the river 
 filled with floating ice. Cadwalader tried in vain to 
 get over, but the ice prevented. Ewing, deterred by 
 the weather, did not attempt to move, and by even- 
 ing the commander in chief knew that the attack 
 must be abandoned unless he attempted it unsup- 
 ported either on his right or his left. It was a con- 
 dition which required the greatest risk ; for to do 
 nothing was defeat, and to fail was nothing less. 
 During the night of the 25th he crossed in a blind- 
 ing storm of sleet and snow, and led his forlorn hope 
 in person. Pie reached the other bank, nine miles 
 above Trenton, and pressed swiftly down by two 
 roads on the point of attack. Sullivan led one col- 
 umn down the river road, and Greene the other on 
 
5^ 
 
 GEN E R AL \V ASII INGTON. 
 
 the road to the left, accompanied by General Wash- 
 ington himself. 
 
 About daylight Sullivan reported tluit his mus- 
 kets had been rendered useless by the wet. The 
 reply was, " Tell the general to give them the bayo- 
 net. The town must be carried." At daylight they 
 struck the enemy's pickets, and went into the town 
 with them. The surprise was complete. Washing- 
 ton's guns commanded the streets of the town be- 
 fore the garrison could be formed; the commanding 
 oflieer, Rahl, was killed ; a small force of Yagers and 
 light dragoons escaped, and the rest were captured ; 
 one thousand prisoners, with their arms, equipage, 
 and wagons, were taken. Washington immediately 
 withdrew across the river with his spoils. By noon 
 of the 27th Cadwalader crossed at Burlington, but 
 Donop fell back to Princeton, leaving his sick and 
 wounded and all his heavy arms and baggage. Wash- 
 ington reoccupied Trenton on the 29th. When the 
 news of the catastrophe reached New York, Corn- 
 wallis countermanded his luggage from the packet 
 which was about to convey him to England, and 
 rode in a gallop to Princeton, where he found Col- 
 onel Donop intrenching. 
 
 On January 2, 1777, Cornwallis, with eight thou- 
 sand men. moved on Trenton, where he found Wash- 
 ington strongly posted behuid the Assunpink, a 
 small stream which tlows into the Delaware just 
 south of Trenton. Cornwallis's men were worn 
 down by the day's march, but he made several at- 
 tempts to force the bridge over the creek, and was 
 easily repulsed. He therefore went into camp, and 
 sent back to Princeton for the two thousand men 
 left there with Donop. He proposed, the next morn- 
 
TIIIC NEW JI:KSKY CAMPAKIN. 153 
 
 in^, with tliis rc-ciiforcciiicnl to turn the American 
 ri;;ht flank, roll liim back on the river, and capture 
 the whole force — '* to l^a^^: the old fox," as he said. 
 The position was plain to the American ccjmmandcr. 
 Donop would l)e up the next day, and then he 
 would have another Long Island retreat over a wide 
 river. Instead of waiting for Donop, it might he 
 best to meet iiim half way. He summoned a coun- 
 cil of war; but a council of war never fights. He 
 proposed to leave his camp-fires burning, and move 
 around C'ornwallis so as to strike Princeton by day- 
 break. It had been snowing, sleeting, and raining 
 for several days. 'J'he chief of artillery reported 
 that guns could not be moved ; the quartermaster 
 general that no horses could pull the wagons. 
 Iwerybody agreed that the roads had no bottom. 
 Washington held on to his opinion with his usual 
 patience and pertinacity, explaining what immense 
 advantages would accrue from the movement, and 
 persistently urged that it be made. V>y ten o'clock 
 the change occurred that he expected and was wait- 
 ing for. He opened the door, looked out into the 
 night starless and moonless, and turned to the coun- 
 cil. "(Jentlemen," said he, "Providence has de- 
 cided for us— the wind has shifted; the army will 
 move in two hours." In two hours the roads were 
 frozen as hard as if macadamized, and the troops 
 marched over the firm ground, the wheels muffled 
 and as noiseless as the march of the dead. 
 
 At daylight Cornwallis's pickets reported that 
 something unusual had taken place in the American 
 camp, and his scouts soon brought him word that it 
 was empty. He was dazed. ^' Where had the old 
 fox gone to earth? Where was his hiding-place?" 
 
J ^4 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 were the astounding questions he was to solve, when 
 away off to the northeast the opening guns at Prince- 
 ton sounded his sharp reveille. He had been sur- 
 prised as Rahl had been, and outwitted as Sir Wil- 
 liam at Long Island. 
 
 About sunrise Washington's advance came in 
 contact with Donop's leading brigade marching on 
 Trenton to help Cornwallis. General Hugh Mercer, 
 the aid to Prince Charlie at Culloden, and the com- 
 rade of the commander in chief at the Monongahela, 
 was in command of the right brigade, and he at- 
 tacked at once. The British resistance was vigorous, 
 and they pressed Mercer firmly. He was killed at 
 the outset, and his lines were going back before the 
 British bayonet, when Washington galloped up, took 
 charge of the field, rallied his troops within forty 
 yards of the British line, brought the whole of his 
 command into action on the double quick, and in 
 twenty minutes had the enemy on the run. The 
 British lost two hundred in killed and wounded, and 
 three hundred prisoners. The firing to the northeast 
 stirred Cornwallis up, and he pushed out to get to 
 Princeton as soon as possible. But a thaw had set 
 in, the bridges were broken, the roads and streams 
 impassable, and by the time he reached Princeton 
 '' the old fox " had disappeared with his plunder. 
 
 It was Washington's intention to swoop down on 
 New Brunswick, where there was a depot of pro- 
 visions, arms, and supplies; but by the time the 
 affair at Princeton was over the men were too tired 
 for further exertion. They had had no sleep the 
 night before, and the cold night march and the sharp 
 affair of the morning had taken the spring out of 
 them. They must have refreshment and rest. In- 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 155 
 
 Stead, therefore, of making a dash on New Bruns- 
 wick, the American general moved off to Morris- 
 town, where he occupied a strong position on a 
 range of hills. Cornwallis pressed on to New 
 Brunswick, intent on saving that post. In a few 
 days Putnam moved from Philadelphia to Princeton. 
 
 By the middle of January, 1777, this then was the 
 position : the American right wing under Putnam, 
 at Princeton ; the center under Washington, at Mor- 
 ristown ; the left under Heath, on the Hudson. The 
 British retained only New Brunswick, Amboy, and 
 Paulus Hook (Jersey City). The occupation of 
 Jersey had failed, the attempt on the " rebel Capi- 
 tal " had been frustrated, and, after two years of 
 struggle " to retake, reoccupy, and repossess," and 
 to reduce to loyalty the rebellious colonies, the 
 three posts in New Jersey above named were all 
 that remained to show for results. 
 
 This campaign was the most brilliant one of the 
 War of the Revolution. Stonewall Jackson's valley 
 campaign, in 1862, reminds the military student of it. 
 Cornwallis — the ablest soldier that Britain furnished 
 — gentleman and knight as he was, generously ex- 
 pressed his admiration for it. Stedman, his histo- 
 rian and comrade, considers that Washington's most 
 remarkable and strongest marked characteristic was 
 his supreme and unfaltering courage. To cross a 
 wide and rapid river in winter, by night, with an 
 inferior, half-clad and half-fed force, surprise and 
 capture a veteran command of regulars, to make off 
 with his booty, and then reoccupy his position in 
 front of Cornwallis with thrice his numbers, fight 
 him, hold him back, elude him and strike his rear, 
 and make him give up all the territory won by the 
 
56 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 preceding campaign, was an achievement of tactics 
 and of strategy, of endurance and of courage, which 
 nothing but supreme audacity, pugnacity, and cour- 
 age could accomplish. 
 
 The same characteristics were afterward observed 
 in Robert E. Lee, son of " Light Horse Harry " Lee, 
 of the Legion, no kin to the vain braggart, coward, 
 and traitor who tried to lose the Battle of Monmouth 
 and to sell the American army. Robert Lee's friends 
 were wont to criticise his pugnacity and daring. 
 They said he would run any risk for a fight. The 
 courage displayed by Washington in this short cam- 
 paign, not the physical courage of the fighter but the 
 intellectual intrepidity of the thinker, at once won 
 him the respect of military men and military nations 
 all over the world, and, what was of equal im- 
 portance, the confidence of the people at home. 
 There is no doubt that there was a widespread 
 dissatisfaction with his caution and his slowness. 
 The gentlemen who sit at a safe distance study- 
 ing the map, unshaken by responsibility, always 
 know more about war than the generals who are 
 fighting it, and are liberal with their advice — after 
 the event. The debaters are the most impatient for 
 action by others. 
 
 The dispersion of the debating society at Phila- 
 delphia had silenced them for a time, and panic had 
 made them shift all responsibility from themselves, 
 by conferring on Washington the powers of dictator- 
 ship. But this was no proof of confidence. On the 
 contrary, it was intended by very many as a trap, to 
 prove the utter incompetence of the commander in 
 chief, and make way for superseding him in com- 
 mand. Charles Lee and Gates were both intriguing, 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 157 
 
 and undermining and depreciating the ability of their 
 chief. But the New Jersey campaign settled all that, 
 and public confidence arose to support Washington 
 to such an extent that, when subsequently a wretched 
 cabal in the army was formed to depose him, pub- 
 licity was the only punishment required to over- 
 whelm the parties to it with shame, confusion, and 
 ignominy. Confidence at home and reputation 
 abroad were the consequences to Washington and the 
 cause. But reputation and confidence did not fur- 
 nish meat, rations, breeches, or shoes. 
 
 The Christmas gift by Washington to the Con- 
 gress saved the Revolution. The terms of enlist- 
 ment of a majority of his troops expired on the 
 ist of January; but with provisions abundant, the 
 plunder of the Hessian quarters and knapsacks in 
 hand, and the glorious enthusiasm of victory thrill- 
 ing every nerve, the soldiers were induced to stay 
 a few weeks longer. Washington made himself 
 personally liable for their pay, and pledged his entire 
 estate to secure it. John Stark and others followed 
 his example, and the army was held together on a 
 halt before final dissolution. 
 
 Washington was untiring in his petitions to Con- 
 gress and to the States. He appealed to Governor 
 Johnson, of Maryland, his associate in the Ohio and 
 in the Potomac companies, who had nominated him 
 in Congress to be commander in chief, for im- 
 mediate and prompt re-enforcements. '' I have no 
 army," he said. " The men with me are too few 
 to fight, and not enough to run away with." He 
 urged Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, and 
 Jonathan Trumbull, Governor of Connecticut, in 
 the same terms. On March 6th he wrote to Gov- 
 
158 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 ernor Trumbull from Morristown : " I tell you in con- 
 fidence that after the 15th of this month, when the 
 time of General Lincoln's militia expires, I shall be 
 left with the remains of five Virginia regiments, not 
 amounting to more than as many hundred men, and 
 parts of two or three other Continental battalions, 
 all very weak. The remainder of the army will be 
 composed of small parties of militia from this State 
 (New Jersey) and Pennsylvania, on which little de- 
 pendence can be put, as they come and go when 
 they please." 
 
 On March 14th, also from Morristown, Washing- 
 ton wrote to the President of Congress : '' From the 
 most accurate estimate I can now form, the whole of 
 our numbers in Jersey fit for duty at this time is 
 under three thousand. These, nine hundred and 
 eighty-one excepted, are militia, and stand engaged 
 only until the last of this month." Thus he had, as 
 the sole remnant of the Continental military strength, 
 about five hundred Virginians and four hundred and 
 eighty-one Marylanders. That was almost all that 
 remained of the rebellion. New England was quiet, 
 New York and New Jersey nearly hostile, and Penn- 
 sylvania utterly indifferent. 
 
 When Captain Morris's troop of Philadelphia 
 Light Horse tour of duty as escort at headquarters 
 had expired, they were relieved with a compli- 
 mentary order they and their descendants may well 
 be proud of. " I take this opportunity," said the order 
 of the commander in chief, '' of returning my most 
 sincere thanks to the captain and to the gentle- 
 men who compose the troop for the many essential 
 services which they have rendered to their country, 
 and to me personally, during the course of this 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 15^ 
 
 severe campaign. Though composed of gentlemen 
 of fortune, they have shown a noble example of 
 discipline and subordination, and in several actions 
 have displayed a spirit of bravery which will ever do 
 honor to them, and will ever be gratefully remem- 
 bered by me." 
 
 And with the Light Horse went the brightest spark 
 of chivalry from Pennsylvania in the army. The phil- 
 osophy of Penn had taught that thrift, energy, and 
 the accumulation of material means, with peace, 
 order, and prosperity, are the main objects of life 
 and the chief end of man ; and the consequence was 
 the commonwealth could not understand why such 
 imaginary, remote, iridescent, impalpable things as 
 justice, right, and liberty could be worth the sacrifice 
 of present comfort, of fat beeves, of well-fed swine, 
 and even risk of bodily hurt. The idea did not pene- 
 trate the bucolic mind during the whole war, and the 
 Philadelphia troop is the most picturesque, chivalric 
 exhibition of sentiment, devotion, and courage made 
 from that State during all those trying times. That 
 troop proved time and again, as Lee's and Washing- 
 ton's Legion subsequently proved in the Carolinas, 
 that there is room in society for the order of gentle- 
 men, and that in time of stress it is well for the 
 State to have a class to call on who will die as gayly 
 as they dance, and will pour out their blood, as they 
 were wont to do their fortunes, for faith and honor, 
 for sentiment and ideals. Three battalions of Asso- 
 ciators were raised in Philadelphia, officered by Col- 
 onels John Bayard, John Cadwalader, and Jacob Mor- 
 gan, knightly gentlemen, and did gallant service. 
 They and the Light Horse are the most brilliant 
 contributions of Pennsylvania to the cause. 
 
l6o GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 To Washington, with his nine hundred, Johnson 
 brought seventeen hundred from Maryland. They 
 were not very effective, but they were courage and 
 sympathy, hearts as well as hands, like a torch to the 
 lost traveler in the desert. They upheld the spirit of 
 resistance until the country along the Chesapeake 
 could rally; for it had come to be that the chief re- 
 sistance was henceforth to be made by the English 
 on the Chesapeake. New England stood ready, pre- 
 pared to repel invasion and expel intruders. John 
 Stark did the first at Bennington, Benedict Arnold 
 the last for a British raid on Danbury, Connecticut. 
 
 Washington remained in winter quarters at Mor- 
 ristown, watching his enemy at New York. The 
 junction of Howe with Burgoyne in upper New York 
 was of prime importance, but the occupation of the 
 "rebel capital" at Philadelphia, the permanent dis- 
 persion of the rebel Congress, and the separation of 
 the Eastern and Middle States from the Southern, 
 was of equal value. New England paralyzed, New 
 York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania indifferent, 
 Georgia " restored " to loyalty ; the Tories of North 
 and South Carolina gave full occupation to the Whigs 
 of those States, so that they were unable to re- 
 enforce the nucleus of opposition, the Continental 
 Army. Sir William Howe may well have argued that 
 a division of the rebellion on the line of the Dela- 
 ware was infinitely more pregnant of results than 
 that on the Hudson. 
 
 The Southern States subdued, the Eastern and 
 Middle States cut off and neutralized, the rebellion 
 on the Chesapeake and the gallant three counties on 
 the Delaware would have been easily crushed under 
 the guns of the British fleet. The great bays, the 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. i6l 
 
 wide and deep rivers, gave the command of the 
 water entire control over the land. So Washington 
 watched and waited. Howe might move up the 
 North River, or up the Delaware, or up the Chesa- 
 peake. Either move might be disastrous to the 
 American cause. Each must be met and defeated. 
 
 The county committees in lower New Jersey, in 
 lower Delaware, on the eastern shore of Maryland 
 and Virginia, were notified to keep a sharp lookout 
 night and day for the fleet, and to report its appear- 
 ance and progress as soon as it was identified. Lines 
 of couriers were provided from county to county to 
 transmit the news to headquarters. 
 
 On April 15th, Washington wrote from Morns- 
 town to Landon Carter: *' The designs of the enemy 
 are not yet clearly unfolded, but Philadelphia is the 
 object in view ; however, this may or may not be 
 the case, as the North River must also be the object 
 of very great importance to them, while they have 
 an army in Canada and are desirous of a junction 
 with it." On May 28th, he moved from Morristown 
 to Middlebrook, fifteen miles south, on the Raritan 
 River. The army then consisted of forty-three regi- 
 ments in ten brigades and five divisions, under Major 
 Generals Nathanael Greene, Adam Stephen, John 
 Sullivan, Benjamin Lincoln, and Lord Stirling. The 
 artillery was under Henry Knox. They mustered 
 about seven thousand men, mostly militia, from New 
 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Vir- 
 ginia. The New York and Eastern troops were 
 guarding the line of the Hudson and Lake Cham- 
 plain chiefly at Peekskill and Ticonderoga. 
 
 On July ist, Washington wrote to Putnam from 
 Middlebrook, and on the 4th to Governor Trumbull, 
 
l62 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 that Howe was in motion, and " that, upon the whole, 
 there is the strongest reason to conclude that he will 
 push up the river immediately to co-operate with 
 the army from Canada, which it appears certainly 
 has in view an attack on Ticonderoga and the several 
 dependent posts." At the same time he moved back 
 to Morristown, to be in position for " succoring the 
 Eastern States, and to be near enough to oppose any 
 design upon Philadelphia." In a week news arrived 
 from Schuyler, in command on the upper Hudson, of 
 the evacuation of Ticonderoga and its occupation 
 by Burgoyne. Washington moved out of Morris- 
 town to Pompton Plains, and then farther on toward 
 the Hudson. It had then, in his opinion, become so 
 plainly the policy of Howe to co-operate with Bur- 
 goyne that he prepared to support the force at Peeks- 
 kill on the Hudson. 
 
 Howe had collected a fleet of one hundred and 
 twenty vessels at New York. By the last of July 
 he put to sea. At the same time Putnam captured a 
 dispatch from Howe to Burgoyne, advising him that 
 the fleet was to go eastward to Boston. Putnam 
 sent the captured dispatch to headquarters. Wash- 
 ington understood the ruse at once. The dispatch 
 was intended to deceive and to be captured. It said 
 the enemy was to move northeast — that meant was 
 really to move southwest. Without a moment's hesi- 
 tation he ordered Sullivan's and Heath's divisions to 
 cross the Hudson and march to Philadelphia. Howe 
 appeared at the Capes of the Delaware. Washington 
 moved over to that river, but it was so clearly the 
 interest of Howe to join hands with Burgoyne, that, 
 as he wrote to Gates, he "could not help casting his 
 eyes continually behind him." 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 163 
 
 Washington pressed on and took position at 
 Chester, fifteen miles below Philadelphia. But on 
 August ist he received news by express that on the 
 day before the enemy had sailed out of the Capes in 
 an easterly course. After a week's delay, and not 
 hearing of Howe, he started the army back toward 
 the Hudson. He camped for a few days at Schuylkill 
 Falls, five miles north of Philadelphia, and hearing 
 nothing of Howe's fleet, on August 8th the whole 
 army started back for the East, with about eleven 
 thousand men, mostly militia, " badly armed and 
 worse clothed," as Lafayette, who then joined for 
 the first time, recorded in his journal. On August 
 loth, at night, a dispatch was received from the 
 President of Congress that the fleet had been seen 
 off Sinepuxent, on the ocean side of the eastern 
 shore of Maryland, on the 7th instant. 
 
 The army was then at Neshaminy camp, twenty 
 miles north of Philadelphia, on the Old York road, 
 where it halted until further information should be 
 obtained of Howe. From here he sent Morgan and 
 his riflemen to Gates, who had been assigned to the 
 Northern army, then being assembled about Albany, 
 to intercept Burgoyne. Washington was of opinion 
 that Howe's object was Charleston, *' though for 
 what sufficient reason, unless he expected to drag 
 this army after him, by appearing at different places, 
 and thereby leave the country open for General 
 Clinton to march out and endeavor to form a junc- 
 tion with General Burgoyne, I am at a loss to de- 
 termine," as he wrote to Gates on August 20th. 
 
 The next day a council of war decided that, as 
 the enemy's fleet had most probably sailed for 
 Charleston, it was not expedient for the army to 
 12 
 
164 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 march southward, and that it should move immedi- 
 ately toward the North River. The next day the 
 fleet was reported sailing up the Chesapeake. Sulli- 
 van was ordered to rejoin with his division as 
 promptly as possible, and the next morning every- 
 thing was put on the march for Philadelphia and 
 onward. He informed the troops, in a general order, 
 of Stark's brilliant victory at Bennington on the 
 i6th of August. 
 
 On Sunday, August 24th, part of the army, 
 amounting to ten thousand men, with Washington 
 at its head, marched through Philadelphia, down 
 Front Street to Chestnut to the Common, and crossed 
 the Schuylkill at the Middle Ferry, Market Street. 
 They were followed next day by General Francis 
 Nash's North Carolina Brigade and Colonel Proctor's 
 Brigade of Artillery. They made a fine impression 
 with their solid marching and seasoned appearance 
 and with green leaves in their hats, though they were 
 dirty and ragged, and were a revelation to the faint- 
 hearted Whigs and jubilant Tories, who had no idea 
 that the rebels could muster such a force of fighting 
 men. He pressed on through Wilmington, where he 
 heard that Howe was landing eighteen thousand men 
 at the head of the bay. Washington proceeded with 
 all his cavalry up to the enemy's lines, to reconnoitre 
 his position and his force, and employed the next 
 three days in acquiring personal knowledge of the 
 roads and topography. 
 
 Howe landed on August 25th, and by September 
 7th had moved only seven miles. The American 
 army fell back to Chadd's Ford, over the Brandywine, 
 a small stream thirteen miles north of Wilmington, 
 where it awaited the British attack. The position 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 165 
 
 on the north side overlooked that on the south, and 
 during the day it became apparent that the skirmish 
 at the ford opposite the American center was a feint 
 to cover some ulterior purpose. The British army 
 numbered eighteen thousand men, the American 
 about eleven thousand. Wayne, with the artillery, 
 held the center, and Greene was in reserve, with Sulli- 
 van on the right and Armstrong on the left. Dur- 
 ing the morning it got to be understood that the 
 body of troops in front of the ford in plain sight was 
 Knyphausen with his Hessians, and after a time re- 
 ports began to come in from scouts that a heavy 
 column was moving round the right toward the upper 
 forks of the Brandywine. The enemy had therefore 
 divided his force while within striking distance, and 
 Washington promptly gave orders to Greene to cross 
 and attack, supported by Wayne. 
 
 The movement was precisely that of McDowell 
 at First Manassas, and of Jackson at Chancellors- 
 ville. Beauregard's countermove to his adversary 
 was to cross Bull Run and attack his reserve and 
 trains at Centerville. This would have been success- 
 ful, but was not made on account of an inexplicable 
 accident. There is no record of Hooker's intention 
 or attempt to countercheck Lee's move with Jack- 
 son at Chancellorsville. When troops are in actual 
 contact — when men see each other and are firing at 
 each other — it is difficult to disengage and perform 
 military evolutions. None but disciplined, and vet- 
 eran troops can "change front under fire." 
 
 By the time, then, the formations were being made 
 to cross the creek and attack, news came that there 
 was no British column moving round the right flank, 
 and the order to advance was countermanded. In 
 
1 66 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 an hour another report of the flank march would 
 come in, and preparation be made for an advance, 
 and then another contradiction. There was no 
 American cavalry to scout or to carry information — 
 only a headquarter escort of mounted men. 
 
 In some countries — in every country where people 
 are alert, enthusiastic, hot-blooded — tidings of an in- 
 vading enemy would be spread on the wings of the 
 wind. In Virginia, long afterward, farmers* sons 
 and daughters would ride thirty miles in a dark 
 night to give information to Lee or Jackson or 
 Stuart of some move of the enemy ; and no important 
 move was ever made by any Federal general with- 
 out being promptly and accurately reported to his 
 adversary in ample time to prepare. And McClellan, 
 Hooker, or Meade, in Maryland and Pennsylvania, 
 were always kept thoroughly posted as to the move- 
 ments of their Southern enemies by the country 
 people through whose farms and along whose lanes 
 and roads they were marching. 
 
 But at Brandywine not a syllable was ever uttered 
 to the American commander from the population 
 among whom operations were taking place for the 
 capture of their capital city and the subjugation of 
 their country. Cornwallis marched seventeen miles 
 through the open country by daylight, to get in the 
 rear, surround, and capture the American army, and 
 not a soul in all that thickly settled country raised 
 hand or voice to save it. 
 
 The first positive and accurate knowledge the 
 Americans had of the British movement was when, 
 late in the afternoon, Cornwallis appeared in their 
 rear. Sullivan tried to change front and check him, 
 but that was impossible with his green troops, and 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 167 
 
 they broke, pouring back over the reserve. Wash- 
 ington rode in among them in a tempest of fury, but 
 nothing could stop them. Greene held his command 
 well in hand and moved back in good order and per- 
 fect deliberation, and saved the wreck the rout had 
 left. Washington fell back to his old position be- 
 hind the Schuylkill, and for two weeks was engaged 
 in manoeuvring to defend the fords. At last Howe 
 and his army crossed. 
 
 Washington wrote to the President of Congress, 
 on September 23d: " The enemy, by a variety of per- 
 plexing manoeuvers through a country from which 
 I could not derive the least intelligence (being to a 
 man disaffected), contrived to pass the Schuylkill 
 last night at the Fatland (half a mile below Valley 
 Forge), and other fords in the neighborhood of it. 
 ... At least a thousand men are barefoot, and have 
 performed the marches in that condition." 
 
 At 10 A. M. on September 26th, Lord Cornwallis, 
 with two battalions of British and Hessian grena- 
 diers, two squadrons of the Sixteenth Dragoons, and 
 the artillery, with the chief engineer. Captain John 
 Montresor, the commanding officer of artillery, the 
 quartermaster, and the adjutant general, marched in 
 and took possession of the city of Philadelphia, 
 amid the acclamations of some thousands of the 
 inhabitants, mostly women and children. The men 
 would not appear. So, at last, the rebel capital was 
 taken, their Congress dispersed, and their army nearly 
 routed and driven in disorder from the field. Howe 
 camped his army at Germantown, near Philadelphia, 
 occupying the city with a few picked troops and 
 fixing general headquarters there. 
 
 The expulsion of Congress, the seizure of the capi- 
 
1 68 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 tal, and the rout at Brandywine, had depressed the 
 morale of the country to its lowest point. It seemed 
 utterly impossible that the militia could be braced 
 up to meet, much less to attack, the invincible regu- 
 lars, who had driven them whenever and wherever 
 they could get at them. A victory over the British 
 would be of inestimable value. A gallant trial of 
 strength would restore confidence, at least, to troops 
 and to the country. The exposed position of Howe 
 invited enterprise similar to that at Trenton, and the 
 American commander promptly took advantage of 
 his opportunity. He divided his army into three col- 
 umns of attack, and at 7 p. m., October 3d, moved out 
 of his camp to strike the British just before day next 
 morning. The camp was about twelve miles from 
 the enemy. The attacking force was eight thousand 
 Continentals and three thousand militia. 
 
 The attack was to be made by the right wing 
 under Sullivan, accompanied by the commander in 
 chief, moving down the road on which the, village 
 was built, with his division of Maryland troops sup- 
 ported by the division of Wayne. His reserve was 
 under Lord Stirling, of Nash's North Carolina and 
 Maxwell's Virginia brigades. Sullivan was to attack 
 the left wing, while General Armstrong, with the 
 Pennsylvania militia, was to pass to the left of the 
 enemy and attack in the rear. Greene, with the left 
 wing, was to move to the right of the enemy and 
 march upon the Market House, about the center of 
 the camp; while McDougall, with his division, was 
 to attack in flank, and Smallwood's division of Mary- 
 land militia, and Forman's New Jersey brigade, mak- 
 ing a circuit by the Old York road, were to attack 
 in the rear. 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 169 
 
 The plan was fatally defective. It proposed to 
 march green troops twelve miles in the night. None 
 but veterans can make such a movement. The 
 darkness disorganizes the command, and destroys the 
 control of field and company officers over the troops. 
 File-closers become powerless. And after such a 
 march with such troops, four separate attacks in 
 front, both flanks and rear to be made by four sepa- 
 rate commands at the same instant of time, were im- 
 possible. It was impracticable, as the result showed. 
 But Washington, knowing the value of vigor and en- 
 terprise in war, that surprise and the unexpected are 
 wonderful forces in attack, hoped to repeat the ex- 
 ploit of Trenton. And the way in the darkness was 
 long and weary. An unprecedented fog obscured 
 the stars by night and the sun by day. It was after 
 daybreak when Sullivan came in touch with the 
 enemy. He attacked at once, and drove them down 
 the road in rout. Neither the right nor left attacks 
 were up, and Sullivan had to do all the fighting. 
 
 Colonel Musgrave, of the Fortieth Regiment of 
 the Line of the British army, with six of his companies, 
 threw himself into a strong stone house belonging 
 to Chew, right in the line of attack, and held on to it, 
 firing on the Americans as they passed. Sullivan 
 stopped to take it, lost half an hour, and then pressed 
 on a mile farther and broke the enemy's left. Every- 
 thing was now in retreat, and Washington's audac- 
 ity about to be crowned with magnificent success. 
 The line in front pursuing and pressing the enemy 
 saw the attack on Chew's house in the rear, and faced 
 about to go to the assistance of their comrades. The 
 enemy supposed it was a retreat and immediately 
 advanced, and the whole army broke into rout. They 
 
70 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 were within ten minutes of victory, if it had not been 
 for the stone house. Washington rode to the head 
 of the fugitives, rallied fragments, and with them 
 charged the advancing line and was driven back, 
 again and again to rally, charge, and be repulsed. 
 The gallant and warm-hearted Sullivan, knightly 
 gentleman as he was, said : *' I saw with great con- 
 cern our brave commander in chief exposing himself 
 to the hottest fire of the enemy in such a manner 
 that regard for my country obliged me to ride to 
 him and beg him to retire. He, to gratify me and 
 some others, withdrew to a short distance, but his 
 intense anxiety for the fate of the day soon brought 
 him up again, where he remained until our troops 
 had retreated." 
 
 Washington and all the principal officers were 
 deeply mortified at the result. They always believed 
 that the victory was lost by an accident, and that 
 the panic of the troops was unaccountable. It is 
 difficult now to get at the hidden influences which 
 produced results long past, but a cotemporary, who 
 commanded troops at Germantown, has left a recorded 
 statement that ''there was too much drinking at 
 Germantown " ; and General Stephens, of the Virginia 
 Division, was cashiered for drunkenness at this battle. 
 To the darkness of the night, the complicated detail 
 of movements, the obstacle of Chew's house, and 
 Musgrave's six companies, may have been added the 
 incapacity of superior officers paralyzed by drink. 
 That would account for every misfortune. 
 
 Though the daring enterprise failed and he lost 
 the hazard, the moral effect of the movement was 
 enormous at home and abroad. That an army that 
 had been retreating for a year, and been beaten 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. ipri 
 
 within thirty days, could have been brought to face 
 and attack regulars and come within an ace of rout- 
 ing them, produced a profound impression on the 
 soldiers and statesmen on the Continent. 
 
 Frederick the Great said that the dash on Tren- 
 ton was worthy of the greatest general ; and the 
 Count de Vergennes told the American Commis- 
 sioner at Paris that nothing struck him so much as 
 General Washington attacking Howe at German- 
 town ; that to bring an army raised within a year to 
 such a pass, promised everything. It reminds us of 
 McClellan's attack on Lee at Sharpsburg or Antie- 
 tam ; not that McClellan got such magnificent fight- 
 ing out of his troops — for they did fight superbly — but 
 that he got them to fight at all ; men who for the 
 preceding year had never fought their enemy but to 
 be beaten, and had never faced him but to retreat. 
 The fighting at Germantown, as at Sharpsburg, was 
 a phenomenon of will and courage in the commander. 
 
 When the army was about dissolving, and the 
 Congress itself, paralyzed by inherent imbecility and 
 secret treason, was fleeing from town to town, wher- 
 ever it could find temporary shelter, it found itself 
 at Christmas time, 1776, in brief security at Baltimore. 
 It met at a hall in the building on the corner of Lib- 
 erty and Baltimore Streets, then the building farthest 
 west on the road which led from the Western coun- 
 try to tide water. 
 
 Then, while Washington was moving back after 
 the surprise at Trenton, and was securing his pris- 
 oners and his booty by the retrograde over the 
 Delaware, on the 27th of December, 1776, the Con- 
 gress passed this resolution : " This Congress, hav- 
 ing maturely considered the present crisis, having 
 
72 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 perfect confidence in the wisdom, vigor, and up- 
 rightness of General Washington, do hereby resolve, 
 that General Washington shall be, and he is hereby, 
 vested with full, ample, and complete powers to raise 
 and collect together, in the most speedy and effec- 
 tual manner, from any or all of these United States, 
 sixteen battalions of infantry in addition to those 
 already voted by Congress; to appoint officers for 
 the said battalions of infantry ; to raise, officer, and 
 equip three thousand light horse and three regiments 
 of cavalry, and a corps of engineers, and to establish 
 their pay ; to apply to any of the States for such aid 
 of the militia as he shall judge necessary; to form 
 such magazines of provisions, and in such places, as 
 he shall think proper ; to displace and appoint all 
 officers under the rank of brigadier general, and to 
 fill all vacancies in every department in the Ameri- 
 can army ; to take, wherever he may be, whatsoever 
 he may want for the use of the army, if the inhabit- 
 ants will not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for 
 the same; to arrest and confine all persons who re- 
 fuse to take Continental currency or are otherwise 
 disaffected to the American cause, and to return to 
 the State of which they are citizens their names and 
 the nature of their offenses, together with the wit- 
 nesses to prove them. That the foregoing powers 
 be vested in General Washington for and during the 
 term of six months from this date, unless sooner de- 
 termined by Congress." 
 
 On December 30th the Congress sent a circular 
 letter to the Governor of each State, explaining the 
 necessity of this extraordinary action, and urging 
 that "the fullest influence of your State may be ex- 
 erted to aid such levies as the general shall direct 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 173 
 
 in consequence of the power now given him." They 
 also appointed a committee, consisting of Robert 
 Morris, George Clymer, and George Walton, to con- 
 vey to General Washington a copy of their resolu- 
 tions appointing him dictator, who inclosed it to him 
 on December 31, 1776. 
 
 On January i, 1777, he wrote to the committee 
 from Trenton, where he then was, with Cornwallis 
 moving on him from Princeton with the flower of the 
 British regulars. He said : " Yours of the 31st of last 
 month inclosed to me sundry resolves of Congress, by 
 which I find they have done me the honor to intrust 
 me with powers, in my military capacity, of the high- 
 est nature, and almost unlimited in extent. Instead 
 of thinking myself freed from all civil obligations by 
 this mark of their confidence, I shall constantly bear 
 in mind, that as the sword was the last resort for the 
 preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the 
 first thing laid aside when those liberties are firmly 
 established." 
 
 Whether this resolution was passed in the enthu- 
 siasm of the receipt of the news of the victory at 
 Trenton on the preceding morning, or whether it was 
 passed in despair at the desperate condition of the 
 Revolution, it was clearly an abandonment by Con- 
 gress of the struggle, and a confession of its own in- 
 capacity to do anything. It meant that, " experience 
 having proved that we have neither the capacity nor 
 the power to direct or conduct the rebellion, we 
 hereby invest you, general, with all the power in- 
 trusted to us by our States, or whatever you can 
 obtain from them or from anywhere, by hook or by 
 crook, to do the best you can under the circum- 
 stances. If you can conduct the war, conduct it; if 
 
174 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 you must make peace, make it ; if you are obliged to 
 disperse, take to the woods. We are at the end of 
 our rope; we can do nothing further ; we give it up, 
 and turn the whole matter over to you." 
 
 To be sure, they pretended to limit the duration 
 of the dictatorship to six months or the pleasure of 
 the Congress; but the only limit to the power of a 
 dictator is the pleasure of the dictator himself. He 
 ends it when he thinks public necessity — which is an- 
 other term for his personal opinion — requires that it 
 should terminate. The prestige of the attack at 
 Trenton and Princeton conferred vastly more au- 
 thority on the commander in chief than the transi- 
 tory resolves of the ambulatory Congress. 
 
 The people felt, and the States knew, that the 
 government of the country was at the headquarters 
 of the army, and that its counsels and debates were 
 conducted under the chapeau of the general in chief. 
 The power of public opinion furnished recruits, sus- 
 tained the currency, and supplied provisions, as far as 
 anything in that direction was done. The resolution 
 of Congress effected nothing, and, whether intended 
 or not when it was passed, its utter failure to accom- 
 plish anything or to strengthen the arm of the gen- 
 eral in the field was made the excuse, the reason, 
 and the justification for the intrigue of the following 
 winter, when it was intended by the Board of War 
 to drive him out of the army, and thus accomplish a 
 surrender of the struggle. 
 
 Washington's correspondence during this period 
 is the most remarkable display of ability ever made 
 by any soldier or any statesman. His task was, 
 first, to keep an army together so as to furnish a 
 nucleus for armed resistance; second, and equally 
 
THE NEW JERSEY CAMPAIGN. 175 
 
 difficult, to hold the Congress and prevent its dispers- 
 ing to the woods and the mountains to escape the 
 wrath of the victorious officers of the law ; third, to 
 hold up the States to the spirit of resistance, so that, 
 whatever happened to the Continental organization, 
 armed or civic, military or congressional, the seeds 
 of rebellion should be preserved and cherished, and 
 the struggle against irresponsible and unlimited 
 power should never be abandoned. He, more than 
 any man, knew the limitless resources of the Western 
 country — West Augusta he once called it — with its 
 plains and its mountains, its forests and its valleys, 
 its great rivers and its grand unsalted seas. He 
 knew that " montani semper liberi'' ; and with the Brit- 
 ish occupying every port and garrisoning every capital 
 and patrolling every town on tide water, the track- 
 less forest and illimitable desert could never be sub- 
 dued when held by men of the race he represented. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN's SOULS. 
 
 When Howe, on September 26, 1777, occupied 
 Philadelphia, the fortunes of America were at their 
 lowest ebb. Burgoyne had opened the way from 
 Canada by the capture of Ticonderoga, which St. 
 Clair had abandoned after his assurance to the com- 
 mander in chief that it could and should be held. 
 After the evacuation he had disappeared in the wil- 
 derness with his troops, and for days there were no 
 tidings of him. Sir Henry Clinton had forced the 
 Hudson and was pressing on to Albany with every 
 prospect of a junction with Burgoyne. That union 
 insured the conquest of New England. 
 
 Gates, by his own intrigues and the influence of 
 the New England members of Congress, had procured 
 the command of the Northern Department, displac- 
 ing Schuyler, who, by his family connection, his po- 
 litical influence, his services, the confidence the 
 country reposed in him, and his patriotic devotion, 
 was entitled to and best fitted for the command. 
 Washington at once dispatched Gates to his com- 
 mand, well instructed as to the strategy of his cam- 
 paign. If New England was to be saved, she must 
 be saved by her own exertions. He proposed to 
 give him a nucleus of veteran Continental troops 
 around which the country could rally. He sent 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 177 
 
 Morgan and his Virginia riflemen with him, and 
 wrote urgent letters to the Governors of Massachu- 
 setts and Connecticut, pressing them to hurry their 
 militia to the support of Gates and the defense of the 
 New England line, and impressing on them the vital 
 importance of preventing the junction between Bur- 
 goyne and Sir Henry Clinton. 
 
 The moral effect of his exhortations, aided by the 
 imminent peril, was prodigious. New England rose 
 en masse, and its militia, including many soldiers of 
 the last war, of the capture of Louisburg, and of 
 Indian fights, rushed to the camp at Albany, bring- 
 ing their own arms and rations. No more stalwart 
 and determined re-enforcements ever came up in time 
 of need. Burgoyne, as he wended his tedious and 
 devious way down Lake Champlain, saw the tem- 
 pest rising. He wrote to the ministry at home that 
 the New Hampshire grants, which had been a wilder- 
 ness at the time of the last war, were now peopled 
 by the most hardy, daring, and rebellious race in 
 America, "who hang like a gathering storm on my 
 left." He reached the southern end of Lake George 
 and crossed the Hudson, keeping up a casual and 
 uncertain communication with Sir Henry Clinton. 
 
 Around him gathered the yeomanry of New Eng- 
 land—front, flanks, and rear— as they had enveloped 
 Lord Percy on that retreat from Lexington. They 
 were everywhere. They were untiring. By the mid- 
 dle of October Burgoyne sent word to Sir Henry 
 that he would hold on for five days ; that he could 
 not be responsible after that. His position and con- 
 dition were better understood at the American head- 
 quarters than at his own, and no effort was left 
 untried to force the fighting and to terminate the 
 
178 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 campaign before Clinton could possibly get up. 
 Arnold was with Gates, with the rank of brigadier 
 general, but had come into collision with his com- 
 manding officer, who had deprived him of his com- 
 mand, and in effect had ordered him to the rear by- 
 directing him to report to headquarters. To be sent 
 to the rear in the presence of the enemy is an un- 
 pardonable affront, an outrage, or an extreme duty, 
 as the case may be, but it is the decision of the com- 
 manding officer that that particular soldier is unfit 
 for duty in that battle. 
 
 Arnold's fiery, insubordinate temper could never 
 brook such an insult, and on his troops becoming 
 engaged, he dashed off, without rank, command, or 
 orders, and led them. On the field his personality 
 was so great that his directions were obeyed as or- 
 ders, and the best fighting against Burgoyne was 
 done by Arnold. At last the British general was 
 forced to capitulate, and on the 17th of October, 
 1777, surrendered five thousand seven hundred and 
 fifty-two men to Gates, who had, regulars and mili- 
 tia, ten thousand five hundred and fifty-four men on 
 duty. Gates was so much elated by his success that 
 his head — a weak, light member — was turned. He 
 had been assigned to his command by Congress, 
 therefore he argued that he held an independent 
 command, ignoring the fact that Congress had ap- 
 pointed a commander in chief of all the armies raised 
 and to be raised for the defense of American liberty. 
 He reported the result to the President of Congress, 
 and Washington was left for weeks with no official 
 information from Gates of the capitulation and of 
 its substantial results. 
 
 Gates had captured seven thousand stand of small 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 
 
 179 
 
 arms, with great quantities of artillerj'', ammunition, 
 clothes, tents, and supplies, which would have been 
 of immense importance to the army before Philadel- 
 phia. Washington went straight on in the execution 
 of his grand strategy. He occupied the interior 
 lines, and, by concentrating against isolated attacks 
 of the enemy, could, to an extent, equalize the enor- 
 mous disparity of force. He had fortified the Dela- 
 ware ; and, could it be held, Sir William Howe, sur- 
 rounded in Philadelphia by the rising of Maryland, 
 Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, could be destroyed as 
 Burgoyne had been. 
 
 The surrender of the British general at Saratoga 
 had released the Continentals in the army of the 
 North. With them to re-enforce him, he could hold 
 the Delaware, and the militia of the three States 
 could close the gap behind Howe to the Chesapeake. 
 He sent a peremptory order to Gates to dispatch all 
 his Continentals to him. Gates did not do it. He 
 sent another order, and then dispatched Colonel 
 Alexander Hamilton, his aid-de-camp, to see that his 
 commands were promptly obeyed. Hamilton started, 
 expecting to meet the troops efi route; but, riding 
 across the country, it was not until he reached Peeks- 
 kill, on the Hudson, that he met Morgan laboring on 
 the way to Philadelphia. 
 
 Finding Putnam on the east side of the Hudson, 
 he dispatched two Continental brigades from his 
 command to headquarters, and on reaching Gates 
 prevailed on him to send on two other brigades. 
 These re-enforcements reached the Delaware ten 
 days too late — after Howe had captured the forts, 
 opened the Delaware, and made secure his communi- 
 cations with the open sea and his base of supplies 
 13 
 
l8o GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 in New York. The probability of repeating in Penn- 
 sylvania the achievement of Saratoga was gone, 
 and the only thing left to do was to protract the 
 war, wear out his antagonist, and wait for re-enforce- 
 ments, which, in the opinion of the American com- 
 mander in chief, were sure to come. His anticipa- 
 tions of the rising of the country were not met. 
 The militia of Maryland came in from the mountains 
 to the sea. The counties on the Delaware — now the 
 State of Delaware — responded with that chivalry, 
 spirit, and generosity for which those people have 
 always been distinguished. 
 
 New Jersey was divided in sentiment, torn by in- 
 ternal broils, harried by continual raids by Hessian, 
 Tory, and regular, and could not rise; she was tied. 
 But Pennsylvania, the invaded State, stood as placid 
 as her own fat oxen. On the 17th of October Wash- 
 ington wrote to Wharton, the President of Pennsyl- 
 vania, appealing to him to keep up the quota of 
 troops demanded of the State by Congress. " I assure 
 you, sir," he writes, " it is a matter of astonishment 
 on every part of the Continent to hear that Pennsyl- 
 vania, the most populous and opulent of all the 
 States, has but twelve hundred militia in the field, at 
 a time when the enemy are endeavoring to make 
 themselves completely masters of, and to fix their 
 quarters in, her capital." 
 
 Yet, a month afterward, when the American army, 
 "starved, naked, without shoes, clothes, or pro- 
 visions, three days successively without bread, two 
 days without meat," writes Varnum, of Rhode Island, 
 the Legislature of Pennsylvania addressed a remon- 
 strance to Congress against Washington's going into 
 winter quarters instead of keeping the open field. 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. i8l 
 
 This drop overflowed the full cup of his patience, 
 and he broke out in a letter to Congress which did 
 full justice to the subject, to himself, and to them. 
 He told them : '' With truth I can declare that no man, 
 in my opinion, ever had his measures more impeded 
 than I have by every department of the army. 
 Since the month of July we have had no assistance 
 from the quartermaster general, and to want of 
 assistance from this department the commissary 
 charges a great part of his deficiency. 
 
 **To this I may add, that notwithstanding it is a 
 standing order, and often repeated, that the troops 
 shall always have two days' provisions by them, 
 that they might be ready on any sudden call, yet 
 an opportunity has scarcely ever offered of taking 
 advantage of the enemy that it has not been either 
 totally obstructed or greatly impeded on this ac- 
 count. ... By a field return this day made, besides 
 the men in hospital and farmers* houses for want of 
 shoes, we have two thousand eight hundred and 
 ninety-eight men now in camp, unfit for duty because 
 they are barefoot and otherwise naked. . . . 
 
 "By the same return it appears that our whole 
 strength in Continental troops, including the Eastern 
 brigades, which have joined us since the surrender 
 of General Burgoyne, exclusive of the Maryland 
 troops sent to Wilmington, amounts to no more than 
 eight thousand two hundred in camp fit for duty. . . . 
 I can assure gentlemen, that it is a much easier and 
 less distressing thing to draw remonstrances in a 
 comfortable room by a good fireside than to occupy 
 a cold, bleak hill, and sleep under frost and snow 
 without clothes or blankets. However, although 
 they seem to have little feeling for the naked and 
 
1 82 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 distressed soldiers, I feel abundantly for them, and 
 from my soul I pity those miseries which it is neither 
 in my power to relieve nor prevent." 
 
 To keep the field was impossible. The com- 
 manding general might have kept the field, but 
 he could not keep the army. It would have died 
 out, starved out, frozen out, straggled out. In 
 thirty days he would not have had enough men 
 for camp guard; so, in the face of the remon- 
 strances of the Congress and of the Pennsylvania 
 Legislature, he went into winter quarters at Valley 
 Forge, twenty miles from Philadelphia, on the west 
 side of the Schuylkill, on the 17th of December 1777. 
 The Congress had become ambulatory, and was 
 steadily deteriorating in material. The best men 
 were in the army or in the State governments. John- 
 son had been made Governor of Maryland, and was 
 organizing that new State and utilizing her resources 
 to support Washington, for he thoroughly under- 
 stood that Washington was the Revolution. Patrick 
 Henry was Governor of Virginia, and had declined 
 to accept the position of deputy to Congress, as 
 George Mason also had done from the beginning. 
 George Clinton was Governor of New York, and 
 Schuyler was with the army. 
 
 The feeble, incapable body known as the Con- 
 gress was no longer the body that at risk of life and 
 fortune had shown the way to liberty by the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, but was composed of obscure 
 men, without force of character or consideration in 
 the communities they represented. This was par- 
 ticularly so among the deputies from New England. 
 The Adamses were there, firm, faithful, brave, and 
 true ; they never faltered or hesitated ; but the great 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 183 
 
 mass were attorneys or preachers or traders, without 
 high ideas of duty, with no idea of devotion or self- 
 sacrifice. John Jay, long after the Revolution, said 
 to his son : '* No one but John Adams and I know the 
 history of the Continental Congress. It will never 
 be written." Its corruptions, its intrigues, its un- 
 scrupulous undermining of Washington and the com- 
 mon cause will never be revealed. The sectional 
 line had appeared at an early day. 
 
 The Adamses had endeavored to obliterate it by 
 cordial support of Virginian influence in the selec- 
 tion of a Virginia colonel for commander in chief. 
 He was nominated by Johnson, of Maryland, but 
 Adams brought New England to his formal support. 
 This left a feeling of soreness in New England. 
 Artemas Ward^ their own commander in chief of 
 their own army, which they had raised, was super- 
 seded by a Virginian aristocrat, with his liveries, 
 his coat of arms, his coach and four, and his out- 
 riders. He was an abomination to the nostrils of 
 the faithful. John Hancock, President of the Con- 
 gress, was affronted that he had not been selected 
 to command the army. So the feeling grew. Small 
 men, without pedigree, manners, or fortune, hate 
 those who are their antipodes in character, conduct, 
 and general estimation. The dignified deportment of 
 the Virginian gentleman was exaggerated into pon- 
 derous pomposity, and his style of dress and of liv- 
 ing resented as an assumption of superiority. 
 
 Whenever the troops were in cantonments, or 
 camps, the commander in chief expected all general 
 and field officers to dme with him every day at three 
 o'clock. The etiquette at dinner was, that every 
 officer should appear dressed as a gentleman should 
 
84 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 be; and the meal, whether of the scantiest or most 
 abundant, was served by the general's own cooks 
 and trained servants he had brought from Virginia. 
 They were not unaccompanied with a glass of good 
 rum or sound Madeira from the cellar of Mount 
 Vernon. This simple social rite served a great and 
 useful purpose. It brought all the officers under the 
 constant supervision, inspection, and examination of 
 their chief, who thus became acquainted with the 
 character, ability, and capacity of each man ; while 
 it brought them all into that close contact which so 
 largely creates the comradeship of arms, and makes 
 soldiers the more serviceable, as they have confi- 
 dence in each other. This form of entertainment 
 had been commenced by the commander in chief as 
 soon as he assumed command at Cambridge, and 
 was continued by him during the entire war. This 
 formal state was offensive to the democratic mind, 
 and was the source of criticism, carping, and ill-will 
 in Congress. How much and how far British gold 
 was used in that body to foment discontent and to 
 create dissension and purchase treason, we do not as 
 yet know. It is certain that John Jay and others 
 believed that such influences were at work. 
 
 We now know that Charles Lee had made his 
 terms, and was exchanged and sent back to the 
 army to carry out the scheme agreed on at the 
 British headquarters in New York. At the same 
 time appeared in London a number of letters of 
 Washington to his brother Lund Washington and to 
 Lieutenant Battaille Muse, his manager at Mount 
 Vernon, depreciating the movement for independ- 
 ence, and the motives of the movers for it and the 
 characters of the leaders. These letters contained 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 
 
 85 
 
 many domestic allusions and family details, which 
 seemed to establish their genuineness. If true, they 
 showed that the writer was a traitor to his cause, a 
 hypocrite to his friends, and a maligner of his com- 
 rades. They were, in fact, forged by Sir John Ran- 
 dolph, Royal Attorney-General of Virginia, who had 
 taken the Tory side, gone to London, and made this 
 contribution toward the destruction of kin and coun- 
 try, though he never struck a blow in the field in 
 defense of his opinions. 
 
 These letters were republished in New York and 
 distributed through the country by the hands of 
 envy and the breath of slander. Everywhere the air 
 was full of suspicions of "our modern Fabius," as 
 the New England members derisively dubbed the 
 Virginian colonel. Even brusque, prompt, positive 
 John Adams wrote his wife, that he was thankful 
 that the capture of Burgoyne had been made by the 
 Northern army. " If it had been accomplished by the 
 Southern army," said the New Englander, " its com- 
 mander would have been deified. It is bad enough as 
 it is." A deep-laid plan then began to be put in exe- 
 cution, not alone to displace Washington — though 
 that would have been fatal to the cause, for it would 
 not have brought such prompt returns to the opera- 
 tors. It was intended, in Congress, to force Washing- 
 ton out ; Lee to take command, as next in rank, and 
 then the latter was to carry out his agreement with 
 Sir Henry Clinton of restoring the Union and peace 
 to a distracted people. The first step was to paralyze 
 the commander in chief. That was done by reor- 
 ganizing the Board of War, vested with general di- 
 rection of operations, on which was placed Thomas 
 Mifflin, the discredited quartermaster general, whom 
 
l86 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Washington had just reported to Congress for incom- 
 petency, Joseph Trumbull, ex-Commissary-General 
 Richard Peters, Colonel Timothy Pickering, and 
 General Horatio Gates. This board organized by 
 making Gates president, and Wilkinson, his chief of 
 staff, secretary. It was thus organized to convict. 
 Its plan was to snub Washington, to ignore his rank, 
 to send orders over his head, and to make it impossi- 
 ble for him to command the army. 
 
 When he resigned. Gates assumed that he would 
 succeed to the vacant scepter. We can not believe 
 that Gates was a party to the Lee plot, and there is 
 no evidence now known pointing that way; but it is 
 more probable that Gates was the cat's-paw of the 
 conspirators. If Washington were out of the way, 
 the command, by operation of law, devolved upon 
 Lee; and it would require an entire reorganization 
 of the army to put Gates at the head of it, and that 
 would be impossible. 
 
 Gates had been a sergeant in the British army, 
 and the victory of Arnold and Morgan at Saratoga, 
 for which he had received the plaudits of the public, 
 had so addled him, that he failed to see the game 
 that was being played inside of the one in which he 
 had taken a part. He was playing to make Gates 
 commander in chief. The real managers of the 
 movement intended Lee to take charge — play the 
 Monk act over again — and they would all gain rank, 
 honors, and much wealth. Of course the first step 
 was to blind Gates by flattery; and he was plied 
 with that day after day. The conspiracy exploded 
 in the most accidental manner, and hoisted its engi- 
 neers as other petards have done, before and since. 
 
 On Gates's staff, at Saratoga, was a young Mary- 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 187 
 
 lander as adjutant general — James Wilkinson by 
 name — with the proverbial modesty, diffidence, and 
 self-depreciation of the ichthyophagi — of those nur- 
 tured on oysters and fish. Gates dispatched him 
 with his report of Burgoyne's surrender to Congress, 
 at York, in Pennsylvania. It took him eighteen days 
 to make the ride ; he ought to have done it in five. 
 But then a bright, handsome, well-dressed young 
 staff officer, carrying the news of victory through the 
 country, was a great man at every village and at 
 every gentleman's country seat where he stopped to 
 bait and rest. 
 
 The girls of the house hung over him, and ran 
 over each other in their eagerness to wait on this 
 new Othello — how he marked with the bread the 
 British fortifications, and with the salt the rifle-pits 
 of the Americans ; what the general said to him, 
 and what he said to the general ; and how by happy 
 coincidence his suggestions — though he would not 
 presume to insinuate that the general accepted and 
 followed them, but the fact was, nevertheless, that 
 when the line of action happened to correspond with 
 the views he had confidentially imparted to the gen- 
 eral, success invariably attended the operation. 
 
 All this over and over, for days and nights, as 
 the gay gallant galloped from country house to 
 country house. As he approached the army he 
 would from time to time light on some post of 
 soldiers or quarters of officers. Passing through 
 Reading, he spent the evening at the headquarters 
 of Lord Stirling, and of course began sounding his 
 trumpet. The staff sized him up in five minutes, 
 filled his glass again and again, and kept it full and 
 also kept him talking. They chaffed him about his 
 
l88 GENERAL WASHINGTON; 
 
 great influence at headquarters with their tongues in 
 their cheeks, and intimated that in the Southern 
 army the adjutant general did not know and control 
 everything. Knowledge and control were reserved 
 to the general in chief alone. 
 
 Wilkinson, eager to impress these incredulous 
 aids-de-camp, told them that they had no idea of 
 what was going on ; that the Board of War was 
 about to supersede Washington with Gates, and that 
 then they would have an opportunity to win some of 
 the laurels of which he had secured such a plentiful 
 crop. " In fact," said the garrulous and bibulous 
 chief of staff, *' I have read a letter from General 
 Conway, the brilliant and distinguished and experi- 
 enced French officer, lately joined, to my own chief, 
 General Gates, in which he says : * Heaven has de- 
 termined to save your country, or a weak general 
 and bad counsellors would have ruined it.' So you 
 see," said Wilkinson, ''that your hero is only a clay 
 hero at last; my hero is the only genuine one, who 
 alone can save the country." 
 
 Wilkinson proceeded to York, where he delivered 
 his dispatches with a flourish and a bow, like a rus- 
 tic beau, and waited until Congress should reward, 
 with some signal recognition, his distinguished serv- 
 ices in taking eighteen days to carry a message 
 which any ordinary rider would have delivered in 
 five. He demanded a major general's commission, a 
 vote of thanks, a horse, and a sword — any one, either 
 or all — until Dr. Witherspoon, of Princeton, said, 
 *' I think ye'd better give the lad a pair of spurs." 
 They did give him a brevet brigadiership, and he 
 went off swelling and happy. Stirling's adjutant, 
 McWilliams, of course immediately reported Wilkin- 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 189 
 
 son's statement to his chief, who informed General 
 Washington of it. 
 
 He had been well informed of the intrigues of 
 Congress. He knew the efforts that were being made 
 to undermine him in public opinion. Anonymous 
 letters had been sent to Patrick Henry, Governor of 
 Virginia, to Laurens, President of Congress, and 
 to General Putnam, on the Hudson, carefully depre- 
 ciating Washington's abilities and services, and urg- 
 ing the necessity for an immediate change in the 
 command of the army. Henry and Laurens sent 
 their letters to Washington, who identified them as 
 in the handwriting of Dr. Benjamin Rush, of Phila- 
 delphia. That to Putnam, still preserved among his 
 papers, has since been identified as in the handwrit- 
 ing of James Lovell, deputy in Congress from Massa- 
 chusetts. Such a swarm of buzzing insects, hiving 
 in darkness, only required the light to be let in on it 
 to disperse it, and Washington did this in the sim- 
 plest, most direct way. On November 9, i777, he 
 wrote Conway this note : 
 
 "Sir: A letter which I received last night con- 
 tained the following paragraph: 'In a letter from 
 General Conway to General Gates, he says : " Heav- 
 en has determined to save your country, or a weak 
 general and bad counsellors would have ruined it." ' 
 
 " I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 "George Washington." 
 
 Conway was overwhelmed. He was inspector gen- 
 eral, with the rank of major general. He promptly 
 resigned, but the Board of War very properly would 
 not accept his resignation. 
 
igO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Mifflin and Gates were as confounded as Conway, 
 but they all agreed to stand together as far as possi- 
 ble. The first thing to be done was to find out how 
 much Washington knew. Hamilton had been some 
 time at Gates's headquarters, and mean-minded men 
 suspect mean tricks, so the idea floated through 
 what Gates took for his mind, that Hamilton had 
 stolen his correspondence — in the name of Heaven, 
 how much and what part ! Gates therefore wrote to 
 Washington, complainnig of this theft from his let- 
 ter book, and beseeching that the general would aid 
 him in discovering the thief. Washington wrote him, 
 explaining how the information had come to him 
 through the babbling of Wilkinson, thus upsetting 
 the theory of theft, but relieving the cabal with the 
 knowledge that no written evidence of the state- 
 ment was in the possession of the general. Gates 
 therefore denied that there was any such expression 
 in Conway's letter to him, and at the same time re- 
 turned the letter to Conway, so that he (Gates) could 
 not be called upon to produce it. Conway denied 
 that any such expression was in the letter, and re- 
 frained from exhibiting it. Washington coldly per- 
 sisted in holding them both to the point, that the 
 simplest, plainest, most perfect settlement of the ex- 
 istence or nonexistence of the obnoxious paragraph 
 was the production. of the paper itself, and without 
 it the question would be left absolutely uncertain. 
 
 Stirling wrote Wilkinson that he had heard that 
 the latter now asserted that there were no such 
 words in the letter, and asked Wilkinson also for a 
 copy of the letter. Wilkinson indignantly refused, 
 repudiating the idea of such a betrayal of confidence 
 as showing a private letter. But Wilkinson's time 
 
THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS. 191 
 
 was not a happy one — Stirling prodding him for a 
 copy, Gates denouncing him for treachery, Conway 
 damning him for a fool. He undertook, as many a 
 man has, to brazen through it. He rode over to 
 York, sent his friend Colonel Ball, of Virginia, to 
 Gates with a letter demanding satisfaction. The 
 terms of the duel were arranged, when Gates came 
 around at night to Wilkinson's quarters, made up, 
 and they became friends. He went after Stirling, but 
 Stirling was too ready with his right hand, and 
 Wilkinson accepted in satisfaction a statement from 
 Stirling that Wilkinson had said what he did about 
 the letter in a convivial moment, but not in confi- 
 dence. Wilkinson resigned his commission as in- 
 spector general and major general, retaining that of 
 colonel, and retired to obscurity. After the war he 
 was restored to the army, was in command at New 
 Orleans on the cession of Louisiana to the United 
 States, and was charged with complicity with Colonel 
 Aaron Burr in his treasonable schemes. 
 
 Conway resigned, fought a duel with General 
 John Cadwalader about this business, who shot him 
 through the body, thought he was going to die, and 
 wrote a contrite letter to General Washington, ex- 
 pressing the highest respect and admiration, and the 
 deepest love for him. Gates was sent after a time 
 to command the Southern army, and there his 
 *' Northern laurels turned to Southern willows," as 
 Charles Lee warned him they might. After defeat 
 and disaster he was relieved, and retired to an ob- 
 scure plantation in Virginia, where he died unnoticed 
 and unknown. Every conspicuous, exposed member 
 of the cabal came to an ignominious end. Not one 
 survived Washington's letter to Conway. The 
 
[92 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 parties to it in and out of Congress have escaped, 
 sheltered by their obscurity, but not a single mem- 
 ber of that Congress ever won public confidence or 
 achieved reputation, unless he had been at that time 
 an avowed supporter of Washington. The exposure 
 of this intrigue paralyzed the conspirators. The 
 dictator ruled the Board of War, instead of the Board 
 of War managing him. He made Nathanael Greene, 
 of Rhode Island, quartermaster general, and Jeremiah 
 Wadsworth, of Connecticut, commissary general ; 
 and very soon military matters began to improve. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 
 
 From the day of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence Washington perfectly appreciated the situation, 
 that independence could not be achieved by the 
 colonies alone. With the command of the water, 
 the British would occupy all the ports and control 
 all foreign commerce and intercourse with the world. 
 The colonists could retire to the mountains, and 
 could not be subjugated, but they never could be 
 an independent people as long as they were cut off 
 from the world and blockaded from the ocean. 
 When he presided at the Fairfax meeting, and voted 
 to memorialize the King — that from the King in 
 council there was but one appeal — he understood 
 that to mean an appeal to the God of battles, and 
 that appeal the Virginians were ready and willing to 
 make, unaided by any other arm and unsupported 
 from any quarter. They had done so under the lead 
 of Nathaniel Bacon against Sir William Berkley — 
 unsuccessfully, indeed, so far as the overthrow of his 
 government was concerned, but with entire success 
 so far as demanded reforms were obtained. Resist- 
 ance to the King might be made unaided ; independ- 
 ence of the kingdom could only be fully attained by 
 foreign assistance. 
 
 Washington was brought to favor independence 
 
94 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 as a war necessity to carry on successful war; he 
 was forced to favor the French alliance as the only 
 means of securing independence. But independence 
 and the French alliance were both entirely distaste-- 
 ful steps to many earnest and determined patriots. 
 To resist the Government with arijis was an inherited 
 right ; to dissolve the Union was an offense against 
 the law of Nature; to fight our kin, our own blood 
 and our brothers, was the natural order; but to join 
 the *' bloody Frenchman" in fighting them was en- 
 tirely inconceivable. The great struggle their an- 
 cestors had made was to expel New France from, 
 and establish New England on, the American conti- 
 nent ; and it was contrary to the traditions, the senti- 
 ments, and the convictions of the English in Amer- 
 ica to aid in re-establishing the French in the position 
 from which they had dislodged and expelled them 
 twenty years before. 
 
 These objections weighed heavily on the mind 
 and heart of Washington. He had spent a score of 
 the years of his life in fighting the French ; he was 
 not willing to purchase independence from his blood 
 and kin at home for the purpose of restoring their 
 hereditary and natural enemy to the position in Amer- 
 ica from which they had been expelled. But Wash- 
 ington's mind worked with mathematical and inexo- 
 rable logic. If we were subjugated, we would lose 
 every right that freemen cherish and every muni- 
 ment of liberty on which they rely, and with which 
 alone it can be perpetuated. We would become 
 serfs of an insolent, brutal, overbearing set of mas- 
 ters, who, arrogating to themselves Norman blood, 
 would introduce Norman customs of confiscation, 
 conviction, and forfeitures into America. We could 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 
 
 195 
 
 achieve independence and escape subjugation solely 
 by means of a French alliance. The alliance might 
 restore Canada to France, but it were better to 
 achieve independence first, and then control as best 
 we could the consequences of the alliance. 
 
 Therefore, when the news came that the treaty, 
 offensive and defensive, had been signed on the 6th 
 of February, 1778, at Paris, between His Most Chris- 
 tian Majesty and the United States of America, it 
 was considered the beginning of the end. It was 
 certain that Spain must soon join France in this 
 attack on their hereditary enemy. Great Britain 
 promptly declared war on France, on March 13, 1778. 
 Lord George Germaine shifted the responsibility 
 for the disasters of the American campaign from his 
 own shoulders to that of the generals in the field. 
 Burgoyne, who had gone home on parole at once, 
 took his seat in the House of Commons and de- 
 fended himself with vigor. 
 
 As soon as Sir William Howe heard of it he in- 
 sisted upon his right to face his accusers and meet 
 the charges against his conduct in person. He re- 
 signed, turned over the command to Sir Henry Clin- 
 ton, and sailed for home. The war with France had 
 put a new complexion on the occupation of Philadel- 
 phia. Instead of perfectly secure communications 
 by sea, with his base at New York and England, the 
 approach of a great French fleet rendered them 
 exceedingly hazardous. Consequently, on June 18, 
 1778, the British army marched out of Philadelphia, 
 with a trail of wagons and Tory refugees twelve 
 miles long. Before sundown the American advance 
 took possession of the city. 
 
 The American army was now about numerically 
 14 
 
196 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 equal to the British. It was better than it evgr had 
 been in drill, equipment, and morale. During the 
 winter it had been under the instruction of Von 
 Steuben, inspector general, and the troops were 
 anxious to put in practice some of the movements 
 of the great Frederick — which their drill master, the 
 Baron, had told them a thousand times were the 
 means by which he achieved victory. Sir Henry 
 Clinton was pushing for deep water and an open 
 port. He apprehended being cooped up in Phila- 
 delphia, the Delaware blockaded, and the militia of 
 Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New Jersey rising like 
 a storm in his rear, both flanks and front, as the 
 Green Mountain Boys and the Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut militia had swept around Burgoyne. 
 
 Washington intended and hoped to accomplish 
 this, but the treason of Lee and the vanity of Gates 
 lost the chance. As soon, however, as Sir Henry set 
 his face toward the sea the American commander's 
 drums beat the assembly, and he pushed out to cut 
 him off. The news of the evacuation reached the 
 American headquarters at ten a. m. By two p. m, six 
 brigades were on the march pushing out into Jersey, 
 followed by the whole army next morning at day- 
 light. This prompt action was extraordinary. The 
 troops had been in huts for exactly six months. In 
 that time an army accumulates an incredible amount 
 of trash — clocks, feather beds, large iron ovens, 
 bedsteads, boxes, trunks, etc. It is impossible to 
 shake them off in a few hours. Soldiers will load 
 themselves with every conceivable inconvenience 
 rather than throw it away. When the army of 
 northern Virginia evacuated Manassas, in March, 
 1862, its wagons were broken down with Saratoga 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. j^^ 
 
 trunks — unwieldy, cumbrous affairs, the contribu- 
 tion of devoted sisters and mothers— and it took 
 three days' stalling of wagons and breaking down of 
 four and six mule teams to clear out the "things" 
 piled in and on them. 
 
 When the Germans, in 187 1, invested Paris, the 
 Teutonic mind seemed to run by a law of Nature to 
 horology, and the files of the marching columns 
 were picturesque and ridiculous with every variety 
 of clock— big clocks, little clocks, square clocks, 
 round clocks, long clocks, short clocks— on their 
 backs, in their arms, stuffed in their haversacks, and 
 protruding from their knapsacks; and after a day 
 or two the route was strewn with every variety of 
 product of French skill and of German vexation. 
 Caesar called this ''impedimenta." 
 
 That Washington should have got in motion in 
 four hours after receiving notice proves, first, that 
 he had been preparing for the move ; second, that 
 his troops, officers and men, were well in hand; 
 and third, that the general in chief had a prompt, 
 quick, positive mind. He knew that Sir Henry must 
 evacuate; that he must move by land to New York ; 
 that his column must be long and attenuated, choked 
 with the debris of winter quarters, and stretched out 
 with the plunder of officers and the impedimenta of 
 refugees. With such an army guarding such a train, 
 there must occur opportunity to strike some point 
 weaker than the other, and to cut it off. If the am- 
 putated portion should be the artillery and the re- 
 serve ammunition, so much the better; but the op- 
 portunity 7nust occur; it was a certainty that it 
 would occur. It was his duty to be prepared to take 
 advantage of it ; for the great difference between sol- 
 
Io8 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 diers is, that one knows an opportunity when he sees 
 it, and embraces it on sight, while the other never 
 understands that an opportunity has been within his 
 reach until after it has passed irreclaimably beyond. 
 
 The American appreciated the conditions, and 
 knew what would happen. He had his troops 
 stripped ready for the race, and the moment Sir 
 Henry started he gave the word, and six brigades 
 moved out promptly and took the route, Charles Lee 
 in command. He crossed the Delaware at Coryell's 
 Ferry, now Lambertville, N. J., on the 20th, the 
 army following over the same crossing, and pressed 
 on toward Princeton. Washington had the interior 
 and shorter line to New York. By the 27th of June 
 his advance interposed between the British and 
 Amboy, and Sir Henry turned off to the right and 
 marched for Sandy Hook. 
 
 The most incomprehensible line of Washington's 
 policy during the whole war was his constant appeal 
 to councils of war. He had councils to determine 
 whether he should attack General Gage at Boston or 
 Sir William Howe at New York or in Philadelphia, or 
 whether he should make the dash on Princeton ; and, 
 what is still more impossible to understand, he al- 
 ways permitted his council to decide. 
 
 It may have been that, appreciating his own in- 
 experience, he really desired advice; or it may have 
 been that, having made up his mind, he took this 
 means of impressing his views on his subordinates; 
 or he may have taken this means to bring his officers 
 in close and confidential relations to each other, just 
 as he always expected all his general officers to dine 
 with him every day. Whatever may have been the 
 reason for the councils of war, they are not discern- 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 
 
 199 
 
 ible now. But this council decided to attack. The 
 commander in chief had intended and had been pre- 
 paring for this move for the preceding four weeks. 
 Lee, therefore, was directed to push on with his five 
 thousand men and cut off the British rear guard at 
 Monmouth Court-House, and hold it while Washing- 
 ton brought up the main body of the army. 
 
 The movement was too assured of success to suit 
 Lee's plans. It would certainly be accomplished 
 if pressed, and, if accomplished, disastrous conse- 
 quences to Sir Henry Clinton might ensue. He might 
 be surrounded and captured, as Burgoyne had been, 
 and then "good-by" to Lee's dukedom and pension. 
 He therefore asked to be relieved from the command 
 of the advance, on the ground of his disapproval of 
 the military movement. Lafayette was thus left in 
 charge, and his fidelity, energy, and courage insured 
 a vigorous execution of the plan of the commander 
 in chief. During the night Lee concluded that there 
 was too much chance of success with Lafayette, and 
 that he alone could insure disaster. 
 
 With a rout of the army and a probable capture 
 of its commander, the Board of War would be re- 
 vived, the command would devolve on him, and, in 
 conjunction with the mercenary traitors in Congress, 
 the debris of resistance could be surrendered, the 
 terms of the British commissioners accepted, the 
 Union restored, and he secure his dukedom, with 
 vast possessions from the confiscated estates of the 
 rebels. Of his own personal knowledge he knew 
 what a princely estate Mount Vernon was, for he 
 had been entertained there; and it would furnish a 
 delightful haven for an old soldier battered by many 
 wars and buffeted by various fortunes. 
 
 *"vlviV iS III t^r0t.\^t ooan-ct'l ^^% ©(>f«»«4 <o *»» aifaclc , 
 
200 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Lafayette was pressing on to make the move- 
 ment which would bring on a general engagement. 
 Lee thereupon represented to the general that a 
 movement of such moment and responsibility ought 
 to be intrusted to the second in command, and that 
 it was his duty to execute it. Washington agreed 
 with him ; said that that had been his intention, and 
 that Lee himself had frustrated it by declining the 
 command, and that now no change could be made 
 which would appear to reflect on Lafayette by send- 
 ing a senior officer to rank him and take his com- 
 mand away from him in the presence of the enemy. 
 But Washington, with a consideration for Lee's feel- 
 ings which does no credit to his judgment of men, at 
 length sent Lee forward with Scott's and Varnum's 
 brigades to re-enforce Lafayette. Upon reporting his 
 arrival to the latter, his rank gave him command of 
 the whole, and the opportunity to produce disaster, 
 which he sought. He was within five miles of the 
 British left wing, which was separated from its right, 
 convoying the trains, by an interval of several miles. 
 
 The next day (June 28th) was one of the hottest 
 of the season. Lee did not get into action until 
 after eight o'clock — he ought to have struck his 
 blow at daylight — and as soon as he appeared, 
 Cornwallis, who commanded the British left, turned 
 sharply on him and pressed him with vigor. Wash- 
 ington, with his main body, was three miles back, 
 comfortably enjoying the sound of the firing which 
 assured him of substantial results. All at once a 
 countryman rode up with an exclamation that the 
 Americans were retreating. The general, with em- 
 phasis, said that the man was a fool ; but before half 
 a dozen phrases could have been uttered the road. 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 20I 
 
 the woods, the fields, the air became full of indica- 
 tions of rout and panic. A drummer boy ran up 
 with his tongue hanging out, who was promptly cuffed 
 into decency and quiet. Soldiers could be seen 
 dodging about in the woods, flanking the group in 
 the road, which they understood at once consisted 
 of generals, who were not good company at that time 
 for a skulking private. 
 
 The general up to that time had been standing in 
 the road with his arm on his horse's neck, taking 
 in everything that transpired, cool and quiet, only 
 opening his mouth to damn the countryman and to 
 scold the drummer boy, when at once he mounted 
 and struck off in a gallop to the front, with the staff 
 straggling on as best they could behind him. Some 
 distance toward the fighting he met Grayson's and 
 Patton's regiments running as fast as fatigue, the 
 hot weather, and the crowd would let them. The 
 Virginians on the run ! No living man had ever 
 seen that sight before, and the general demanded of 
 them whether the whole advance corps was retreat- 
 ing. They said it was. Soon Shreeve, at the head 
 of his regiment, came along in good order. "What's 
 the reason of all this ? " "I do not know," said 
 Colonel Shreeve ; " I retreated by order." He di- 
 rected Shreeve to halt, form a line, and rally what 
 he could on it. Meeting Colonel Nathaniel Ramsay, 
 of the Maryland Line, struggling and straggling 
 back, he said, " Colonel Ramsay, if you can stop 
 this advance for fifteen minutes you will save this 
 army." " I will do it," said Ramsay, " or die ; " and 
 he did it, and did not die either. Every officer who 
 came by was dissatisfied with the retreat. No one 
 could explain it. They were driving the enemy 
 
202 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 when they were called off. That was the universal 
 feeling. General Lafayette sent word that the pres- 
 ence of the commander in chief was imperatively 
 needed on the field. 
 
 This message overflowed the cup of patience and 
 broke the back of self-control. Just then Lee came 
 along with his staff, cool and complacent. Washing- 
 ton rode at him as if he meant to ride him down. 
 He was like a raging lion. " What is the meaning 
 of all this ? " he fiercely demanded of Lee. His man- 
 ner was more nerve-shattering than his words, his 
 voice than his actions, and Lee was utterly abashed. 
 He stammered that misconception of orders made 
 confusion, and confusion necessitated withdrawal, 
 '^ for our troops can't face the British infantry ; they 
 are the best troops in the world." ''Will you com- 
 mand here, sir, and hold this hill while I bring up 
 the rest ?" " It is perfectly indifferent to me where 
 and what I command," said Lee. " I expect you 
 to take proper means for checking the enemy ! " 
 "Your orders shall be obeyed, and I shall not be the 
 first to leave the ground." 
 
 Washington galloped back and formed his line, 
 with Lord Stirling on his left and Greene on his 
 right. Cornwallis first attempted to turn the left 
 flank, but was driven back by Stirling, and then 
 tried the right with equal bad fortune, for he was 
 checked by Greene. The British then fell back 
 beyond Monmouth Court-House, and took a strong 
 position with flanks well covered by woods and mo- 
 rass. The American general pressed his troops on 
 to attack, but before the proper disposition could be 
 made night fell, and the movement was abandoned 
 on account of the darkness. During the night 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 203 
 
 Washington and Lafayette occupied the same cloak 
 on the ground, and passed the entire time discussing 
 Lee. What passed has not been recorded, but La- 
 fayette had seen the thing with his own eyes. It 
 certainly was not cowardice, for Lee was beyond 
 peradventure a brave man. But he had refused to 
 fight, had declined to inflict a mortal blow on his 
 enemy, and had thrown away victory when it was 
 within his grasp. His mysterious capture outside 
 of his lines, the talk about trying him by British 
 court-martial as a deserter, his effort to have a com- 
 mittee of Congress visit him in his quarters while 
 a prisoner of war, that he might make an important 
 communication to them — all this, it may well be sup- 
 posed, was brought up for review and criticism. 
 
 There is no evidence that either Washington or 
 Lafayette had the faintest idea of the length and 
 breadth and height and depth of Lee's turpitude. 
 They could not conceive that he was at that very 
 moment in the pay of the British commander in 
 chief, and that the British commander was acting on 
 Lee's well-matured plan to destroy his commander, 
 his comrades, his country, his friends. 
 
 The army was halted the next day, and soon after 
 was moved to a salubrious camping ground at New 
 Brunswick for rest and refreshment. Sir Henry, on 
 the 30th of June, crossed over to Sandy Hook, and 
 thus again New Jersey was clear, and the enemy, after 
 three years' campaign, only held what his picket 
 lines covered. Lee wrote to his chief, demanding 
 an apology for his language and manner in the 
 battle. He was at once ordered under arrest, and 
 charges preferred, first, for disobedience of orders ; 
 second, misbehavior in the presence of the enemy — 
 
204 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 i. e., cowardice; third, disrespect to his commanding 
 officer. A court-martial, with Lord Stirling as presi- 
 dent, four brigadiers and eight colonels, was con- 
 vened on July 4th, at New Brunswick. The trial 
 lasted until August 12th, and resulted in the convic- 
 tion of Lee on all three charges. He was sentenced 
 to be suspended from all command for one year, sub- 
 ject to the approval of Congress. On December 5th 
 the sentence was approved by that body — fifteen ayes 
 and seven nays. If he was guilty as charged, he 
 ought to have been shot, and his escape can only be 
 attributed to the provincialism of the court that 
 tried and sentenced him. 
 
 The respect for the British character, the British 
 morals, statesmen, and soldier, was still the dominat- 
 ing and directing influence in the colonial breast; 
 and the militia generals and colonels who sat on 
 Lee's trial would not have dreamed of shooting a 
 real lieutenant colonel of the British army — a genu- 
 ine soldier, who had seen war against the Infidel and 
 been decorated with crosses by live kings and em- 
 perors. It required another generation and another 
 war to eliminate that sentiment as one of the forces, 
 and a strong force, of American society. But it has 
 been eliminated, and the dregs of it, still exhibited 
 on occasion, only prove the fad of weak-minded 
 women and no-minded men. 
 
 Lee retired to a small plantation in Jefferson 
 County, Va., not far from Charlestown, long after- 
 ward the scene of John Brown's execution. To- 
 ward the end of his term of exclusion, hearing the 
 Congress was going to drop him from the army, 
 he wrote a very impertinent letter to the President 
 of the Congress, which, without more ado, struck his 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE. 
 
 205 
 
 name from the list of American soldiers. He fought 
 with Colonel John Laurens, aid-de-camp of Wash- 
 ington, on account of some reflections on Laurens's 
 chief, and passed the rest of his life snarling and 
 cynical, discreditable and discredited; and only the 
 discovery of the Howe papers in this generation has 
 resurrected the skeleton of the almost last survivor 
 of the free lance and the soldier of fortune. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 
 
 When Washington took command of the New 
 England army, in July, 1775, no man living under- 
 stood the conditions, political and military, as well, 
 and no man enlarged his view as environment devel- 
 oped and changed the relations of people, of com- 
 munities, and of States; and he rose higher and high- 
 er to understand what surrounded him and what was 
 necessary. The Fairfax resolutions accurately rep- 
 resented his views: First, protest against illegal acts 
 of government, because government had no right to 
 levy taxes or take any portion of the property of 
 any Englishman without his consent; this had been 
 done by John Hampden. Protest proving unavailing, 
 then to resist with arms every trespass on common 
 right — the right of Englishmen to have, hold, and 
 enjoy the products of their own labor, free from 
 interference by any one, from King to constable, ex- 
 cept under laws to which he had consented. 
 
 Such armed resistance, which the common law 
 called the right of self-defense, was the reform ele- 
 ment of the British Constitution, and since the Nor- 
 man Conquest had been the power by which the 
 English had kept their rulers in check and preserved 
 rights of person and of property to home and family. 
 Self-defense against trespass on rights — the right to 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 
 
 207 
 
 use precisely that amount of force which was neces- 
 sary to protect and preserve person and home — was 
 the logical premise of armed resistance against void 
 laws attempted to be enforced by officers of gov- 
 ernment, whether civil or military. The colonists 
 comprised about three million white people, mainly 
 English, scattered along the Atlantic seaboard for 
 two thousand miles, which was indented at every 
 point with sounds, bays, and rivers, affording easy 
 access to the interior. Great Britain had three hun- 
 dred thousand troops in the field, seasoned by cam- 
 paigns in every climate in every part of the world, 
 and braced by victory over every foe they ever met. 
 For a thousand years the Cross of St. George had 
 been the signal for victory and the emblem of glory, 
 and for nearly a hundred and fifty years it had swept 
 the oceans from continent to continent, the controller 
 of commerce and the mistress of the sea. 
 
 The strategy of the Revolution was the largest, 
 wisest, best, that could have been adopted. It was 
 evolved from the broad brain and great heart of 
 Washington, and was the result of his capacity and 
 experience. He understood continental conditions. 
 He knew the value of the Western lands, and how 
 the outlet to the highway of commerce, of civiliza- 
 tions, of nations and races, was necessary to the fu- 
 ture dwellers on the great rivers and lakes of the 
 inland continental basin ; but he also understood 
 that the continent itself was necessary to support the 
 progress of the seaboard. The thirteen separate, dis- 
 tinct corporations — colonies — were as entirely apart 
 as if they were on different continents. Charleston 
 was as far from Boston as from London, and the 
 people of New England differed as widely from those 
 
2o8 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 on the Chesapeake as those on opposite sides of the 
 British Channel. In race, in religion, in ideas of life, 
 and ideals of right and duty, they differed widely — in 
 many respects were antagonistic. 
 
 The Marylanders despised the Connecticut *' Yan- 
 kees " as bumpkins without manners; the Yankees 
 derided the Marylanders as " Macaronis " without 
 manliness. Virginia and Pennsylvania were on the 
 point of war about the possession of the upper Ohio. 
 New York and New Hampshire had a similar bitter 
 quarrel about the Green Mountains. So, when Wash- 
 ington assumed command of the Continental army, 
 it was in substance a New England army, and the 
 continental feeling was not yet born to brace it. 
 During the whole time of the investment of Boston 
 his great effort was to bring his people together so 
 as to know each other, for he knew that association 
 would produce sympathy and respect, and, when the 
 Virginia troops under Morgan and the Maryland 
 Riflemen under Cresap reported, he was enabled to 
 carry out his policy of mixing them. While seeking 
 to crystallize his command by association, and thus 
 consolidate the colonies by the friendly relations of 
 their representatives, his mind was occupied with the 
 grand conceptions which embraced the continent and 
 eventually directed the war. 
 
 He sent Montgomery and Arnold to Canada to 
 secure the support of that people, which would have 
 been done but for the accident of the fall of Mont- 
 gomery at Quebec, and the impenetrable stupidity 
 and incorrigible bigotry of the Continental Congress, 
 which alleged as one of the grievances the colonies 
 had taken arms to redress, the act of Parliament 
 securing liberty of conscience, freedom of worship. 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 
 
 209 
 
 and protection of property to Roman Catholics and 
 to their Church in Canada. Such a statement of 
 the principles and feelings of the colonies in arms 
 against the Government effectually crushed out any 
 sentiment of sympathy that may have existed among 
 the French in Canada. The Congress attempted to 
 repair its blunder by sending a commission with 
 John Carroll, Provincial of the Society of Jesus in 
 America, at its head, to explain away to the Cana- 
 dians the protest and petition to the King. 
 
 The Congress did not mean what they said, but 
 only desired to enlist on their side the bigotry which 
 lay dormant in every Englishman's heart. The 
 Roman Catholics of Maryland would testify that 
 among the Protestants in the English colonies there 
 was the fullest religious liberty and toleration for 
 Catholics. But the Canadians very reasonably re- 
 fused their confidence to a policy which consisted 
 of falsehood and deception. They could have no 
 guarantee that they were not to be the victims of 
 the fraud, and not the English people. The other 
 move against Canada was more successful. The 
 Quebec Act of 1763 had extended the boundaries of 
 Canada to the Ohio River, thus asserting, ratifying, 
 and executing the pretensions of the French as to 
 that boundary. The great colonies on the ocean 
 shore were thus cut off from the Mississippi Valley 
 and the Great Lakes. 
 
 Washington understood and appreciated the con- 
 tinental conditions flowing from the control of the 
 inland waters and lands — i.e., development and com- 
 merce. When, therefore, a young Virginian frontiers- 
 man, scout, hunter, surveyor, prospector — George 
 Rogers Clark — came forward with a proposition for 
 
2IO GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the conquest of the Western country, to Governor 
 Patrick Henry, during the winter of lyyy-'yS, Wash- 
 ington supported the movement with all his in- 
 fluence; and early in 1778 all the country north- 
 west of the Ohio was conquered by Clark and an- 
 nexed to Virginia as the "County of Illinois." The 
 strategy of the resistance was to create cohesion 
 and fraternity among the people of the different 
 colonies, to evade the British in the open field and 
 on the high sea, to expand the power of the colonies 
 by territorial extension, to confine the enemy to the 
 ports, and protect the interior from them. Washing- 
 ton believed in waging a waiting war, in exhausting 
 his enemy — so far from his source of supplies — by 
 delay, in the firm conviction that the finances must 
 break down and war cease from very exhaustion. 
 War of invasion requires greater efforts and greater 
 sacrifices than war of defense. Invasion is volun- 
 tary, and may cease at any moment the invader wills 
 it. It therefore requires energy and determination, 
 as well as enormous expenditure of material re- 
 sources of men and money. 
 
 But defense is a matter of pure necessity ; it is 
 the protection of home and property, as well as of 
 life and liberty. Invasion is at a distance from the 
 base. Defense is on the base itself. Every pound 
 of food and forage used by the British troops in 
 Boston, New York, or Philadelphia was brought from 
 England or Halifax, while the Continental army was 
 fed by the neighborhood. It was impossible to drive 
 the British out of the seaports without sea force. It 
 was equally impossible for the British to penetrate 
 the interior. Sir John Burgoyne and Sir William 
 Howe had both tried it with disastrous conse- 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 2 II 
 
 quences. The strategy of the war, therefore, was to 
 be defense and delay, as long as the dominion of the 
 sea was wielded by the British. 
 
 But Washington argued that the maritime nations 
 could not and would not let slip such an opportunity 
 to emancipate commerce and to create a rival to 
 the maritime control of Great Britain. Strategy, the 
 direction and control of military force toward great 
 objects, is the product of great genius, great will, 
 great intelligence. The strategy of the Revolution, 
 elaborated and created by Washington, was the result 
 of all these, and therefore it was grand, wise, and 
 all-embracing. Skillful tactics, the management of 
 troops in actual contact with the enemy, is the re- 
 sult of experience. This, of course, the Virginia 
 colonel did not have, and therefore his tactics were 
 defective, weak, and inefficient. 
 
 The campaign of Schuyler and Gates against 
 Burgoyne ; of Gates and Lafayette and Greene against 
 Cornwallis; the defense of the line of the Hudson 
 and the Delaware; the concentration by interior lines 
 on Yorktown, were all parts of the same wise, strong 
 strategy, and exhibit the highest qualities of general- 
 ship. But the dispositions at Long Island and at 
 Brandywine, at both of which places he was flanked, 
 and the attempted movement of converging columns 
 at Germantown and Trenton, both of which failed to 
 be carried out as projected, all show the inexperienced 
 soldier. He had seen Braddock's two thousand men in 
 battle destroyed by bad handling, and had absolutely 
 no experience in tactical movement of troops on the 
 field of battle except that once, and his tactics were 
 bad. Just as, in the beginning of the war between 
 the States, in 1861 there was no soldier below Gen- 
 15 
 
212 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 eral Scott who had ever commanded a regiment in 
 battle, and none of them had ever seen a brigade 
 movement under fire. At the first battle of Manas- 
 sas, July 21, 1861, McDowell's plan of battle was 
 faultless, if he had had veteran officers and troops 
 to execute it. He moved round his adversary's 
 flank, and there, marching down the right bank of 
 Bull Run, extended and re-enforced his line as each 
 ford or bridge was uncovered. His movement had 
 been executed with the accuracy of a game of chess, 
 until Johnston's unexpected attack on his flank gave 
 him checkmate. Beauregard's reply move was to 
 cross Bull Run and capture McDowell's reserve and 
 supplies, and cut off his army ; and this failed from 
 the inexperience of his ofiicers. 
 
 Washington attempted Beauregard's move at 
 Brandywine, and failed from precisely the same 
 cause. His apparent recklessness in battle was 
 prompted by the same reason. He knew what he 
 wanted done. He could not get it done by orders 
 or agents, so he undertook to do it himself. It was 
 a matter of cold, calculating necessity. He was too 
 large a man — had too firm a hold on a fiery, tem- 
 pestuous nature — knew his own limitations too well 
 to ever permit himself the enjoyment of letting him- 
 self loose in battle. His business was to see, to 
 think, and to direct. The mere fighting could well 
 be left to people whose business it was to attend to 
 that department. The exhilaration of combat is an 
 excitement that a great man — leader of men — never 
 permits himself. The stimulant rouses the heart to 
 quicker pulsations, drives the blood with faster 
 throbs, charges the batteries of the brain, until the 
 great general in battle becomes one ganglion of 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 
 
 213 
 
 nerves, with twenty senses, each acting with elec- 
 trical force and precision. 
 
 He sees everything, hears everything, under- 
 stands everything above sight, and hearing, and 
 judgment. The present is photographed on his 
 brain as the future is displayed to his heart, and 
 he acts on inspiration, not logic. Washington did 
 not have this genius. Battle roused him physically, 
 but not so much intellectually, and when he could 
 not get done what he sav/ was necessary and which 
 he wanted done, he attempted to do it himself. 
 Hence his attempt to rally the rout at Brandywine; 
 hence his throwing himself before his retreating line 
 at Germantown, until Sullivan led his horse out; 
 hence his establishing himself within forty yards of 
 the charging line of British bayonets at Princeton, 
 until his leading regiments could be brought up to 
 him and take the place from which Mercer's troops 
 had just been driven. These incidents were not ex- 
 hibitions of the gaiidiiim certaminis, or the fury of 
 fighting, at all; they were the struggles of the inex- 
 perienced soldier to repair disaster caused by his 
 inexperienced officers and men. But he was master 
 of the strategy of the struggle. That was to pro- 
 tract resistance, keep an army in the field, pen up 
 the enemy in the ports, until a foreign alliance gave 
 him a chance on the sea. 
 
 France was the historical, logical, necessary ally 
 of rebellion in the British Empire. Every attack on 
 the hereditary enemy within her own dominions, for 
 ten generations, had come from France, and it was 
 mathematically certain from the first that, as soon 
 as France was convinced that rebellion promised 
 revolution, she would aid it with all her force. The 
 
214 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 news of the treaty of alliance, then, which had been 
 concluded February 6, 1778, was precisely what he 
 expected; and when war was declared by Great 
 Britain, Washington well knew that it must be fol- 
 lowed by war with Spain. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton crossed over to Staten Island 
 on June 30th, where he was securely bottled up by 
 Washington, who promptly took position on the 
 Hudson. On July 8th — a week afterward — the 
 French fleet appeared off the Capes of the Dela- 
 ware, under command of Lieutenant General the 
 Count D'Estaing. After communicating with the 
 shore it sailed for Sandy Hook. The British fleet in 
 the harbor was far inferior to the French outside, 
 and W^ashington sent his aids — Laurens and Hamil- 
 ton — promptly to the French general admiral to 
 propose a joint attack on New York. No men ac- 
 cept kindly the command of men of different pro- 
 fessions, and sailors no more like command of 
 soldiers than soldiers would that of sailors; and 
 the French admiral did not enjoy the command 
 of the American general. The bar of New York 
 was found to impose an insuperable obstacle to the 
 great French line of battle ships; and Washington's 
 dream of the two previous years — of the capture of 
 a British army by aid of a co-operating naval force 
 — was abandoned at that point. 
 
 Another place, however, offered opportunity. 
 After the expulsion of the British from Boston, New 
 England had been free from the enemy, except that 
 Lord Percy had made a lodgment at Newport, in 
 Rhode Island, where the British commanders had 
 ever since maintained a considerable force. Instead 
 of concentrating and forcing the Ime of the Hudson, 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 
 
 215 
 
 and thus isolating New England, British strategy 
 consisted of threats, occupation of seaports, raids 
 on exposed rural districts, and harrying defenseless 
 towns and villages. War on women and children 
 sometimes, though rarely, unnerves the arms of men 
 in the field ; it more generally braces them. But for 
 two years this outlying post of New York was kept 
 up. Sir Henry Clinton used it to worry Washington 
 and to make him loose his grip on the Hudson to 
 defend Connecticut. After Lord Percy's departure 
 for home, the command devolved eventually on Sir 
 Robert Piggott, an accomplished soldier and a gen- 
 tleman, under whom the garrison was increased to 
 six thousand men. 
 
 Newport and New York were the only places in 
 the United States pressed by British feet, and, as 
 the latter could not be attacked by the allies, the 
 former was considered the next point to move on. 
 John Sullivan, of New Hampshire, had been in com- 
 mand at Providence since the spring, and Washing- 
 ton now sent him fifteen hundred picked men, under 
 Greene, a native of the country, and whose Rhode 
 Island brigade had been the smartest, best equipped, 
 best drilled, and best disciplined corps at Boston. 
 
 D'Estaing arrived off the harbor of Newport, July 
 29th, and it was agreed between him and Sullivan 
 that a joint landing should be made and a concerted 
 attack pressed. Sullivan moved promptly, as he al- 
 ways did, and seized Butts Hill, an outlying promi- 
 nence where there was a British battery; w^hich 
 exploit hurt the feelings of the French, to whom 
 "the doing" was not as important as the "manner 
 of doing it " ; and this " manner " not being exactly 
 according to the agreement, they became affronted. 
 
2l6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Just then, however, Lord Howe appeared in the 
 offing with a British fleet. Such a challenge no 
 French gentleman could possibly refuse, no matter 
 how momentous the consequences of accepting it, 
 and D'Estaing re-embarked his troops and sailed out 
 to attack the British. But a storm fiercer than the 
 heaviest ordnance drove both enemies over the face 
 of the deep, and gave them full occupation to save 
 themselves instead of destroying each other. It was 
 not until August 20th that D'Estaing brought his 
 shattered fleet into harbor, and then decided to take 
 his troops and his ships to Boston and refit. 
 
 Sullivan remonstrated and Lafayette pleaded with 
 no avail, and the Frenchman sailed away from the 
 point of contact with the enemy. This was the sec- 
 ond failure to secure cordial co-operation between 
 French and English, between Saxon and Gaul. Many 
 a man in General Sullivan's command bore a fire- 
 lock which his father had carried at Louisburg 
 against the French, and a sword which his grand- 
 father had worn in fights against French and In- 
 dians. It was a sore test of human nature to ask 
 these men to give their hearts to the French, who 
 on the first trial of friendship had failed them — as 
 they felt, and as Sullivan said in a public proclama- 
 tion. Not the least of the difficulties with which 
 Washington struggled from this time until York- 
 town, in October, 1781, was the constant effort to 
 smooth the sensibilities of the susceptible French, 
 and to appease their insatiable demand for honor, 
 glory, and consideration. 
 
 As soon as the fleet appeared on the coast he had 
 opened communications with them with a tact, a deli- 
 cacy, and a finesse which nothing could surpass. He 
 
THE FRENCH ALLIANCE AGAIN. 
 
 217 
 
 sent Laurens — French in blood, in manners, in lan- 
 guage — and Hamilton — West Indian by birth — two 
 youths as perfect specimens of cultured chivalry as 
 ever won spurs or bore sword. Personal appear- 
 ance, deportment, air, produce a profound and last- 
 ing impression on human nature, and these brilliant 
 young staff officers only prepared the minds of the 
 Frenchmen for the appearance of their chief. The 
 natural gravity and grace of Washington's carriage, 
 the grand proportions of the man, the vigor of his 
 intellect and the clearness of his views, at once sub- 
 dued the respect and conquered the allegiance of all, 
 from general and admiral to the line and the ranks. 
 
 In letters which are absolutely unparalleled for 
 delicacy, for elegance, for convincing logic, for ap- 
 peals to chivalric sentiment, he persuaded, he con- 
 vinced, he led his allies to follow his directions. His 
 difficulty was enormously increased by the character 
 of the French force. It was a mixed army and navy, 
 under command of a soldier. So, to the jealousies 
 of race and religion were added those of the States 
 on the one side and those of the army and navy on 
 the other. Washington's problem was to keep in 
 touch, on friendly terms, the Puritan and the Cav- 
 alier, the soldier and the sailor, the Saxon and the 
 Gaul, and so imbue them with a common sentiment 
 that they could begot to act in a common enterprise. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ARNOLD AND ANDRE THE FRENCH AGAIN. 
 
 During this period occurred an incident which 
 tested Washington's character as much as any inci- 
 dent of his illustrious career — the episode of the 
 treason of Arnold and the execution of Andr^. If 
 in the summer of 1775, before Boston, during the 
 ensuing winter before Quebec, or after the campaign 
 of Saratoga, any officer of rank in the Continental 
 army had been requested to name the soldier who 
 would most distinguish himself for gallant achieve- 
 ment, and who would win the largest, most enduring 
 reputation among all his comrades, he would beyond 
 doubt have selected Benedict Arnold, of Connecti- 
 cut. Of a superb figure, generous feelings, chivalric 
 carriage, strikingly handsome features, he was *' the 
 bravest of the brave," and at once attracted the at- 
 tention of the commander in chief, and so deeply 
 impressed him that he intrusted him with the im- 
 portant command of the expedition through the 
 snows and rocks and forests and torrents of Maine 
 to the capture of Quebec. 
 
 The intelligence, the fortitude, the perseverance 
 with which Arnold prosecuted this expedition en- 
 tirely justified the confidence and judgment of Wash- 
 ington. He would have taken Quebec had he not 
 been wounded and Montgomery killed at the same 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 219 
 
 moment of their assault of this fortress. Arnold 
 was taken prisoner, and, after the loss of more 
 than a year of his military career, exchanged, and 
 returned to duty while the army was before New 
 York. At the investment of and attack on and ca- 
 pitulation by Burgoyne, Arnold had acted the most 
 brilliant part; and his leadership, his gallantry, /^/V 
 spirit, more than that of any one man, had held the 
 American lines to their work and showed them the 
 way to victory. He was wounded there again, and, 
 instead of being thanked or promoted, was snubbed 
 by the Congress and ignored by the Board of War. 
 His juniors were jumped over his head, and his feel- 
 ings mortified by constant slights. 
 
 Washington had a warm feeling for the brilliant, 
 handsome soldier, and sympathized deeply with his 
 mortification. To soothe his feelings and mark his 
 appreciation of him, while his wound disqualified 
 him from service in the field he ordered him to the 
 command of Philadelphia. He ought to have known 
 that Arnold was not the man for such duty. To be 
 the military governor of a city in time of war, when 
 it was necessary to enforce the civil law with military 
 force and control the troops by martial law, requires 
 a mixture of coolness, patience, tact, sagacity, and 
 firmness that Arnold did not possess. And when the 
 civil population to be governed is divided into fierce 
 factions by race, religion, or politics, the difficulties 
 are ten thousand times multiplied. 
 
 The selection of Arnold for such duty was prob- 
 ably the most injudicious possible. Arnold had been 
 born and bred in a social sphere entirely different 
 from that to which his rank as brigadier general intro- 
 duced him. He had been a druggist and bookseller 
 
220 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 in Hartford, Conn. Social position and attentions 
 are over-valued by those who have never possessed 
 or enjoyed them, and when Arnold assumed command 
 in Philadelphia, he was immediately inordinately in- 
 fluenced by the consideration of a rich, luxurious, 
 highly refined society. Probably a soldier is con- 
 trolled by no force as completely, as suddenly, and 
 as temporarily as that of beautiful, cultivated, and 
 rich women. To a man from Arnold's sphere of life 
 the habit of command, the assertion of authority, the 
 consummate ability to direct and control men and 
 affairs displayed by them, is a revelation. He had 
 never seen such women in the sphere from which he 
 came, and he had never imagined that such women 
 could exist. His mother, sisters, cousins were good, 
 industrious, faithful housewives ; but women who 
 could talk intelligently with the most intelligent 
 men on the topics of which the latter were masters; 
 whose information was as large as that of men ; 
 whose business it was to know; whose judgment of 
 character and of motives was instinctive and unerr- 
 ing, were creatures of a world of which Benedict 
 Arnold had no conception. 
 
 Forces which overwhelmed Arnold would have 
 passed unfelt over Charles Lee, Laurens, or Hamil- 
 ton. The highly organized, subtle, irresistible influ- 
 ence of the social machine known as " society " en- 
 veloped, permeated, absolutely controlled the plain 
 Connecticut farmer's son. As commanding officer 
 of the principal city of America, which in wealth, 
 luxury, fashion, and style far surpassed all others; 
 which during the preceding year had been entertain- 
 ing the gentlemen and nobility who were with the 
 army under Sir William Howe and Sir Henry Clm- 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 221 
 
 ton, Arnold occupied a conspicuous place. His rank 
 drew to him social attention that required handsome 
 quarters, uniforms, coaches, liveries, horses, balls, 
 and dinners. He took the Penn palace, the hand- 
 somest residence in the city, on the pay of a briga- 
 dier general. Women always attack the commander 
 of the invading force, and when the American briga- 
 dier assumed command of the Continental capital 
 the court circle measured him at once, and captured 
 him without a struggle on his part or theirs. He 
 was handsome, he was vain, he was brave, he was 
 generous ; what easier prey would a beautiful woman 
 want, and who could be quicker made captive ? 
 
 The belles of Sir William's staff, the dames of the 
 ridiculous mock tournament with which belles and 
 beaux had complimented his departure, overwhelmed 
 the new commander with attentions and flattery. 
 *'At Arnold's balls were not only 'common Tory 
 women ' (notoriously loyal ladies), but the wives 
 and daughters of Tories who were even then m 
 arms against their country in the invader's camp 
 in New York," wrote Joseph Reed, President of the 
 Council of Pennsylvania. But, worse than that. 
 Miss Margaret Shippen, one of the Tory beauties 
 who had been one of the ladies "of the blended 
 rose " at the Howe Mischianza, had captured Arnold 
 on sight. She agreed to marry him for then, as be- 
 fore and since it has been deemed wise and prudent 
 for people on debatable ground to have hostages to 
 fortune on either side, and in the doubt between re- 
 bellion or victory, revolution or glory, it was good 
 for the Shippens, a solid Tory family, to have a 
 daughter, wife of one of the most distinguished rebel 
 generals. The proposed alliance still further en- 
 
222 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 raged the Philadelphia Whigs, and through Joseph 
 Reed, and his council, they were not long in making 
 their fangs felt, besides their hiss. 
 
 The Congress had made five major generals over 
 Arnold's head, on the excuse that Connecticut already 
 had two. Not one of them compared in service, in 
 talents, in ability, or in achievement with Arnold, 
 and he naturally and properly resigned. Washing- 
 ton induced him to withhold his resignation for the 
 present, and he then proceeded to organize a settle- 
 ment of old soldiers in western New York in co- 
 operation with George Clinton, his comrade of Still- 
 water and Saratoga, on lands granted him by the 
 Legislature of New York. While thus engaged in 
 preparing to withdraw from the military service, the 
 President and Council of Pennsylvania preferred 
 charges against him to the Congress, for peculation, 
 extortion, and misbehavior in his office of Military 
 Governor of Philadelphia, and directed copies of the 
 charges to be forwarded to the Governor of each 
 State. 
 
 Arnold promptly returned to Philadelphia and 
 demanded an investigation, which was given him by 
 a committee of Congress. The committee reported 
 him not guilty, on all the specifications except the 
 improper use of some army wagons to haul private 
 property out of danger, and irregularity in granting 
 a pass. This was a triumph for Arnold, but Reed 
 and the council preferred new charges on the alle- 
 gation of newly discovered evidence. The Con- 
 gress referred the charges to the Council and As- 
 sembly of Pennsylvania, and they were eventually 
 brought before a court-martial, April 3, 1779. Reed 
 secured delay to gather evidence, and the charges 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDR^— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 223 
 
 and court hung over his head until December of 
 that year. Miss Shippen, like a high-spirited and 
 warm-hearted woman, promptly took place by her 
 lover's side and married him, in the face of the 
 charges, the court, and the Congress, thus testifying 
 her faith in him and her contempt for them. During 
 all this harassing delay General Arnold was in Phila- 
 delphia, with nothing to do but w^ait on his mistress 
 and wife. 
 
 The French alliance was genuinely distasteful to 
 him, as it was to very many ardent patriots. Noth- 
 ing but absolute, dire, pressing, extreme necessity, 
 and the conduct of the English Administration at 
 home and their Hessian allies here, reconciled the 
 English in America to an alliance with their hered- 
 itary foes to fight against their own flesh and blood. 
 The change of the issue of the war, from a resistance 
 for reform to a war for disunion, also had alienated 
 some and cooled many patriots. This was particu- 
 larly so in Philadelphia. Arnold had no Whig asso- 
 ciates. The members of Congress from the Southern 
 States were all gentlemen, as were many of them 
 from the Middle States and some from New Eng- 
 land. Arnold was a vulgarian, a snob cutis et in cute. 
 He believed that fine clothes, fine style, luxurious 
 living made the highest type of men and women, and 
 he imitated them. The gentlemen of the Congress — 
 plain men like Madison, of Virginia; simple-minded, 
 frank men like Carroll, of Maryland, or Laurens, of 
 South Carolina — were not congenial to this swelling 
 roysterer, nor they to him. He was thrown more and 
 more under the influence of the Tory society of his 
 wife's family. It is beyond a doubt that neither she 
 nor they ever imagined, stimulated, or participated 
 
224 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 in the turpitude which was being conceived and trans- 
 acted by Arnold under cover of their hospitality. 
 
 The Tories of the Revolution for these three 
 generations have been held up to universal execra- 
 tion in America, but surely it is time now to see 
 something of their side of the quarrel. They em- 
 braced the clergy of the Church of England almost 
 without exception, the great landholders of New 
 York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and the de- 
 voted Jacobite population of the Carolinas. The 
 education, the wealth, the culture of the Middle 
 States was largely on the side of the Crown. For 
 five years the revolutionary government of New 
 York dared not call a General Assembly, for fear 
 that it would make terms with Colonel William 
 Tryon, the Royal Governor; and members of Con- 
 gress from Pennsylvania were open in their expres- 
 sions of desire for peace. 
 
 Loyalty in its highest form — devotion to duty, 
 absolutely regardless of consequences — exhibited it- 
 self; and to this day, in Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, people may be found, descendants of 
 American Tories, \vho look back with longing eyes 
 to the lovely homes their ancestors gave up for 
 their duty and their faith. With Arnold in the state 
 of mind produced by the unjust, malignant Whig at- 
 tack of General Reed and his associates, he irresisti- 
 bly turned to the other side — the side where honor 
 was cherished, valor rewarded, and great achievement 
 recognized. 
 
 Between Philadelphia and New York there were 
 a thousand underground channels of communica- 
 tion. During the war between the States the fash- 
 ion papers were received as regularly in Richmond, 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 225 
 
 though not as promptly, as in Washington; and in 
 1779 there was no difficulty, and little danger, in hav- 
 ing letters delivered in either place from the other. 
 Here Arnold began to write letters to Sir Henry 
 Clinton, inquiring what terms could be made by an 
 American officer of rank, who was disgusted at the 
 Declaration of Independence and the French alli- 
 ance. The intrigue was turned over by Clinton to 
 Major John Andre, his adjutant general and gen- 
 eral manager. Andre was the adroit man about 
 headquarters. He knew everything, and was ap- 
 pealed to by everybody, on every subject. His 
 mind turned instinctively to intrigue, and he was an 
 adept in its arts, trained by natural tendency and 
 personal experience. 
 
 At the siege of Charleston, Clinton sent him into 
 the beleaguered city as a spy, and he remained there 
 undetected until its surrender and the capitulation 
 of Lincoln's army. He represented himself as a 
 Virginian officer of the Virginian line. He resided 
 at the house of Edward Shrewsberry, a respectable 
 citizen suspected of disloyalty to the patriot side, 
 and after the capitulation was introduced by Shrews- 
 berry to his friends as Major Andre. The proof of 
 this is set forth in detail in William Johnson's Life of 
 Greene, and was derived by the author, a justice of 
 the Supreme Court of the United States, and son of 
 a patriot, from contemporary authority and personal 
 testimony. Therefore when the anonymous letters, 
 signed " Gustavus," came to headquarters, Major 
 Andre was the party qualified to answer them. As 
 " John Anderson," he conducted the correspondence 
 during the summer of 1779, until he accompanied 
 Clinton on his Southern expedition, when he made 
 
226 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 his little excursion into the domain of the secret 
 service and lived in Charleston as a spy. Returning 
 from Charleston, he resumed the correspondence be- 
 tween " Gustavus " and '* John Anderson." On Janu- 
 ary 26, 1780, the court-martial had found Arnold 
 guilty of the same specifications as the former com- 
 mittee of Congress had determined against him, and 
 sentenced him to be reprimanded in general orders. 
 Washington's reprimand was conveyed as mildly as 
 it was possible for language to express it. Of course 
 it only further inflamed Arnold. 
 
 All history showed that in a civil war parties to 
 it, high and low, generals and privates, constantly 
 changed sides. It was not desertion. It was only a 
 change of opinion, necessarily required by a change 
 of condition. Monk had done it, Marlborough had 
 done it; why not Arnold ? The event justified the 
 act, if success crowned the move. This was the line 
 of reflection forced on Arnold by circumstances. 
 But, bold, blatant, and bankrupt as he was in 
 fortune and in fame, a simple desertion was not 
 enough. He aspired to the highest rewards, and he 
 proposed to earn them by the most superlative in- 
 famy. He applied to Washington for the command 
 of West Point, on the ground that it was due to 
 soothe his wounded honor, lacerated by the court- 
 martial, its decision, and the reprimand ; and he did 
 this with the distinctly formed purpose in his mind 
 of selling his post for money! No such idea was 
 conceivable by the high-bred and high-minded To- 
 ries of the Shippen family or the Philadelphia so- 
 ciety of which it was the leader. Such an idea could 
 only have been conceived in the base mind of the 
 Connecticut village apothecary and bookseller, ad- 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 227 
 
 mitted solely on account of his rank into the asso- 
 ciation of ladies and gentlemen. 
 
 Washington ought to have known better. He 
 was a good judge of men, as his appreciation of 
 Greene and Lafayette, of Gates and Conway showed. 
 But he was imposed upon by the showy qualities of 
 the conqueror of Ticonderoga and the leader of the 
 forlorn hope against Quebec. At the bottom of it 
 all lay the feeling of sympathy for the wronged, the 
 ardent desire to heal a soldier's wounded honor. He 
 assigned Arnold to the command of West Point, with 
 the distinct understanding with him that it was the 
 key of the Revolution. This key Arnold promptly 
 arranged to sell to Sir Henry Clinton. 
 
 " John Anderson " (Andre) and '' Gustavus " (Ar- 
 nold) met at Haverstraw below West Point to agree 
 upon the details of what was to be sold and what 
 was to be paid. An American battery on the right 
 bank of the Hudson soon drove down stream the 
 sloop of war which had brought Andre up from New 
 York for the conference. Thus left in the American 
 lines by his escort, in disguise, he was supplied with 
 a suit of citizens' clothes and rode for the British 
 lines all night. About daylight his guide left him, 
 and shortly after he fell into the hands of a patrol 
 from Arnold's command, who carried him to their 
 superior officer. The papers found on Andre fully 
 disclosed the proposed betrayal. They were sent by 
 express to Washington that morning returning from 
 an interview with De Rochambeau at Newport, and, 
 by curious but honest stupidity, the American officer 
 forwarded to Arnold a letter from Andre. 
 
 The express to Washington missed him on the 
 road. The letter to Arnold found him and the staff of 
 16 
 
228 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Washington at breakfast at the Beverley House. The 
 latter had stopped to examine the fortifications on 
 the other side of the river. Arnold rose from the 
 table, passed out, mounted a horse standing saddled 
 and bridled by chance at the door, and rode for his 
 life to the British vessel below. He succeeded in 
 reaching it just about the time Washington reached 
 West Point. Arnold in a word had disclosed his 
 project and his danger to his wife. The captured 
 dispatches sent to Washington followed him and were 
 delivered to Hamilton before Washington's arrival. 
 He met his chief coming from the river to the house 
 and informed him of the treachery and escape of 
 Arnold. Washington dispatched Hamilton to inter- 
 cept Arnold at Verplanck's Point, but he was too 
 late. Prompt orders were sent out to collect the 
 troops and put the post on the qui vive. 
 
 Arnold's treachery was the severest blow that 
 Washington received during the whole war. His 
 relation toward Charles Lee was not one of trust and 
 confidence. It was controlled by his supreme sense 
 of justice, for Lee was next in rank to himself, and it 
 was proper that he should be treated with the greatest 
 consideration. But he did trust Arnold. He ad- 
 mired and loved him. He was a brilliant, dashing 
 soldier and an able general, and he sympathized 
 deeply with him at the injustice inflicted on him by 
 the Congress. The jealousies and bickerings of Reed 
 and the Pennsylvania Whigs, and their attacks on 
 Arnold, jarred on his feelings. They had sympa- 
 thized too much with the Board of War and the Con- 
 way intrigue, in impatience at the strategy of "our 
 modern Fabius," for him to appreciate their distrust 
 of the "bravest of the brave." It was now clear to 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 229 
 
 him that the instincts of the Congress and the Penn- 
 sylvanians about Arnold's character were wise, just, 
 and correct, and that he had been utterly mistaken. 
 
 His confidence in his own judgment was shaken 
 to the core. Whom could he trust ? Who was true ? 
 By what intrigues was he surrounded ? Gates was 
 an Englishman, and had been an enlisted soldier ; 
 Steuben, De Kalb — all held important commands, 
 and may have been shaken by the failing fortunes 
 of the Colonial Confederacy. Members of Congress 
 were, he knew, dissatisfied with him. How far had 
 that feeling extended, and how many were in British 
 pay ? All these questions rose darkly for answer, 
 but his indomitable soul never quailed. 
 
 Major John Andre was Sir Henry Clinton's chief 
 of staff. He had been caught as a spy, and was or- 
 dered before a court-martial composed of the ranking 
 officers of the American army, Lafayette being one. 
 A spy is not entitled to a trial. He may, by the law 
 of war, be shot or hung in flagrante delicto. He can 
 not surrender. He may not make himself a prisoner 
 of war. Now, the service of a spy may be patriotic ; 
 it maybe valuable; it requires courage; but it is 
 never the honorable service of a soldier. No com- 
 manding officer can order his subordinate, com- 
 missioned or enlisted, to doff his uniform and pene- 
 trate the enemies' lines, pretending to be a friend and 
 betray them. The dangers from spies are so great 
 that everywhere, in all wars, in all ages, the penalty of 
 detection has been death. One single spy may de- 
 stroy a movement, neutralize a combination of one 
 hundred thousand men, paralyze an army, and defeat 
 a campaign. He may cost tens of thousands of lives 
 and many millions of money. Therefore the doom 
 
230 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 of the spy discovered is death — swift, sure, sudden 
 death. Major Andre was found guilty and condemned 
 to death. He had played a great game and had lost 
 it, paying the penalty; and no just man, British or 
 American, can ever blame the American commander 
 in chief for directing the execution of the judgment 
 of the court-martial. Andre was a bright, handsome, 
 accomplished young gentleman. He had been a 
 toast with the loyal belles of Philadelphia during 
 the occupation. Every effort, appeal, threat was 
 made by the British general to save his staff officer. 
 But the South Carolina members of Congress knew 
 of Andre's spy exploits in Charleston, and they 
 alone would have prevented pardon or commutation 
 of his sentence, even if his crime had not been 
 such as to preclude all possibility of mercy. 
 
 Andre had gone into his enemy's lines under the 
 sacred protection of a flag of truce. He had used 
 his inviolability to arrange a perfidy which might 
 have wrecked the cause of a whole people. It would 
 have cost confiscations, prosecutions, hangings in- 
 numerable if it had succeeded, as he and his colleague 
 in crime hoped and intended. It failed, and he died 
 for it. As Washington said, he was captured as a 
 spy, he was tried as a spy, he was convicted as a spy, 
 and he was executed as a spy. He might, under the 
 law, have been hanged five minutes after he was 
 delivered by the patrol to their officer on post. But 
 he was fairly tried and justly convicted and exe- 
 cuted. Washington never afterward, in conversation, 
 mentioned Arnold's name. In a letter to Greene he 
 expressed the opinion that Benedict Arnold was of 
 so low and base a nature that he did not think he 
 suffered from his dishonor. 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 
 
 231 
 
 After the failure at Newport other feelings had to 
 be appeased as well as the French, for New Eng- 
 landers had susceptibilities as sensitive as those of 
 the Gaul. Sullivan — ardent, high-spirited, generous, 
 chivalric — felt the refusal of D'Estaing at Newport 
 like misbehavior in the presence of the enemy, and 
 he said so in private and in public, in conversation and 
 in orders to the troops. And on the drop of a glove 
 he would have justified his language and his opinions 
 with his own sword against D'Estaing or any French 
 officer of proper rank on any turf about Newport or 
 around Boston. For gentlemen — Puritan and Cava- 
 lier, French and English — in that generation believed 
 it the duty of every one to back his opinion with his 
 arm, and to defend his honor with his life. 
 
 Lafayette was the kinsman of D'Estaing, and he 
 would have challenged Sullivan, but Lafayette be- 
 belonged to the family of Washington, and Sullivan 
 had saved Washington's life at Germantown. Kins- 
 men fought for kinsmen, friends for friends, staff of- 
 ficers for their chiefs. General John Cadwalader 
 challenged and fought General Thomas Conway be- 
 cause the latter had written disrespectfully of the 
 commander in chief. Colonel John Laurens chal- 
 lenged and fought Charles Lee for a similar offense 
 against his chief. But the influence of Washington 
 composed the quarrel, held Lafayette in check, and 
 made him an active peacemaker between the dis- 
 cordant elements. He prevented hostilities, if he 
 could not restore cordial feelings. Besides these 
 jars between subordinates, there was a chill in the 
 highest quarters. It had been much discussed in 
 Paris as one of the conditions of the alliance and 
 the auxiliary force, that the whole should be under 
 
2^,2 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 French command. It was not conceivable, much 
 less permissible, that a marshal of France, a lieuten- 
 ant general in the army of his most Christian Maj- 
 esty, should be subordinate to a militiaman, a rough 
 backwoods hunter, scout, and bushwhacker. But 
 Franklin, with intuitive sagacity, insisted that if the 
 French went, they should go as assistants and not as 
 leaders. He did not possess the feelings or the ex- 
 perience of Washington on this subject. 
 
 Washington's whole life, as also that of his 
 father and grandfather, had been spent in a struggle 
 against the French for the Ohio, and he never di- 
 vested himself of the fear or the suspicion that if the 
 French power was too prominent or too predominant 
 in securing independence from Great Britain, the 
 Canadians would gladly rush to their old allegiance, 
 to which they were bound by ties of blood and re- 
 ligion, and who had been separated from their mother 
 country only fifteen years before by the Treaty of 
 Paris. The sagacity of Franklin and the firmness of 
 Washington saved the continent from the re-estab- 
 lishment of French influence here, and many woes. 
 It so happened that the French never accomplished 
 anything substantial, by land or by water, from their 
 appearance in the summer of 1778 until the campaign 
 of Yorktown, in October, 1781, where French assist- 
 ance was decisive. The large force of five thousand 
 men was landed, and co-operated with the Conti- 
 nental army, but the fleets were cruising up and 
 down in quest of ** glory," and undertaking enter- 
 prises independent of the strategy of the commander 
 in chief. D'Estaing made an attack on Savannah and 
 failed, the second French attempt thus proving dis- 
 astrous, and then he sailed away for the West Indies. 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 
 
 233 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton withdrew his detachment from 
 Rhode Island and concentrated everything at New 
 York. The British strategy of the war abandoned 
 New England, and with it further effort to seize the 
 line of the Hudson and thus cut off the head of the 
 rebellion. It was believed that something might be 
 done in the South, where population was sparse, 
 where slavery partly paralyzed military resistance, 
 and where loyalty, not more extensive than in the 
 Middle States of New York, New Jersey, and Penn- 
 sylvania, was more belligerent and aggressive ; where 
 the friends of the old order backed their opinion 
 with their blood, their lives, and their fortunes. 
 There was not as large a percentage of Tories in 
 the Carolinas as in Pennsylvania or New York, but 
 the former believed in standmg up for their princi- 
 ples, regardless of cost; the latter were opposed to 
 disorder, disturbance, or trouble of any kind for any 
 cause. Therefore, Lord George Germaine and the 
 ministry at home determined to try the plan of cut- 
 ting off around the edges, that of dividing through 
 the center and across vital parts having utterly 
 failed. 
 
 Washington, during the winter of lyyS-'yg, had 
 become persuaded that the war in the North was 
 over. After four years campaigning the British oc- 
 cupied their camp on Staten Island, less than when 
 Gage had evacuated Boston. The year 1779 was 
 one without hope, without energy, without fortune 
 to the Americans. The French auxiliaries had par- 
 alyzed the State governments. The people at home 
 supposed that the coming of the army and navy of 
 the grand monarch settled the business; for, with 
 true provincial training and ideas, they exaggerated 
 
234 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the high qualities of the great people on the other 
 side of the ocean, whose generals were marquises 
 and earls, counts and barons. 
 
 The French alliance was of real detriment for a 
 time, and exertion by the States, and by the people 
 who constituted the States, almost ceased and died 
 out. The finances flickered out as public credit 
 burned lower and lower, until the currency issued by 
 Congress, being paper promises to pay bearer, stipu- 
 lated amounts in money, became absolutely worth- 
 less. The idea of declaring that a piece of paper 
 was money, and of fixing its value by act of Congress, 
 had not then been born. The pay of the troops 
 amounted to nothing, but even that was not given 
 to them. In the winter of ij'jS-'jg the New Jersey 
 regiments refused to march until they received their 
 pay — five months in arrears. They got it. 
 
 In the spring the Connecticut line mutinied for 
 their pay, followed by the Pennsylvania line. Wash- 
 ington reduced these troops to discipline by prompt 
 firmness; but when a newly enlisted Pennsylvania 
 regiment had the audacity to follow the example of 
 its elders, on tap of drum he put it down, and hung 
 two of the mutineers. He sympathized with the old 
 soldiers, whose patience had been worn out by starva- 
 tion, nakedness, disease, and marches; they were 
 brought to their senses by reason and vigorous force 
 firmly applied. But for a set of green recruits, who 
 had never smelled powder, or marched barefoot, 
 or lain out in the snow and mud, or been without 
 meat for three days, or without meat or bread for 
 two — for such fellows to complain was pure impu- 
 dence. He hung some to satisfy the others. It did 
 satisfy them ! The whole year was taken up with 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 
 
 235 
 
 appeals to the States to strengthen the Congress, 
 and to the Congress to brace up the army. 
 
 Washington saw how the Congress was deterio- 
 rating year by year. He entreated Henry to re-en- 
 force Richard Henry Lee, who was bearing on his 
 shoulders the support of Washington and the army in 
 Congress. It has been suggested that for some un- 
 known reason Lee became estranged from him, and 
 it has been intimated that he sympathized with, if he 
 did not actually participate in, the conspiracy of 
 "the cabal." This is an error that in justice to a 
 great soul should be corrected. Richard Henry Lee 
 and Washington had been comrades from boyhood. 
 Their mothers were friends before them, and to the 
 day that death separated them their mutual respect, 
 affection, and devotion knew no check nor chill. 
 
 During the summer Sir Henry Clinton occupied 
 Stony Point, on the left bank of the Hudson below 
 West Point, and Paulus Hook, where Jersey city now 
 is, to give him control of a reach of the river and 
 secure his communications with his friends in New 
 Jersey, Pennsylvania, and the South. 
 
 Washington was dissatisfied with the operation of 
 the French alliance. It accomplished nothing, and 
 rather weakened the Continentals than aided them. 
 He sent Lafayette — whom he appreciated as a gentle- 
 man, a soldier, a man of ability, and a true friend — 
 to France to secure more troops and closer co-opera- 
 tion. He made Lafayette understand that the war 
 was over in the North, and must be decided in the 
 South. Unless that section was redeemed, the prob- 
 abilities were that with acknowledgment of the in- 
 dependence of the Northern States would come the 
 re-establishment of the Spaniards in possession of 
 
236 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Florida and all the great territory from the mouth 
 of the Cape Fear to the Mississippi. She already 
 possessed the continent from the Mississippi to the 
 Pacific, and such an end of the struggle would put 
 her astride, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, of the 
 continent from which France had been expelled only 
 fifteen years before. If France wished to avert such 
 a result, she must join Washington in saving the 
 South by a campaign in which he must have the 
 earnest, loyal co-operation of a French fleet on 
 the sea and a French army on the land. 
 
 Washington sent General Lincoln to South Caro- 
 lina to take command, with distinct and emphatic 
 instructions that at every cost he was to save his 
 army ; under no circumstances was he to lose it. 
 The possession of posts, positions, or lines he was 
 too great a soldier to value. The army was the 
 vital force; it was the right arm, the sword, to be 
 wielded by intelligent courage; and the absolute 
 ultimate, final necessity to the cause was to keep an 
 army in the field at all times. In June, 1780, Lin- 
 coln lost Charleston and surrendered his army, di- 
 rectly contrary to the mature views and distinct 
 orders of the commander in chief. The conquest of 
 the South seemed secure. Georgia was already re- 
 constructed, and South Carolina must soon be. Gen- 
 eral " Mad " Anthony Wayne surprised and captured 
 Stony Point, as Lee did Paulus Hook, and Sir Henry 
 was again pushed back to Manhattan Island. 
 
 In July, 1780, a French fleet arrived, with an army 
 of six thousand men under command of General 
 Count De Rochambeau, who was to report, and did 
 report, to the headquarters of the American army, as 
 distinctlv subordinate to it and within its command. 
 
ARNOLD AND ANDRE— THE FRENCH AGAIN. 2 
 
 17 
 
 This was of enormous service, as it removed at once 
 all the paralyzing influence of disputes and jealousy 
 about rank and command. The French contingent 
 were no longer allies. They were part of the Ameri- 
 can army and navy, and, like it, subject solely to the 
 control of the American commander in chief. 
 
 The Southern campaign had become the turning 
 point of the war. Washington dared not leave New 
 York nor the Congress. If Sir Henry escaped from 
 his control he might do serious damage along the 
 Hudson and up the Mohawk Valley; but if the Con- 
 gress once got away from him, it was certain to 
 bring on disaster, so he could not go South. The 
 best man he had was Greene, the Rhode Island 
 blacksmith, who during the four years of experience, 
 observation, and meditation had matured into a great 
 soldier. Greene, disgusted with Congress, had, in 
 July, 1780, resigned his place as quartermaster gen- 
 eral, and had gone home. Washington recalled him 
 into the service. He was thoroughly imbued with 
 Washington's ideas of the strategy of the war — that 
 he must never hold on to a place so as to risk his 
 army ; he must avoid pitched battles, but wear his 
 enemy out by marching, by alarms, and by dis- 
 ease. He was to entice Cornwallis, who was in 
 Charleston, to leave his base, and draw him into the 
 interior. The Briton breathed the sea air; he lived 
 on the salt breeze; the fresh blasts from the moun- 
 tains would wither his energy and paralyze his vigor. 
 
 Cornwallis was to be drawn far enough into the 
 interior to cut his communications, then to be sur- 
 rounded by a blazing circle of militia, and, thus iso- 
 lated, destroyed. Or, if that failed, and he stuck to 
 tide water, he was to be fastened there until the 
 
238 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 French fleet could blockade him from his base and 
 the open sea, and the allied armies could be concen- 
 trated on him to force a capitulation and end the 
 war. This strategy was thought out and discussed 
 thoroughly with Greene. Cornwallis must be drawn 
 North, so as to enable the concentration of the 
 Northern army from New York with the Southern 
 army from Carolina. General Greene went South, 
 took charge of the debris of Gates, reorganized and 
 reconstructed an army — the basis of it being the 
 veterans of the Maryland line — and assumed com- 
 mand at Charlotte. 
 
 Morgan, affronted at the slights of the Board of 
 War — who constantly promoted his juniors over his 
 head — had also resigned and gone home to the val- 
 ley of Virginia, but Camden brought him to life at 
 once. "It was no time to think of rank," he said; 
 "the country was in danger, and every man must 
 help to save it." The Virginians rallied around him. 
 The remnant of the Maryland line, consolidated 
 into three regiments of about one hundred each, was 
 as bright and as highly tempered as a Toledo blade, 
 in charge of Colonel John Eager Howard. The 
 militia of the two Carolinas formed a body of mount- 
 ed gunmen well adapted for rapid movement and 
 bush fighting, entirely unequal to closed ranks and 
 leveled bayonets in the open field. With these 
 commanders — Greene, Morgan, Howard, Lee — and 
 such troops, Washington commenced the first moves 
 in the last stage of his great game. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 The failure of the combined land and naval op- 
 erations against New York and Newport did not dis- 
 courage Washington, or impair his determination to 
 use the French power on the sea, with that of the 
 States on the land, to strike a decisive blow. He hda 
 succeeded in the strategic move against Burgoyne 
 in the North, owing to the active and zealous sup- 
 port of New England. He had failed in his plan to 
 capture Sir William Howe and his army in Phila- 
 delphia, owing to the treachery of Charles Lee, who 
 withheld re-enforcements in time to hold the Delaware, 
 and the failure of New Jersey and Pennsylvania to 
 rise in the enemy's rear and on his flanks, as New 
 England had done at Bennington, at Stillwater, and 
 at Saratoga. 
 
 But thenceforward his main effort was first to 
 get his enemy in the South into such a position that 
 he could isolate him, by the use of the French fleet, 
 from his base of supplies, for the open sea was the 
 British base; and, second, raise the country on him, 
 surround him, capture him, end the war, and achieve 
 liberty and independence. He impressed on Lincoln, 
 commanding in South Carolina, that the defense of 
 posts, positions, and lines was impracticable. The 
 Americans held the interior line of defense. The 
 
240 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 British must move on exterior lines of attack, and by 
 keeping the American defense foot free it could be 
 moved from point to point as necessity required, and 
 always confront its adversary, extended on the cir- 
 cumference of a circle, with superior force moving on 
 the interior. The attempt to hold positions and lines 
 would give the enemy the initiative, and he would 
 thus select his own time and place of attack. Lin- 
 coln, in any and every event, was to save his army. 
 Posts and ports, towns and cities, might all be sur- 
 rendered and retaken. An army taken captive was 
 an army destroyed. Its esprit, its morale could never 
 be resurrected, even if its men and material could 
 be completely replaced. 
 
 AVashington was forced by necessity to hold the 
 line of the Hudson. That and the Chesapeake were 
 the only two absolutely requisite strategic conditions 
 to be maintained; all others might be given up, as he 
 had abandoned Boston and New York and Philadel- 
 phia. But local populations have an intense horror 
 of the enemy. The feeling is somewhat a senti- 
 mental one, for the rules of war in modern times 
 forbid the outrages of earlier states of society. 
 Therefore, when Sir Henry Clinton and Cornwallis 
 approached Charleston, S. C, in February, 1780, 
 there was a unanimous and vociferous outcry among 
 the South Carolinians that Charleston should not 
 be abandoned, and Lincoln allowed himself to be 
 cooped up there. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton, finding he could not loosen 
 Washington's hold on the North River by forays 
 along the Sound and raids up the Hudson, deter- 
 mined to force his hand by a move in another quar- 
 ter. He embarked eight thousand men at New 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 241 
 
 York, and after Christmas, 1779, sailed for Savannah, 
 with Cornwallis second in command. He was soon 
 followed by Lord Rawdon, afterward Earl of Moira 
 and Marquis of Hastings, with three thousand more. 
 I'his move forced Washington to dispatch all his 
 Carolina and Virginia troops to the assistance of 
 Lincoln, together with Pulaski and his legion of 
 the odds and ends of nations and races. 
 
 Clinton landed in South Carolina, moved to the 
 rear of Charleston, cut the city off from the country, 
 and on May 12, 1780, Lincoln surrendered three 
 thousand Continentals, with a large supply of muni- 
 tions of war. The strategic points in the interior 
 were at once occupied, and in June, Clinton returned 
 to New York, leaving Lord Cornwallis with five thou- 
 sand regulars to consolidate the conquest and restore 
 the unhappy country to its allegiance. 
 
 Georgia, before then, had been subdued, and Pu- 
 laski lost his life in a futile attempt, by French and 
 Americans, to retake Savannah. Marion and Sumter 
 alone kept the flag of rebellion flying among the 
 palmettoes. It seemed as if the rebellion was to be 
 destroyed from the edges, and not by cutting it into 
 pieces. Georgia and South Carolina quiet, it only 
 remained to advance into North Carolina and Vir- 
 ginia to arouse, rally, and protect the Union sentiment 
 there, just as, eighty years after, Sherman marched 
 by the same routes to extinguish the rebellion and 
 revive the Union sentiment among the grandsons of 
 the people who had known Lord Cornwallis and 
 Colonel Banastre Tarleton. 
 
 The anti-Washington feeling in Congress, the sec- 
 tional sentiment, sought this occasion to mortify him 
 and to make another move toward displacing him. 
 
242 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Gates, with the Army of the North, had captured one 
 British army; with an army in the South he would 
 capture another, and then there would be no doubt 
 that he was the general for the war, the destined 
 saviour of the liberties of the continent, and all 
 would agree that he was the Moses selected by 
 Providence to lead us through the Red Sea of re- 
 bellion, and to command the army on its march to 
 the promised land. 
 
 As in the assignment of Gates to the command at 
 Albany, Washington did not agree to this estimate 
 by the Board of War and the New England influence, 
 nor assent to his being intrusted with great respon- 
 sible command. But his opinion was disregarded, 
 and General Gates was sent South to redeem the 
 Carolinas. Charles Lee, who knew him well — knew 
 his ignorance, his self-conceit, his weakness of will, 
 his intellectual incapacity — sent him word, by a mu- 
 tual friend, to " take heed lest his Northern laurels 
 turn to Southern willows." 
 
 Gates arrived at Hillsborough, N. C., July 19, 
 1780, where he found the Maryland and Delaware 
 lines, of about two thousand men, under Major 
 General the Baron de Kalb, who while on the march 
 from the North had reached that point on June 20th, 
 when the news of Lincoln's surrender reached them. 
 De Kalb halted until he could secure some co-opera- 
 tion from Richard Caswell, Governor of North Caro- 
 lina. The arrival of Gates, with orders to assume 
 command of the army and of the States, relieved De 
 Kalb of responsibility, and he calmly awaited orders. 
 The British held no positions in North Carolina ex- 
 cept a depot on the Cape Fear, the present city of 
 Wilmington. They held Camden, under command of 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 243 
 
 Lord Rawdon, in the center of South Carolina, where 
 roads from east, west, north, and south converged, 
 and the possession of Camden would cut the com- 
 munications of all posts, east, west, and north, with 
 headquarters at Charleston. Therefore General 
 Gates proposed the brilliant strategic feat of the 
 capture of Camden before Lord Cornwallis could 
 reach it from Charleston. 
 
 He moved by the shortest line, and arrived at 
 Camden before Cornwallis, but by indecision and 
 delay lost his advantage and opportunity, for Corn- 
 wallis came before he could make up his mind to 
 attack Rawdon. He did so at last on August 16, 
 1780, with three thousand men, of whom fourteen 
 hundred were veterans of the Maryland line, against 
 two thousand regulars under Cornwallis, and in a 
 few hours was utterly routed, dispersed, destroyed. 
 The only ray of light on that black field is the chiv- 
 alry of the First Regiment of the Maryland line, 
 which by repeated and reiterated bayonet charges 
 stayed the onward sweep of the British line, and the 
 heroic death of their commander, De Kalb, who died 
 on the field from many wounds. Gates fled igno- 
 miniously, and never drew rein until he reached 
 Hillsborough, two hundred miles off, in four days. 
 Cornwallis halted a month at Camden before he 
 moved north into North Carolina. 
 
 The destruction of the army of the South, the 
 submission of Georgia, the conquest of South Caro- 
 lina, and the impendmg subjugation of North Caro- 
 lina, threatened the most tremendous consequences. 
 War had been waged for five years; independence 
 had been declared four years ; the alliance with 
 France had been accomplished two years, and there 
 17 
 
244 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 was still no apparent end to the struggle. Florida 
 Blanca, the Spanish Prime Minister, urged Vergennes, 
 the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to make peace 
 between the revolted colonies and their home Gov- 
 ernment on the basis of the retention of New York 
 and Rhode Island by the latter, and the acknowledg- 
 ment of the independence of the rest. The wily 
 Spaniard argued that such a settlement would leave 
 the English Protestants in America so divided that 
 they would exhaust themselves and the mother 
 country in internecine fraternal struggle, and leave 
 the dominion of the sea again to Spain, as it had 
 been before the failure of the Grand Armada. 
 
 The Frenchman, with a wider view and farther 
 sight, believed that the way to break Great Britain's 
 supremacy was by force, not diplomacy, and that a 
 great, prosperous, energetic, aggressive, Anglo-Nor- 
 man, Scandinavian, Celtic, Gothic, Saxon race in 
 America would more certainly overcome Great Brit- 
 ain by the arts of peace, than the trite device of un- 
 dermining the adversary by encouraging internal 
 broils and intestine struggles. Quarrels may be 
 composed and strife may be stilled, but power pro- 
 duced and supported by industrial development will 
 overcome and outlast conditions created by and rest- 
 ing on cunning, adroitness, and the manifestations of 
 passions, religious, racial, or national. 
 
 Therefore the French statesman elected to create 
 a great power on the Western continent, instead of 
 trying to involve it in ruin. The French alliance 
 had amounted to nothing in the field. It supplied 
 some money and arms and munitions, and a super- 
 abundance of military adventurers and soldiers of for- 
 tune like Conway, but it was really disadvantageous, 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 245 
 
 in that it weakened the self-reliance of the States, 
 and tended to turn their eyes toward France for suc- 
 cess, instead of relying on their own hearts and arms 
 alone. The finances of the confederacy were abso- 
 lutely nil. There was no courage, no brains, no ex- 
 perience in their management. 
 
 The Articles of Confederation still hung on be- 
 tween the States unratified. There was no author- 
 ity in the Congress. It could not enlist a man or 
 raise a dollar by taxation. It could and did issue 
 promises to pay, and flooded the country with cur- 
 rency which was estimated at the value of the expec- 
 tation it represented. Virginia maintained a post at 
 Fort Pitt, the former Fort Duquesne, and constructed 
 a chain of forts from the head waters of the Ohio 
 along the Alleghany range to the North Carolina 
 line, while she claimed the county of Kentucky from 
 the mouth of the Kanawha to the Mississippi, and 
 the county of Illinois, comprising all the territory 
 west of the Ohio, to the same river. 
 
 The other States refused to accede to the con- 
 federation until Virginia agreed that these territo- 
 ries should be considered the common property of 
 all the States. She, on the other hand, insisted that, 
 as they had been conquered by Virginian arms and 
 paid for by Virginian blood and money, they be- 
 longed to her; and that the objections to her title 
 were based not on the common interest, but on selfish 
 considerations to save the speculative rights of men 
 prominent in the States, and who had been conspicu- 
 ous in the colonial governments — among them Lord 
 Dunmore, of Virginia, and Governor Tryon, of North 
 Carolina and New York. With this wrangle of jar- 
 ring interests, the general depreciation of public 
 
246 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 morals, always accompanying war, with a fluctuating, 
 uncertain medium of exchange, steadily debauched 
 the public virtue. 
 
 Washington was more concerned with the social 
 degeneration than even the gloomy military outlook. 
 Speculators, engrossers, blockade runners overshad- 
 owed society, and easy and rapid gains produced 
 easier and more rapid expenditure, until the luxury 
 of a few only accentuated the sufferings of the many, 
 and the aspirations of all were rapidly tending to- 
 ward the accumulation of money more than to the 
 acquisition of liberty. He wrote, he urged, he en- 
 treated leading men of the States to apply their 
 whole energies toward correcting this fast-growing 
 corruption, demonstrating to them the fact that, if 
 it could not be cured, there would be nothing left 
 worth contending for. 
 
 Looking to Virginia, as ever, for support and ex- 
 ample, he impressed George Mason with the sense 
 of the immense danger, and urged him to rouse the 
 General Assembly to action. He knew nothing of 
 the intrigue of the Spaniards for peace with a divided 
 continent, but his phenomenal political sagacity 
 warned him of the danger ; and while Florida Blanca 
 was writing to Vergennes to secure peace, he was 
 writing to Mason that the highest duty and most 
 pressing necessity was the continuance of the war. 
 To the General Assembly he set forth at length, 
 through a letter to Mason, the actual conditions, and 
 demonstrated that peace now could only result in 
 untold disaster, and that their only safety lay in 
 vigorous preparation for, and defense against, Corn- 
 wallis's invasion, now impending. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson had become Governor, and the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 247 
 
 State, aroused, proceeded to put herself in position 
 for what fortune might send. One difficulty about 
 the French alliance had been that the troops and 
 fleets sent were allies, and not part of the mili- 
 tary and naval force of the confederacy. The 
 French commanders co-operated in good faith, it is 
 true, in the strategy of the American commander in 
 chief, but they took no orders from him. In Febru- 
 ary, 1779, Washington sent Lafayette to France, 
 ostensibly to see his family, but really to secure 
 from the ministry the detachment of a substantial 
 body of trained troops to report to Washington, and 
 to form part of his command. In April he returned, 
 and informed Washington that France would soon 
 send the desired re-enforcement. 
 
 On July loth the French fleet arrived at Newport 
 with five thousand veteran soldiers, the elite of the 
 armies of his Most Christian Majesty, under com- 
 mand of General the Count de Rochambeau. The 
 fleet consisted of eight ships of the line, two frigates, 
 and two bombs. As soon as Sir Henry heard of this 
 arrival he moved an army against it. Embarking a 
 large force on his fleet and transports in New York 
 harbor, on July 31st he sailed up the Sound east- 
 ward. Without a moment's hesitation Washington 
 headed everything he had on foot, on horse, and on 
 wheels for Kingsbridge, intending to "swap queens" 
 with the British general and capture New York 
 while he was struggling with Rochambeau at New- 
 port. This countermove promptly recalled the ex- 
 pedition eastward, and by August 4th it was safely 
 back in New York. 
 
 On September 21st Washington had an interview 
 with De Rochambeau, at Hartford, Conn. The com- 
 
248 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 mander in chief was attended with more state and 
 ceremony than the French marquis general. M. de 
 Rochambeau was accompanied by six officers — the 
 admiral, his chief of engineers, his son the Viscomte 
 de Rochambeau, and two aids-de-camp, of whom 
 Count de Fersen was one. Washington had with 
 him Major General the Marquis de Lafayette, Gen- 
 eral Knox, Chief of Artillery, M. de Gouvion, Chief 
 of Engineers, and six aids-de-camp, and an escort of 
 twenty-two dragoons. 
 
 Says the Count de Fersen, in his diary written 
 that very day : *' M. de Rochambeau sent me in ad- 
 vance to announce his arrival, and I had time to see 
 this man, illustrious if not unique in this century. 
 He is handsome and majestic, while at the same time 
 his mild and open countenance perfectly reflects his 
 moral qualities; he looks the hero; he is very cold; 
 speaks little, but is courteous and frank. A shade 
 of sadness overshadows his countenance, which is 
 not unbecoming, and gives him an interesting air." 
 
 This pen picture by the bright young Frenchman 
 accurately portrays the appearance and describes 
 the manners of a Virginian gentleman of the epoch, 
 of estate, reputation, and weight in his province. 
 Gravity, decorum, stately deportment, were charac- 
 teristic of that society, and the description would 
 have done as well for George Mason, of Gunston 
 Hall, or Colonel Thomas Ludwell Lee, of Berry 
 Hill, or Daniel Carroll Brent, of Richlands, or 
 Thomas Fitzhugh, of Boscobel, or William Fitzhugh, 
 of Ravensworth, or Colonel McCarty, of Marmion, or 
 many more of his kinsmen and friends on both sides 
 of the Potomac. Washington was no phenomenon 
 of deportment, but was the type of his class — the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 
 
 249 
 
 very highest and best type of the Virginian country 
 gentleman of his period. 
 
 The conference established perfectly cordial re- 
 lations between the two commanders, but nothing 
 was determined except the general strategy of their 
 operations : to keep Sir Henry Clinton from re- 
 enforcing Cornwallis by constant threats against 
 him in New York, and to isolate Cornwallis within 
 reach of the Northern Army, cut him off from the 
 sea by the French fleet, and capture his whole force. 
 To this end it was agreed to re-enforce the naval 
 power by an addition to the fleet from that of the 
 Count de Guichen in the West Indies. Washington 
 sent to him a request for ships of the line, and De 
 Ternay sent him an order to re-enforce the fleet in 
 Newport harbor; but De Guichen sailed for France. 
 A second division of French war ships and troops 
 was prepared for America, but they were blockaded 
 in the harbor of Brest, as Admiral de Ternay was 
 in that of Newport by a superior British force, and 
 never succeeded in getting out. 
 
 De Rochambeau marched his army across Con- 
 necticut and joined Washington, and then they 
 threatened Sir Henry Clinton. In the meantime the 
 steady insults by Congress had forced Morgan and 
 Greene out of the service, as it was hoped would be 
 the case with Washington. But Gates's disaster at 
 Camden required a new arrangement, and in great 
 trouble the Congress appealed to the commander in 
 chief for a commander for the Southern army. He 
 selected Greene. The rank of major general was 
 conferred on him, and he took command at Char- 
 lotte, N. C, of the fragments of Continentals that 
 Gates had left and the militia that Caswell was able 
 
250 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 to embody. With General Greene he sent his corps 
 d' elite, the legion of Henry Lee, made lieutenant col- 
 onel for his brilliant surprise of Paulus Hook, and 
 Kosciusko as engineer. 
 
 He appealed to Morgan, who promptly reported 
 to Greene, and Congress tardily righted the wrong 
 by conferring on him the appropriate rank. With 
 Greene in the saddle in North Carolina, Washington 
 knew that that part of the movement would be prop- 
 erly executed. He was to draw Cornwallis North, 
 Steuben was sent to Virginia to keep Greene's com- 
 munications open with the army, and Lafayette was 
 directed to take command of such Virginia militia 
 as Governor Jefferson could raise for him, and to 
 hang around Cornwallis as soon as he entered the 
 State, keep him employed by constant threats, and 
 worry him out of the open country back to tide wa- 
 ter. Greene fell back through North Carolina with 
 Cornwallis hot on his track, until at last he gave him 
 battle at Guilford Court-House, for the purpose of 
 crippling him and keeping him near the water. After 
 the battle of Guilford, Cornwallis fell back to his 
 base on the Cape Fear, and then marched on Sher- 
 man's projected route of eighty years after, through 
 the eastern part of the State to Petersburg, Va. 
 There he was confronted with Lafayette, the ma- 
 jor general of twenty-three years, who refused to 
 fight, and who constantly eluded him. He crossed 
 the James River to Malvern Hill, where McClellan 
 fought in 1862, turned up the Pamunkey, following 
 the Frenchman ; by Hanover Town, where Grant 
 crossed in 1864, and forced Lafayette across the 
 North Anna, where Grant fought in 1864, back to 
 Ely's Ford on the Rappahannock, by a road which 
 
ROUTE OF THE ALLIES, 
 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 1781, 
 
 FROM THE HUDSON TO YORKTOWN. 
 
 PENNSYLVAN 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 25 1 
 
 he cut through the country, known as ''Marcus 
 Road," or the Marquis's Road, to this day. 
 
 Thence Cornwallis dispatched Tarleton on a raid 
 to Charlottesville where Governor Jefferson and the 
 Virginia Legislature were assembled, and Lafayette 
 moved up the river, and about Warrenton joined 
 Wayne, who with one thousand Continentals was 
 moving South to support him. With Wayne's re- 
 enforcement he cut Tarleton off from his command, 
 and drove him to the Point of Fork, in Fluvanna 
 County, on the upper James, sixty miles above Rich- 
 mond. From the North Anna Cornwallis was obliged 
 to march sixty or seventy miles west, three days' 
 march, to rescue his dashing raider, who had become 
 enveloped in the toils set for him by the French gen- 
 eral and his Virginians. As soon as his troops were 
 reunited the British general marched down the north 
 or left bank of the James by Richmond, across the 
 Chickahominy, to York River. He was closely fol- 
 lowed up by Lafayette. 
 
 In the meantime Washington had been pressmg 
 De Grasse, who commanded a great French fleet in 
 the West Indies for the conquest of Jamaica, to 
 unite with De Rochambeau and himself in a com- 
 bined land and water attack on Sir Henry Clinton m 
 New York, or on Cornwallis in Virginia. It was not 
 until the summer that he had a definite reply from 
 De Grasse that he elected to take the Chesapeake as 
 the scene of his operations. The area was large and 
 the water deep, and the bay suited the great vessels 
 of his command better than the bar and contracted 
 waters of New York harbor. 
 
 Sending Lafayette orders to hold Cornwallis until 
 he got up, he set to work to persuade his own army 
 
252 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and Sir Henry Clinton that he intended to attack the 
 latter in New York. De Grasse's fleet consisted of 
 twenty-eight ships of the line and six frigates, carry- 
 ing seventeen hundred guns and twenty thousand 
 men. The presence of such a force would deprive 
 the English of the command of the sea, cut them off 
 from their base, and isolate Clinton or Cornwallis, 
 whichever it was directed against. De Grasse de- 
 cided against whom the operation should be directed 
 by selecting the Chesapeake. 
 
 On August 19, 1781, five days after receiving De 
 Grasse's dispatch, Washington's army crossed the 
 Hudson. He left Lord Stirling with a small force 
 to watch the gate from Canada at Saratoga, and Gen- 
 eral Heath with four thousand Continentals to hold 
 West Point. His army consisted of two thousand 
 Continentals, composed of two regiments of New 
 Jersey, the First Regiment of New York, Colonel 
 Hazen's Canadian regiment, Colonel Olney's regi- 
 ment of Rhode Island, Colonel Lamb's regiment of 
 artillery and the light troops under command of 
 Colonel Scammel, and four thousand French troops 
 under General de Rochambeau. " The Rhode Island 
 regiment, among others, is extremely fine," writes a 
 French officer, the Baron Cromot du Bourg, at the 
 time. 
 
 The French contingent contained the Regiments 
 Bourbonnais, Deux Fonts and Saintonge, Soisonnois, 
 and other corps d'dite of the army of France. It was 
 the only time that Continentals ever marched with 
 French. They were afterward to be brought close 
 together in the comradeship of arms and the noble 
 rivalry of battle in the trenches and before the re- 
 doubts at Yorktown. The route was through New 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 253 
 
 Jersey, and not until New Brunswick was passed did 
 even the general officers dream that any other enter- 
 prise was in execution than the attack on New York. 
 So closely had the secret been kept between Wash- 
 ington and De Rochambeau, that not until the army 
 passed through Philadelphia, September 3d to 5th, 
 did Sir Henry Clinton divine the object of the move- 
 ment — that it was not against him, but was a concen- 
 tration on the interior lines on the army in Virginia. 
 Just below Philadelphia Washington received a dis- 
 patch by courier that De Grasse had arrived in the bay, 
 and the news was communicated to the column. The 
 tidings strung them up to the highest pitch of enthu- 
 siasm, and they swung along with the free stride and 
 square-set shoulders that marches and bivouac and 
 battle for six years had given them. Their uniforms 
 were ragged, but their bayonets were bright; their 
 shoes were tattered, but their hearts were light ; and 
 no hunger, no fatigue, no labor could depress the men 
 marching to the fulfillment of their dream of six 
 years — liberty and independence, glory and peace ! 
 The French, natty, clean, precise, followed, much 
 pondering at the power which could give such look- 
 ing men such spirits. They were reviewed by the 
 Congress and the French minister as they passed 
 down Chestnut Street by the State House. 
 
 On September 7th the head of the allied army 
 reached the '' Head of Elk," and was pushed on board 
 the bay craft there collected for its transportation to 
 the James. Washington, with his staff, rode rapidly 
 through the country, passing through Baltimore on 
 the 8th, to Mount Vernon on the 9th, where he was 
 joined by De Rochambeau on the loth, and where 
 he stayed until the 12th. Thence they rode by Fred- 
 
254 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 ericksburg and New Castle to Williamsburg, which 
 place they reached on the 14th, to Lafayette's infinite 
 relief. They rode fifty miles a day. 
 
 As soon as De Grasse opened communications 
 with the latter, he gave him three thousand French 
 infantry, which made his position before Cornwallis 
 perfectly secure. The transports with the troops pro- 
 ceeded down the bay, past York River and Old Point 
 Comfort and turned up the James to Williamsburg, 
 where the army debarked. Admiral de Barras, hav- 
 ing escaped Graves's blockade at Newport, joined 
 the Count de Grasse with his ships and transports, 
 and the latter having been sent to Baltimore for the 
 remainder of the French army, which had marched 
 there from the Head of Elk, arrived at Williamsburg 
 on the 28th, and the whole army was assembled. 
 
 The investment of Cornwallis was begun at once, 
 and completed by the 30th — the Americans on the 
 right, the French on the left, under the Marquis St. 
 Simon and the Viscount de Viomenil. Cornwallis 
 having seized and fortified Gloucester Point, on the 
 opposite side of York River, the Americans and 
 French under Generals de Choise and Weedon and 
 the Duke de Lauzun blockaded him there. Admiral 
 Graves followed De Barras from Newport and at- 
 tempted to force the entry to the Chesapeake, but 
 the overwhelming force of De Grasse met him at the 
 Capes, and after a severe engagement drove him off. 
 
 Thus the grand movement which Washington had 
 prepared for the last year was accomplished. He 
 had left Sir Henry Clinton in New York. He had 
 precipitated on Cornwallis, in Virginia, an over- 
 whelming military force, while the enormous naval 
 preponderance of his allies gave him absolute con- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN IN THE SOUTH. 255 
 
 trol of the sea. Clinton might evacuate New York 
 and come with Graves to Cornwallis's deliverance. 
 But then Heath would occupy the strategic center of 
 the war, and De Grasse would prevent the junction 
 of the two British armies. Even if he succeeded in 
 getting into York and uniting with Cornwallis, he 
 would have abandoned the struggle, given up all the 
 territory won by six years of war, and risk all in a 
 final trial with the allies when their combinations 
 rendered his destruction more than probable. The 
 move was a perfect checkmate. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 YORKTOWN — CARRYING THE NEWS TO CONGRESS. 
 
 The army of Cornwallis consisted of seven thou- 
 sand British regulars. That of the allies was com- 
 posed of fifty-five hundred Continentals, good troops, 
 seasoned by marches, battles, and campaigns ; thirty- 
 five hundred Virginia militia, who for the preceding 
 year had been thwarting Cornwallis up and down the 
 James, the Pamunkey, and the Rappahannock, under 
 Lafayette, and were now under command of Thomas 
 Nelson, Governor of Virginia; and seven thousand 
 French, as fine troops as ever fought under the lilies. 
 Washington began his investment in the regular way. 
 He drove in Cornwallis's outposts, forced the evacu- 
 ation of his advanced works, and opened parallels 
 against his heavy fortifications around his position 
 on deep water. The first parallel was opened Octo- 
 ber 6th, at six hundred yards from the British works; 
 the second, on the nth, at three hundred yards. 
 Two redoubts, advanced from the British line, seri- 
 ously incommoded the working parties of the attack- 
 ing force, and it became necessary to silence them. 
 
 Hamilton, on the general staff, was commanding 
 a light battalion under Lafayette. The reduction of 
 the left redoubt (the American right) was intrusted 
 to Lafayette and the Americans ; of the right, to the 
 
YORKTOWN. 
 
 257 
 
 French. The regiment Gatinais was to lead the 
 French storming party. It had been formed from 
 that of D'Auvergne, of which De Rochambeau had 
 been colonel, and was known as "■ D' Auverg7ie sans 
 tacheT In the detail for the attack Lafayette gave 
 the right to Major Gimat, of his staff, with the 
 Rhode Islanders. 
 
 Hamilton promptly claimed the command of the 
 storming party, as it was his tour of duty on the 
 lines as officer of the day; and Lafayette declining 
 to change the arrangement, Hamilton appealed to 
 the commander in chief. It appearing that Hamil- 
 ton was on duty at the time, he was within his right 
 in his claim to lead the advance, and it was awarded 
 him. Gimat's regiment was given the right of the 
 line, with Hamilton's battalion of light infantry in 
 support, Hamilton in command of the whole. The 
 Baron de Viomenil was to lead the French column 
 of assault against the enemy. 
 
 These preparations — the riding of staff officers 
 hither and thither, the relieving of pickets and the 
 calling off of sentries, and that tense excitement in 
 bodies of men which is felt, not seen — had been go- 
 ing on all the afternoon of the 14th. De Rocham- 
 beau had ridden over to the grenadiers of D'Auvergne 
 and had inspected them. Washington had ridden 
 down to the Rhode Islanders and complimented 
 their trig uniforms and the polish of their bayonets, 
 and the general staff had collected itself toward the 
 right of the American lines, on the earthworks of a 
 battery, in plain view of the enemy. All these 
 movements going on for hours, in sight, only meant 
 one thing to old soldiers — an assault would be made 
 that night somewhere, almost certainly on the two 
 
258 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 commanding and advanced redoubts. After sunset 
 the American and French works became lined with 
 soldiers without arms. The unusual spectacle 
 brought out the British, and thus both armies were 
 drawn to witness the stirring spectacle of an assault 
 on fortifications. Washington dismounted, sent his 
 horse to the rear, and took his place on a parapet 
 with Knox and Lincoln and their staffs. 
 
 They could see Hamilton moving along his line 
 as they lay flat on the ground, and could feel in his 
 alert, vigorous air, that he was saying, " Look out, 
 boys ! this is an affair of cold steel. Not a gun is to 
 be fired, and I want to see the man who will beat me 
 into that work." On the French side there was not 
 so much life. De Viomenil was standing, in faultless 
 uniform and perfect gloves, a little to the right of his 
 regiment, formed in a column of companies, with a 
 section of pioneers armed with axes on the right. 
 Hamilton, never having seen an assault, supposed 
 that axes were the proper thing, so he scraped to- 
 gether a dozen and gave them to some of his men, 
 with instructions to rush ahead and cut those fallen 
 trees out of the way, and so make room for him. 
 
 The sun set, and the shades of that October even- 
 ing spread over the panorama until, about eight 
 o'clock, one single rocket sprang into the air, and at 
 the moment Hamilton could be seen with his sword 
 flashing round his head as he gave the order, " Up, 
 and forward ! " Forward they went with a rush to 
 the abattis, and the axemen started to cut their way 
 through; but Hamilton, jumping from tree-trunk to 
 tree-trunk, was ten yards ahead. The regiment 
 broke forward and followed their leader. At the 
 bastion the slope was too steep, and he slipped back ; 
 
YORKTOWN. 
 
 259 
 
 but one of the men stooped, so that he put his foot 
 on his shoulder, and he was thus '' boosted " into the 
 work — the first man there ; but Gimat and the Rhode 
 Islanders and the light infantry came piling in, one 
 over the other, and the thing was done in a breath. 
 He did it with empty guns and by the bayonet alone. 
 Not a shot was fired. Lieutenant-Colonel Laurens, 
 another aid to the commander in chief, with eighty 
 men, at the same time took the redoubt in reverse, 
 so as to prevent the escape of any of the detachment 
 defending it. 
 
 It was too dark to see all this from the point 
 where the generals were standing. They could hear 
 the British fire and see the flash of their guns, but 
 could not tell on which side victory was until an ear- 
 piercing yell went up from the inside of the work. 
 " That's Hamilton ! " said one of the generals to the 
 other. But the firing about the French party con- 
 tinued. They were halted, being regular soldiers 
 and well drilled, until their pioneers had cut away 
 the obstructions; and while the pioneers were cut- 
 ting abattis the British were shooting Frenchmen. 
 
 The instant Hamilton was comfortably fixed and 
 had his prisoners disarmed, he started a young lieuten- 
 ant to the Baron de Viomenil : '' Colonel Hamilton's 
 compliments to the Baron de Viomenil, and begs to 
 inform him that he is inside, and to inquire if he can 
 be of any assistance to the baron." To which the 
 Frenchman sent back word in the same gay spirit : 
 " The Baron de Viomenil's compliments to Colonel 
 Hamilton, and he begs to say that, though he is not 
 in yet, he will be in two minutes, and will stay when 
 he gets in. He thanks the colonel for his courtesy, 
 but does not require help." In a moment the French 
 18 
 
26o GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 win the parapet; there are a few musket flashes in 
 the gloom, and then there is silence that tells the 
 story of the bayonet, and then a cheer. The thing 
 was done. The last move of the last piece in the 
 great game that had been begun at Newport, Hart- 
 ford, and Dobb's Ferry in the North, and at Char- 
 lotte and Camden in the South, more than a year 
 before, was made, and the game was won. 
 
 Washington, impassible, grave, stern, with no sign 
 of the tremendous pressure under which he was 
 laboring, except a flash of the eye, turned to the 
 attendant generals, and said : " Gentlemen, the work 
 is done, and well done ! Let us ride ! William, 
 bring me my horse ! " and they all rode off into the 
 black night, deeply impressed with the immense 
 importance of the events that had just taken place. 
 
 As long as De Grasse held York River the result 
 was mathematically certain. The only doubt resulted 
 from the Gallic temperament, and the possibility of 
 another attack on him by Rodney from the West 
 Indies and Graves from the Atlantic station. Wash- 
 ington knew that in such a contingency it would be 
 impossible to control the French appetite for glory, 
 and he was reasonably anxious on that score. This 
 doubt solved, the capture of the redoubts meant the 
 speedy, prompt capitulation of Lord Cornwallis, The 
 next day Cornwallis attempted to re-establish himself 
 in the position from which he had been expelled, but 
 was easily repulsed. The redoubts were included on 
 the second American parallel, and howitzers securely 
 mounted on them. 
 
 Sir Henry Clinton made no sign. Cornwallis pro- 
 posed to cross the river to Gloucester Point and force 
 his way north to rejoin Clinton. It was an utterly 
 
YORKTOWN. 261 
 
 impracticable, foolhardy scheme, and not even des- 
 peration could justify it. But a sudden storm frus- 
 trated even that; and on the 17th he hoisted a 
 white flag, his drums beat a parley, and he sent out 
 an officer with a proposition for an armistice of 
 twenty-four hours, while commissioners from each 
 army could settle the terms of the surrender of the 
 posts of York and Gloucester. Not knowing what 
 might happen on the bay in that time, Washington 
 gave him but two hours' time in which to send in his 
 proposition. 
 
 Those sent by Lord Cornwallis were not satisfac- 
 tory, so the Viscount de Noailles and Lieutenant-Colo- 
 nel John Laurens, commissioners for the allies, met 
 Colonel Dundas and Major Ross, on the part of the 
 British, to arrange terms. The whole of the i8th was 
 spent in discussion, and on the 19th a draft of terms 
 of capitulation was submitted to the British officers. 
 " Are not those terms somewhat harsh, colonel ? " said 
 Dundas to Laurens. *' They are copies of those 
 granted to General Lincoln by the marquis at 
 Charleston," said Laurens. They were transmitted 
 to Lord Cornwallis with a note from General Wash- 
 ington, informing him that he expected them to be 
 signed by eleven o'clock that day, and that the gar- 
 rison would march out and ground arms at 2 p. m. 
 They were signed, and the posts of York and 
 Gloucester, with their garrisons, arms, ordnance, and 
 supplies, were surrendered to General Washington, 
 and, the ships, transports, and naval supplies to the 
 Count de Grasse, as commander of the French fleet. 
 
 At two o'clock the British army marched out 
 along a road on which the Americans were formed 
 on the right and the French on the left, facing in- 
 
262 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 ward — Washington and staff on the right of his 
 own line, De Rochambeau and staff on the right of 
 his, facing Washington. They marched with shoul- 
 dered arms, colors cased, and their drums beating a 
 march. The terms of surrender required that they 
 should beat a British march, so they selected as the 
 one for the occasion one called " The world turned 
 upside down." Cornwallis, unworthy of his char- 
 acter and unfortunately for his fame, was unable to 
 face the inevitable, and sent General O'Hara to rep- 
 resent him in the mortifying ceremony. Superbly 
 mounted and perfectly equipped, O'Hara, when he 
 reached the end of the line, turned his horse out to 
 General Washington, to whom he tendered his sword, 
 with " Lord Cornwallis's excuses and regrets that in- 
 disposition compelled his absence on so interesting 
 an occasion." Cornwallis had received Lincoln's 
 sword at Charleston on precisely the same terms he 
 was now being forced to comply with ; and General 
 Washington, bowing to General O'Hara, directed him 
 to General Lincoln, to whom he was to deliver his 
 sword and to surrender, and whose directions he was 
 to obey. So Lincoln, marched the British column 
 out into the open field, where they grounded their 
 arms in sulks and temper. 
 
 The surrender was over by four o'clock, and the 
 news must at once be sent to the Congress. Who 
 should have that honor ? On the brilliant staff of 
 the commander in chief, besides Hamilton and Lau- 
 rens, was Tench Tilghman, of Maryland. He was of 
 that family which in England had made its mark by 
 intellectual vigor, and in the provinces of Pennsyl- 
 vania and Maryland filled the first place in the revolt 
 against the mother country. He was from the east- 
 
YORKTOWN. 263 
 
 ern shore of Maryland, and from the County of Talbot, 
 which for eight generations has been the center of a 
 noble culture and a generous chivalry. His uncle 
 had been President of the Revolutionary Convention 
 of Maryland, and every man of the breed able to 
 ride a horse was in arms for his country. 
 
 Hamilton and Laurens had had their chance in 
 the assault on the redoubt and the negotiations for 
 the surrender ; so fairness required that Tilghman 
 should have the honor of bearing the news of 
 victory to Congress. By six o'clock on the evening 
 of the 19th, with his dispatches in his breast pocket, 
 he had his horse on an open sailboat, flying down 
 the York River. Out in the open bay he turned 
 his bows north, but lost a whole night aground 
 on Tangier shoals, on account of the ignorance of 
 his boatmen. Reaching Annapolis, he found that a 
 dispatch, dated the i8th, from De Grasse to Governor 
 Thomas Sim Lee, had preceded him by a day, so he 
 turned at once with his horse and boat across the 
 bay toward Philadelphia. He lost a day in a calm 
 between Annapolis and Rock Hall, in the County of 
 Kent. From there to Philadelphia is about eighty 
 miles as the crow flies. De Grasse's courier had 
 passed through the country the day before. The 
 people were on tiptoe to hear the news from York. 
 Their hearts stopped as they imagined they heard 
 the great guns of the English and the French boom- 
 ing over the waters in the still night. Mothers, wives, 
 sisters, daughters, and sweethearts all looked with 
 wistful eyes to the South for some sign of the issue 
 of the weary struggle. 
 
 It was the supreme effort of American liberty. 
 It was the very crisis of freedom. But the flower of 
 
264 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Maryland was in that fight, and the lower counties 
 on the Delaware had sent their bravest and best to 
 back their brethren of the eastern shore. One of the 
 miracles of history, attested time and again by indis- 
 putable evidence, is that when the minds and hearts 
 of a whole people are at a white heat of excitement 
 and expectation, knowledge comes to them independ- 
 ent of the senses. The Greeks believed that the 
 great god Pan spread the knowledge of victory or 
 defeat at the time of their occurrence, hundreds of 
 miles away. The result of the battle of Platasa was 
 known the day it was fought, and the news of Ther- 
 mopylae spread over Greece through the silent cham- 
 bers of the air carried by the arrows of light. The 
 victory of Pharsalia was known in Rome at the time 
 it occurred, and the events of Waterloo were dis- 
 cussed on the London Stock Exchange before it ad- 
 journed on the afternoon of June i8th. 
 
 So when Tench Tilghman landed at Rock Hall, 
 for his hundred miles' ride through the country, he 
 found the hearts and minds of men and women 
 aglow with a divine frenzy. They felt what had oc- 
 curred without knowing it, and were wild for con- 
 firmation by knowledge. Up through Kent, without 
 drawing rein, this solitary horseman sped his way. 
 When his horse began to fail, he turned to his nearest 
 kinsman — for they were mostly of the same blood — 
 and riding up to the lonely farmhouse would shout, 
 *' Cornwallis is taken ! — a fresh horse for the Con- 
 gress ! " and in a minute he would be remounted 
 and pushing on in a free gallop. All the night 
 he rode up the peninsula, not a sound disturbing 
 the silence of the darkness except the beat of his 
 horse's hoofs. Every three or four hours he would 
 
YORKTOWN. 265 
 
 ride up to some homestead, still and quiet and dark 
 in the first slumber of the night, and thunder on the 
 door with his sword-hilt, " Cornwallis is taken! — a 
 fresh horse for the Congress ! " Like an electric 
 shock the house would flash with an instant light 
 and echo with the pattering feet of women, and be- 
 fore a dozen greetings could be exchanged, and but 
 a word given of the fate of the loved ones at York, 
 Tilghman would vanish in the gloom, leaving a trail 
 of glory and of joy behind him. So he sped through 
 Kent, across the head of Sassafras, through Chris- 
 tiana, by Wilmington, straight on to Philadelphia. 
 The tocsin and the slogan of his news spread like 
 the fire in the dry grass, and left behind him a broad 
 blaze of delirium and of joy. 
 
 " Cornwallis is taken ! " passed from mouth to 
 mouth, flew through the air, was wafted on the 
 autumn breeze, shone with the sunlight. " Cornwallis 
 is taken ! Liberty is won ! Peace is come ! Once 
 more husbands, fathers, brothers, sons, lovers, shall 
 return to the hearts that gave them to the cause ! 
 Once more shall joy sit on every hearth, and happi- 
 ness shine over every rooftree." When or where in 
 all the tide of time has such a message been carried 
 to such a people? Liberty with justice! Peace 
 with honor! Victory with glory! Liberty, peace, 
 justice, victory, honor, and glory now and forever, 
 one and inseparable ! These were the tidings that 
 Tench Tilghman bore when he rode into Philadel- 
 phia at midnight of the 23d, four days from the army 
 of York. The dispatch from De Grasse had been re- 
 ceived, but the Congress and the people waited for 
 Washington. Nothing was true but tidings from him. 
 Rousing the President of the Congress — McKean 
 
266 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 — Tilghman delivered his dispatch to him, and the 
 news was instantly made public. The watchmen, as 
 they went their rounds, cried, " Twelve o'clock, all is 
 well, and Cornwallis is taken ! " In a minute the 
 whole city was wild ; lights flashed in every window ; 
 men, women, and children poured into the streets. 
 The State House bell rang out its peal, " Liberty 
 throughout the land, to all the inhabitants thereof ! " 
 And thirteen sovereign and independent States were 
 proclaimed to all the world. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 PEACE, AND SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 
 
 Washington had no doubt but that the capitu- 
 lation of Cornwallis's army was conclusive of the 
 struggle, and that the administration of Lord North 
 would not be able to put another army in the field 
 for the reduction of the rebellious colonies. But it 
 was quite uncertain how far Washington would be 
 able to stimulate the States to renewed resistance. 
 Georgia was subdued; South Carolina pinioned, 
 though fiercely strugglmg by Marion and Sumter, 
 to get loose, greatly aided and encouraged by the 
 genius, the daring, and the intelligence of Greene. 
 
 The Congress was tired of the war; the States 
 were worn out; the people, behind all, had nearly 
 given up. If it had not been for the French, Con- 
 gress would have dispersed, the State governments 
 dissolved, and Lord Dunmore and Tryon would 
 have been re-established in enlarged proconsulships, 
 and confiscation and hanging would have been the 
 order of the day. The suppression of the rising of 
 1745 in England had given the rebels of America 
 warning of what was to be expected by them if they 
 failed. Public credit did not exist, and, as a matter of 
 fact, gold and silver coin was almost entirely absent. 
 A little of it was hoarded, but most of it had per- 
 meated, evaporated, percolated through the lines, as 
 
268 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 money always does from places of danger to places 
 of safety. All the gold and silver had gone into 
 British hands for British security. 
 
 When Washington proposed to move his eastern 
 regiments South, to complete the operations on Corn- 
 wallis, it was absolutely necessary to get sofiie money 
 to give them a portion of pay, for the families they 
 were to leave behind. His private fortune and es- 
 tate of Mount Vernon had been mortgaged before 
 to keep troops in the field, in the terrible stress of 
 i777-'78. He had not money enough to pay an 
 express to take a letter from his camp on the Hud- 
 son to the French minister in Philadelphia, but was 
 obliged to trust it to the ordinary post. So, when 
 he prepared to move, he called on Robert Morris, 
 his unfailing and unfaltering support, for cash, and 
 Morris started to hunt it among the Quakers. They 
 had none; and he actually went to the Count de 
 Rochambeau, without Washington's knowledge, and 
 borrowed from him twenty thousand hard dollars, 
 which Morris promised to return by October ist. 
 
 Relying on luck — which never deserts those who 
 rely on themselves — Morris, who when he obtained 
 the money had not the faintest idea of where he 
 could find it to return it according to promise, was 
 supplied by Henry Laurens, who arrived in Bos- 
 ton on August 25th, with two and a half million 
 livres in cash, part of the six million granted, given, 
 or loaned by the King of France. So French gold 
 actually paid the American troops to go to York- 
 town. There were seven thousand French there, 
 and fifty-five hundred American Continentals. The 
 French fleet held the water, and without it there 
 would have been no Yorktown, as there would also 
 
PEACE— SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 
 
 269 
 
 have been none without De Rochambeau. The 
 country in October, 1781, wanted peace. It wanted 
 to stop fighting, and peace was the very worst thing 
 it could have. 
 
 The danger was that the French might agree to 
 a general peace on the basis of the uti possidetis^ and 
 this would leave all Georgia, Charleston, and the low 
 country of South Carolina, Wilmington on the Cape 
 Fear, New York city, and, substantially, Rhode 
 Island, in the possession of the English — the Tories, 
 the loyalists — perpetual exasperating wounds, like 
 broken spearheads thrust into the side of the Union, 
 to irritate and harass and destroy forever until re- 
 moved by heroic surgery. Amid the universal de- 
 lirium of self-congratulation and exaggeration of 
 achievement — the necessary and natural conse- 
 quence of success — the great labor was to keep 
 somebody's head straight and cool. " We are great 
 men, great statesmen, great soldiers ! See our mag- 
 nificent strategy ! We have swept the British flag 
 from the seas and penned it into three or four posts 
 on land ! " Such was the feeling in the Congress, in 
 the States, among the people. But Washington knew 
 that there was not a word of truth in it ; that if it 
 had not been for De Rochambeau's arrival, the Con- 
 gress would have made terms with the British com- 
 missioners, and have swiftly taken Lord North's 
 pardon on their knees; and he knew that now, un- 
 less the French were firm, the Congress would make 
 peace on the basis of the uti possidetis without the 
 slightest hesitation. 
 
 As soon, therefore, as he had marched his paroled 
 prisoners from Yorktown, he sent Greene everything 
 he could spare to support him in South Carolina, 
 
2/0 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and started Wayne for Georgia. To the Congress 
 and to the leading men in the States he wrote, as 
 was his custom, at great length, explaining the situ- 
 ation, and making clear the very great danger by 
 which the cause of American independence and 
 liberty was threatened. Peace now, he said, would 
 be disaster, second only to absolute subjugation. 
 It would inevitably lead to future incessant war, 
 intestine struggle, and subjugation by some foreign 
 power, even if the mother country abandoned us. 
 
 These admonitions, exhortations, and explana- 
 tions were begun at Yorktown, and he never ceased 
 them until the definitive treaty of peace recognized 
 by name the thirteen free, sovereign, and independ- 
 ent States, who had declared their independence on 
 July 4, 1776, and for whom he had struggled and 
 fought. On his return to the army of the North he 
 found great dissatisfaction and deep-seated discon- 
 tent. The war was over. Everybody had got rich, 
 and what they wanted, except the soldiers; nothing 
 was done for them, and they were to be turned out on 
 the roadside to beg, or starve, or rob. What justice 
 was there in that ? What right had Congress to put 
 honest men in such a dilemma, or to present to them 
 such an alternative ? These were hard questions to 
 answer. Washington rode from Yorktown through 
 Fredericksburg, Alexandria, and Annapolis to Phila- 
 delphia. Everywhere he was received with the most 
 intense enthusiasm and warmest devotion. , 
 
 No event has occurred in American history 
 which has ever elicited so much feeling as the sur-. 
 render at Yorktown, and the subsequent triumphant 
 march of Washington through the country. He was 
 absolutely in control of everything. He was omnip- 
 
PEACE— SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 
 
 271 
 
 otent as far as mortal power could be, for he could 
 do whatever Congress or the States could do ; but 
 he could not revive dead credit or reinvigorate para- 
 lyzed currency. At the raising of a finger he would 
 have been intrusted with all authority on just such 
 terms as he chose to mark out, and could have been 
 Protector, President, Dictator, or King, as he pleased. 
 It is certain that no such wish ever sullied his soul. 
 The question was discussed in many circles, and 
 of necessity the discussion must more or less have 
 reached his ears. He spent the winter of i78i-'82 
 with the Congress at Philadelphia, and did not join 
 the army at Newburg until April of the latter year. 
 There he found the discontent of the army, officers 
 and men, rank and file, worse than ever. 
 
 Colonel Lewis Nicola, a fussy character who had 
 commanded an invalid battalion about Philadelphia, 
 wrote him a letter, explaining at great length that 
 the cause of the lack of provision for the soldiers 
 was the form of government, or no-government, 
 under which every one was suffering; that the only 
 relief that could be secured by the country was in 
 the setting up a king, and that he was the man se- 
 lected by Providence for the place. He did not say, 
 but the inference was unavoidable, that Providence 
 had also sagaciously chosen him, Nicola, to announce 
 the choice, and to superintend the arrangements for 
 carrying that choice into effect. The proposition was 
 absurd. Notwithstanding the gush of the Middle 
 and Northern States, the climate of the Chesapeake 
 was exceedingly unpropitious for a new growth of 
 kings. They might have tolerated James HI, or 
 one of the heirs of the Charleses, but they certainly 
 would never have submitted to any upstart, pinch- 
 
2^2 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 beck royalty. The house of Hanover was too par- 
 venu for them. Notwithstanding Washington must 
 have understood the feather-headed and irresponsi- 
 ble character of Nicola, he embraced the opportunity 
 to put himself on record on a subject which he knew 
 was the topic of grave discussion among responsible 
 people. He wrote : " With a mixture of great surprise 
 and astonishment I have read with attention the sen- 
 timents you have submitted for my approval. ... I 
 am much at a loss to conceive what part of my con- 
 duct could have given encouragement to an address 
 which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs 
 that can befall my country. If I am not deceived in 
 knowledge of myself, you could not have found a 
 person to whom your schemes are more disagree- 
 able." It may be unjust to suspect that this letter 
 was more the result of careful deliberation than an 
 indignant outburst of outraged civic virtue, but it 
 certainly will bear that interpretation. Washington 
 knew Nicola, and was aware that nothing from him 
 merited serious attention ; but he also knew that 
 loose talk of the kind was floating about, and he 
 considered it wise to stop it at once. The Northern 
 States might have tolerated a king, the Southern 
 never would. The French army rejoined him at 
 Verplanck's Point, on the Hudson, and his task was 
 thenceforward to bring the war to a conclusion. 
 Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry 
 Clinton in command at New York, and Admiral 
 Digby, in charge of the fleet, officially informed him 
 of the movements in Parliament looking to a recog- 
 nition of the States and a cessation of hostilities. 
 But Washington insisted to his correspondents, the 
 Governors of States, and to the Congress, that the 
 
PEACE-SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 273 
 
 only sure reliance for independence was prepara- 
 tion for war — active, aggressive war. He found a 
 paper circulating in the army, signed by general and 
 field officers, setting forth the grievances of the sol- 
 diers, and calling for a general meeting of officers. 
 He issued a general order censuring the temper of 
 the call, and appointing the time and place for a 
 meeting to be held on Saturday, March 15, 1783. 
 
 The meeting was held, and General Gates called 
 to the chair, when the commander in chief appeared. 
 He apologized for being present, which he had not 
 intended, he said, when he issued the order directing 
 the meeting. The diligence, however, which had 
 been exhibited in circulating anonymous writings 
 rendered it necessary that he should give his senti- 
 ments to the army on the nature and tendency of 
 them. He then read a carefully considered address, 
 in which he showed the great danger of exasperating 
 the feelings of the army, which, he admitted, had 
 great cause for complaint, and he said: ''For my- 
 self, a recollection of the cheerful assistance and 
 prompt obedience I have experienced from you 
 under every vicissitude of fortune, and the sincere 
 affection I feel for an army 1 have so long had the 
 honor to command, will oblige me to declare, in this 
 public and solemn manner, that for the attainment 
 of complete justice for all your toils and dangers, 
 and the gratification of every wish, so far as may 
 be done consistently with the great duty I owe my 
 country and those powers we are bound to respect, 
 you may fully command my services to the utmost 
 extent of my abilities. 
 
 " While I give you these assurances, and pledge 
 myself in the most unequivocal manner to exert 
 
74 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 whatever abilities I am possessed of in your favor, 
 let me entreat you, gentlemen, on your part, not to 
 take any measures which, viewed in the calm light of 
 reason, will lessen the dignity and sully the glory 
 you have hitherto maintained. Let me request you 
 to rely on the plighted faith of your country, and 
 place full confidence in the purity of the intentions 
 of Congress ; that previous to your dissolution as an 
 army they will cause all your accounts to be fairly 
 liquidated, as directed in the resolutions which were 
 published to you two days ago ; and that they will 
 adopt the most effectual measures in their power to 
 render ample justice to you for your faithful and 
 meritorious services. 
 
 "And let me conjure you, in the name of our 
 common country, as you value your own sacred 
 honor, as you respect the rights of humanity, and as 
 you regard the military and national character of 
 America, to express your utmost horror and detesta- 
 tion of the man who wishes, under any specious pre- 
 tenses, to overturn the liberties of our country, and 
 who wickedly attempts to open the floodgates of 
 civil discord and deluge our rising empire in blood. 
 
 "By thus determining and thus acting, you will 
 pursue the plain and direct road to the attainment of 
 your wishes; you will defeat the insidious designs of 
 our enemies, who are compelled to resort from open 
 force to secret artifice ; you will give one more dis- 
 tinguished proof of unexampled patriotism and pa- 
 tient virtue rising superior to the pressure of the 
 most complicated sufferings ; and you will, by the 
 dignity of your conduct, afford occasion for pos- 
 terity to say, when speaking of the glorious example 
 you have exhibited to mankind, ' Had this day been 
 
PEACE-SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 
 
 275 
 
 wanting, the world had never seen the last stage of 
 perfection to which human nature is capable of at- 
 taining.' " 
 
 Washington then bowed and withdrew, and Knox 
 at once offered resolutions, seconded by Putnam, 
 reciprocating his expressions of confidence and af- 
 fection, and asserting that no circumstances of dis- 
 tress would ever induce the army to sully the glory 
 acquired by so much blood and eight years' faithful 
 services. They reiterated their confidence in Con- 
 gress and their country, and requested the com- 
 mander in chief to write the President of Congress, 
 earnestly requesting a speedy decision on the late 
 address forwarded by a committee of the army. He 
 did so, and Congress speedily passed a resolution pro- 
 viding for five years' full pay to be given officers and 
 men on their discharge. 
 
 The general treaty of peace acknowledging the 
 independence of the States by name was signed at 
 Paris, January 20, 1783. On March 23d, a French 
 vessel of D'Estaing's fleet arrived at Philadelphia, 
 bringing a letter from Lafayette, and the official an- 
 nouncement of the execution of the treaty. In a 
 few days Sir Guy Carleton infornied Washington of 
 the fact, and that he was ordered to proclaim a gen- 
 eral cessation of hostilities by land and sea, which 
 he did. A similar proclamation was issued by Con- 
 gress on the 17th of April. Peace was announced in 
 general orders on the 19th day of April, on the eighth 
 anniversary of the battle of Lexington. The men 
 were freely furloughed, and allowed to take with 
 them their arms and accoutrements. 
 
 While the main army thus dissolved without dis- 
 order, some incidents occurred not equally credit- 
 19 
 
2;6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 able. About eighty new recruits of the Pennsyl- 
 vania line, stationed at Lancaster, suddenly mutinied, 
 and marched to Philadelphia, where they were joined 
 by about two hundred soldiers from the barracks, 
 surrounded Congress and the Supreme Executive 
 Council of Pennsylvania, and demanded justice, with 
 threats of violence if their demands were not com- 
 plied wMth in twenty minutes. Congress adjourned 
 to Princeton, and Washington dispatched General 
 Howe with fifteen hundred veterans to quell the 
 mutiny. Several of the mutineers were tried by 
 court-martial, two condemned to death, but par- 
 doned, and four received corporal punishment. By 
 a proclamation of Congress of October i8th, all fur- 
 loughed officers and men were discharged, and all oth- 
 ers were to be discharged on November 3d. Sir Guy 
 Carleton evacuated New York on the 25th of Novem- 
 ber, and American troops took possession of the city. 
 On December 4th, Washington took leave of his 
 officers at Fraunce's tavern, in the city of New York, 
 and started on his long ride to Annapolis, where Con- 
 gress was then in session, to resign his commission 
 and thence to Mount Vernon and home to Virginia. 
 He stopped at Philadelphia to adjust with the Con- 
 troller of the Treasury the accounts of his personal 
 expenditures from the day he left Philadelphia in 
 1775 down to December 13, 1783. These accounts 
 were kept in his own handwriting with the utmost 
 exactness, and included money expended for secret 
 service and various incidental charges, with vouchers 
 for all payments. The gross amount was fourteen 
 thousand five hundred pounds sterling, for money 
 actually expended ; no pay was charged or received. 
 His account was paid. 
 
PEACE—SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 277 
 
 He arrived at Annapolis on December 20th, where 
 elaborate and ceremonious preparations were made 
 for his reception. On his arrival he addressed a let- 
 ter to the President of Congress, requesting to know 
 in what manner it would be most proper to offer his 
 resignation — whether in writing or at an audience. 
 The latter mode was adopted, and the Hall of Con- 
 gress — the Senate Chamber of the General Assembly 
 of Maryland — appointed for the ceremonial ; the day, 
 Tuesday, December 23, 1783. A committee was ap- 
 pointed by Congress to arrange the ceremonial for 
 this proceeding, for it was felt to be an important 
 historical event, which must be celebrated with due 
 order and proper solemnity. 
 
 During the war the Congress was constantly 
 struggling with the apprehension of a dictatorship, 
 and among them the fear of Washington grew, as his 
 reputation and influence enlarged. They always 
 claimed and asserted the superiority of the civil over 
 the military power, and even in the very crisis of 
 their fate bore themselves as ambassadors of sover- 
 eign States, to whom the army and its commander in 
 chief were subordinate. " On Monday and Tuesday, 
 September 3 and 4, 1781," says the contemporary 
 record, " the French army, under command of his 
 Excellency Count de Rochambeau, passed in review 
 before his Excellency the President, and the Honor- 
 able the Congress of the United States, at the State 
 House in this city (Philadelphia). The President 
 was covered; his Excellency General Washington, 
 commander in chief, the Count de Rochambeau, etc., 
 stood on his left hand, uncovered." The army was 
 on the march for Virginia, York, and Cornwallis. 
 The committee of Congress on the reception reported 
 
278 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the details of the ceremony with great minuteness. 
 General Mifflin, Washington's old quartermaster gen- 
 eral, was president. Nine States were present. The 
 reception was by the ambassadors of sovereign States 
 to their victorious general and the country's most 
 distinguished citizen; illustrious, but citizen only — 
 nothing more. 
 
 When General Washington, escorted by his staff, 
 entered the Chamber, the members of the Congress 
 remained seated and covered ; the general was shown 
 by the Secretary of Congress to his seat specially 
 provided for him ; his staff remained standing. The 
 President informed him that the Congress is ready 
 to receive his communication. The general then 
 arose and read his address: "Mr. President: The 
 great events on which my resignation depended hav- 
 ing at length taken place, I now have the honor of 
 offering my sincere congratulations to Congress, and 
 of presenting myself before them to surrender into 
 their hands the trust committed to me, and to claim 
 the indulgence of retiring from the service of my 
 country. 
 
 " Happy in the confirmation of our independence 
 and sovereignty, and pleased with the opportunity 
 afforded the United States of becoming a respectable 
 nation, I resign, with satisfaction, the appointment 
 I accepted with diffidence — a diffidence in my abilities 
 to accomplish so arduous a task, which, however, 
 was superseded by a confidence in the rectitude of 
 our cause, the support of the supreme power of the 
 Union and the patronage of Heaven. The success- 
 ful termination of the war has verified the most 
 sanguirie expectations; and my gratitude for the 
 interposition of Providence, and the assistance I have 
 
PEACE— SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 
 
 279 
 
 received from my countrymen, increases with every 
 review of the momentous contest. 
 
 "While I repeat my obligations to the army in 
 general, I should do injustice to my own feelings 
 not to acknowledge in this place the peculiar serv- 
 ices and distinguished merits of the gentlemen who 
 have been attached to my person during the war. 
 It was impossible that the choice of confidential offi- 
 cers to compose my family should have been more 
 fortunate. Permit me, sir, to recommend in particu- 
 lar those who have continued in the service to the 
 present moment as worthy of the favorable notice 
 and patronage of Congress. 
 
 " I consider it as an indispensable duty to close 
 this last act of my official life by commending the 
 interests of our dearest country to the protection of 
 Almighty God, and those who have the superintend- 
 ence of them to his holy keeping. 
 
 " Having now finished the work assigned me, I 
 retire from the great theater of action, and, bidding 
 an affectionate farewell to this august body, under 
 whose orders I have so long acted, I here offer my 
 commission, and take my leave of all the employ- 
 ments of public life." 
 
 After advancing to the chair and delivering his 
 commission and a copy of his address to the Presi- 
 dent, he returned to his place and received, standing, 
 the answer of Congress delivered by the President, 
 sitting: 
 
 "Sir: The United States in Congress assembled 
 receive with emotions too affecting for utterance the 
 solemn resignation of the authorities under which 
 you have led their troops with success through a 
 perilous and doubtful war. Called upon by your 
 
28o GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 country to defend its invaded rights, you accepted 
 the sacred charge before it had formed alliances, and 
 while it was without funds or a government to sup- 
 port you. 
 
 " You have conducted the great military contest 
 with wisdom and fortitude, invariably regarding the 
 rights of the civil power through all disasters and 
 changes. You have, by the love and confidence of 
 your fellow-citizens, enabled them to display their 
 martial genius, and transmit their fame to posterity. 
 You have persevered until these United States, aided 
 by a magnanimous King and nation, have been en- 
 abled, under a just Providence, to close the war in 
 freedom, safety, and independence ; on which happy 
 event we sincerely join you in congratulations. 
 
 " Having defended the standard of liberty in this 
 New World, having taught a lesson useful to those 
 who inflict and to those who feel oppression, you 
 retire from the great theater of action with the 
 blessings of your fellow-citizens. But the glory of 
 your virtues will not terminate with your military 
 command ; it will continue to animate remotest ages. 
 We feel, with you, our obligations to the army in gen- 
 eral, and will particularly charge ourselves with the 
 interests of those confidential officers who have at- 
 tended your person to this affecting moment, 
 
 "We join you in commending the interests of our 
 dearest country to the protection of Almighty God, 
 beseeching him to dispose the hearts and minds of 
 its citizens to improve the opportunity afforded them 
 of becoming a happy and respectable nation. And 
 for you we address to him our earnest prayers, that 
 a life so beloved may be fostered with all his care; 
 that your days may be happy as they have been illus- 
 
PEACE— SURRENDER OF HIS COMMISSION. 281 
 
 trious; and that he will finally give you the reward 
 which this world can not give." 
 
 The Secretary then delivered a copy of the Presi- 
 dent's address to the general, who then took his 
 leave. When he rose to deliver his address, and 
 also when he retired, he bowed to the Congress, 
 which they returned by uncovering without bowifig. 
 He left Annapolis at sunrise the next morning, and 
 reached Mount Vernon the same night — Christmas 
 eve. As he wrote George Clinton : " The scene is at 
 last closed. I feel myself eased of a load of public 
 care. I hope to spend the remainder of my days in 
 cultivating the affections of good men, and in the 
 practice of the domestic virtues." This is the last 
 scene in the life of George Washington, soldier, by 
 his own fireside, with his wife and friends, at home 
 at Mount Vernon, in Virginia. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 When George Washington rose at Mount Vernon 
 on Christmas day, 1783, it is not an exaggeration to 
 say that he was the most illustrious man then living 
 in the world. His prudence, persistence, courage, 
 wisdom, and patriotism had carried an infant state 
 through a long war with the greatest nation of mod- 
 ern history to a successful and glorious conclusion. 
 His dominating influence in the result was thorough- 
 ly understood and appreciated in Great Britain ; his 
 wisdom and self-denying patriotism were intensely 
 admired in France, where the ideas of the universal 
 brotherhood of man were just germinating; and the 
 breadth of his military combinations, and the force 
 and vigor with which they had been executed, were 
 admired in the new military nation of Prussia more 
 than those of any modern soldier except their own 
 great founder. So that, in Great Britain, France, 
 and Germany, George Washington occupied the 
 most conspicuous place before all men, and was first 
 in honor, first in reverence, and first in love of all 
 living men. 
 
 The action, unparalleled in ancient or modern 
 times, of the successful leader of a revolt against 
 constituted authority, in which organized govern- 
 ment had been overthrown and a new order estab- 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 283 
 
 lished — who had voluntarily laid down his authority, 
 severed his connection with public affairs, and re- 
 tired to private life — this conduct produced a more 
 profound impression on the world than even the 
 military genius which had directed the war, and the 
 wisdom which had controlled the people through the 
 long ordeal. No one anywhere expected any such 
 event except the men who had known Washington 
 closely — his friends, kinsmen, and neighbors in Vir- 
 ginia, some mtimate correspondents, like Jonathan 
 Trumbull, of Connecticut and Thomas Johnson, of 
 Maryland, and his comrades in arms, Nathaniel 
 Greene, Henry Knox, Anthony Wayne, James Mc- 
 Henry, John Laurens, Daniel Morgan, and true men 
 like these whose view was never distorted by envy, 
 ambition, or malice. 
 
 The Continental Congress passed an unhappy 
 time from the capitulation of Cornwallis to the de- 
 finitive treaty of peace. It was plain what position 
 Washington and the army were to occupy. They 
 were to stand first in the respect and the affections 
 of the people and of posterity. But what was the 
 place to be assigned to the statesmen ? Like all 
 weak people, they had suffered from a constant 
 terror of the man on horseback. They listened for 
 the knock of the dictator every day at Carpenters' 
 Hall, and when the Pennsylvania militia surrounded 
 them and gave them thirty minutes to gratify their 
 demands, the Congress thought the hour had struck. 
 
 The disbandment of the army during the year 
 was an immense relief, and when the general at- 
 tended at Annapolis as their servant, and in the posi- 
 tion of subordinate had surrendered his commission, 
 and all authority of every kind derived from office, 
 
284 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 to those who had conferred it on him, he removed 
 the weight of apprehension which covered and threat- 
 ened them. When, therefore, he arrived at Mount 
 Vernon he was the most illustrious .man in the 
 world — the best -beloved citizen, and the idolized 
 hero of a generous, a chivalric, and a sentimental 
 people. Not one human being lived who could or 
 would say, think, or feel any evil of him— not one 
 anywhere in the wide world. 
 
 Washington actually persuaded himself that he 
 wanted to end his career in the life of a private gen- 
 tleman with his family and friends, and, like all men 
 who have long carried a great burden of official re- 
 sponsibility, believed that he could relieve himself of 
 the responsibility by divesting himself of office. But 
 office may be laid aside — conscience, the sense of 
 duty, never can be ; and as soon as Washington had 
 leisure to look around him and appreciate the situa- 
 tion of things, it was clear to him that duty called 
 him as imperiously now as when he left Mount 
 Vernon to go to the Congress in i774-'75, and to 
 the army near Boston in June, 1775. 
 
 Washington was fifty-one years of age, in superb 
 health, happy in fortune, friends, and family as few 
 men have ever been. Thirty-three years of his life 
 had been passed in the public service, and it was ut- 
 terly impossible for him to step aside and let events 
 take their course or other men control them. No 
 living man knew as well what was necessary to be 
 done. Not one could show as well how to do it, nor 
 conduce to the doing of it, as he could. He had 
 struggled through eight years, bearing on his shoul- 
 ders the responsibility of the revolt, with absolutely 
 no assistance from the confederated colonies. They 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 285 
 
 had no government, no vigor, no life, no credit; 
 they could do nothing, and did nothing. 
 
 They had united upon terms of an alliance they 
 called the " Articles of Confederation," by which 
 they agreed to assist each other in the war, as re- 
 quired by a vote of the Congress, each colony cast- 
 ing an equal vote. This Confederation was only an 
 agreement to agree. It bound no one to action ; 
 it never collected a dollar of taxes, nor raised a 
 soldier, except two battalions of volunteers from 
 Canada, who were mustered into the American serv- 
 ice as " Congress's Own." 
 
 The States were divided from each other by 
 social, religious, political, and race differences. From 
 the first settlement, grave disputes had existed be- 
 tween the adventurers and proprietors who were 
 staking their lives and fortunes on English coloniza- 
 tion in America. The Virginia companies, prior in 
 time, were prior in right, and acquired by grant from 
 the Crown the larger part of the North American 
 continent subsequently planted by the English. 
 The vacation of their charters subsequently threw 
 all their territory into the control of the Crown 
 which granted it, to Calvert, to Culepeper, to Penn, 
 to Jersey, and various other royal favorites. But 
 though the courts could vacate charters, and abolish 
 grants, they could not extinguish claims or ideas 
 of rights, created in various individuals by ambition 
 or aspiration. 
 
 Gentlemen and merchants had subscribed to the 
 Virginia Company, and had adventured lives and 
 fortunes to subdue the empire which it controlled, 
 and of which they were part owners ; and when the 
 fiat of the Court of King's Bench extinguished all 
 
286 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 charter rights, the original partners in the enter- 
 prise to settle the Dominion of Virginia felt grossly 
 wronged by seeing their property divided out among 
 others. They never abandoned their claim to the 
 original boundaries of the Dominion until the Do- 
 minion became a republican State, and in so doing 
 recognized the existence of other free and equal 
 States erected in her territory north and south of 
 her. But in recognizing the existence and the right 
 to exist of Maryland and North Carolina, Virginia 
 still held on to her claim to the Western territory. 
 
 The County of Illinois, in Virginia, included the 
 whole country west of the Ohio, east of the Missis- 
 sippi, and south of the lakes. The County of Ken- 
 tucky comprised the country south of the Ohio and 
 east of the Mississippi. The Dominion during the 
 Revolution consisted of the present States of Vir- 
 ginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illi- 
 nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and part of Minnesota ; 
 and when the States were asked to come into the 
 Confederation, the coming in was a tacit acknowl- 
 edgment of the claim of Virginia to this whole 
 territory. Maryland refused to concede this, and 
 held on with curious tenacity to her claim of the 
 whole Potomac as her southern boundary, and her 
 right to share in the great territory beyond the Mis- 
 sissippi, and she went through the Revolution, repre- 
 sented in Congress, and contributing her full quota 
 to the armed contest, without ever having been a 
 member of the Confederation. 
 
 It was not until March, 1781, after Virginia had 
 executed in due form a deed of release to the United 
 States of all her claims to the Western lands, to be 
 held for the common benefit of all the States, that 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 287 
 
 Maryland authorized her representatives in Congress 
 to commit the State to the fortunes of the confeder- 
 acy by signing the Articles of Confederation. New 
 York claimed Vermont, and a bitter controversy ex- 
 isted between New Jersey, with Pennsylvania on the 
 one side and New York on the other, about rights of 
 navigation and of fishery. Virginia and Maryland 
 were in a constant wrangle as to jurisdiction over 
 the Chesapeake and the Potomac. 
 
 The first problem to be solved was the construc- 
 tion of a more perfect Union. Washington, with a 
 political sagacity that was pure intuition, saw at once 
 the point on which the power was to rest. He had 
 read as little history as most gentlemen of his station 
 and generation, and was as little informed as any one 
 of the struggles that races, peoples, and nations have 
 made at various epochs in different climates and en- 
 vironments to acquire, to preserve, and to transmit 
 liberty to their posterities. 
 
 If the States were to remain discordant and un- 
 sympathetic, they would become the prey of dema- 
 gogues at home, who would without delay transfer 
 them to some foreign power. Spain would have no 
 difficulty in extending her power along the Gulf of 
 Mexico, until that would become a Spanish sea; and 
 France would as easily extend herself up the Missis- 
 sippi and Ohio and along the lakes, until she would 
 have been re-established in that position from which 
 George Washington and the Virginians had spent 
 their youth to expel her. 
 
 Washington had gone into the war with a bitter 
 feeling toward the French and the Papists, and a sen- 
 timent of regretful affection for the mother country ; 
 he had come out of it with a warm affection for the 
 
288 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 French and the Catholics — for the French had proved 
 friends in need, and the Catholics, native and foreign 
 born, had been ardent patriots — and with an intense 
 hostility to the English Government and its adher- 
 ents, the Tories in America. He loved and respected 
 the Fairfaxes — loyal gentlemen, who grieved over his 
 fall and prayed for his restoration to the ways of 
 duty, of honor, and of patriotism. He conceded to 
 them the right of private judgment, but to them 
 alone. The many distinguished Virginian families 
 who adhered to their oaths of allegiance and refused 
 to rebel against " the best government the world 
 ever saw," he never, to his dying day, forgave or 
 forgot ; and after the war was over, while Mount 
 Vernon was open to all the world who came to pay 
 their respects to the master, no Tory, or son of a 
 Tory, ever broke bread there. Every man who had 
 stood by the flag on land or sea was welcome ; any 
 man who had fought it in open, manly, honorable 
 war was welcome; but no one who had deserted 
 friends, and joined with negroes and Indians in 
 servile and savage war, ever again touched the hand 
 of George Washington. 
 
 Something has been said — more may be — from 
 the side of those who, faithful to their hereditary 
 allegiance, staked and lost all save honor in the de- 
 fense of the union with the old mother ; but the 
 generation which fought the rebellion, which accom- 
 plished disunion, and which established independ- 
 ence, never made allowances for their unsuccessful 
 neighbors, but regarded them with unmitigated con- 
 tempt and undying hate to the end of their lives. 
 And Washington was a man of his time. 
 
 To bring the Western lands in connection with the 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 289 
 
 East was the first step in the problem of the Union. 
 He never saw the Great Lakes, but he saw the future, 
 and he marked out a way by which a free highway by 
 water might be constructed from the Chesapeake to 
 Detroit. And by Detroit now passes annually a ton- 
 nage greater than the entire transoceanic trade of 
 the United States. He had originated this enter- 
 prise long before, and in 1762 had held a conference 
 at Fredericktown, in Maryland, with Thomas John- 
 son, George Mason, and other associates in the Ohio 
 Company, for the purpose of devising means to open 
 the Western lands. In a letter to Johnson, in 1772, 
 he presses the subject; and he secured a charter, in 
 1774, from the Virginia Legislature for a transporta- 
 tion company on the Potomac. Washington failed 
 to secure the co-operation of Maryland, and the war 
 stopped the undertaking. 
 
 Before he retired from the army, in the summer of 
 1783, he rode with Governor Clinton, of New York, 
 up the valley of the Mohawk and reconnoitered the 
 line of water way to the lakes, which Clinton's son 
 afterward made the route for the Erie Canal. In the 
 autumn of 1784, accompanied by one servant, he rode 
 from Mount Vernon to Winchester, to Wills' Creek, to 
 the Monongahela, to Fort Pitt, and down the Ohio to 
 the Kanawha, to the New River and across the Blue 
 Mountains to the head waters of the James at Clifton 
 Forge ; thence along the Piedmont road to Mount 
 Vernon. This extraordinary expedition was made 
 primarily for the purpose of acquiring personal 
 knowledge of the country, in which he had large in- 
 vestments in land, but also for the purpose of ascer- 
 taining the best way of connecting the East and the 
 West. With the wonderful political sagacity which he 
 
290 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 at times exhibited like inspiration, he was not in favor 
 of acquiring control of the Mississippi " at that time." 
 Free navigation of the Mississippi could draw the 
 trade of its great watershed to the Gulf of Mexico 
 and so establish the Spaniards there forever. Wash- 
 ington/.?// the impulse of "manifest destiny." He 
 knew that the great country of the West would 
 be filled by an energetic, intellectual, courageous, 
 liberty-loving people ; their appearance might be 
 delayed; the British, by holding on to the Western 
 posts, in violation of the treaty and their plighted 
 faith, might for a few years keep the Indian tribes in 
 a condition of suppressed excitement, ready at any 
 moment to break out into flagrant war, and thus 
 hinder and delay immigration and settlement; but 
 civilization was bound, by the inevitable law of 
 progress of the human race, to occupy and develop 
 the immense resources which might be made to con- 
 tribute so immensely to the comfort and happiness 
 of man. It is not probable that Washington ever 
 heard of Evolution or Progress ; but he knew that 
 hickory and walnut timber indicated rich land — land 
 that would produce corn, wheat, rye, and oats in pro- 
 fusion ; and he knew that wherever there was rich 
 land the pioneer would find it and take it and pos- 
 sess it and cultivate it. He would make " home " 
 there, and wherever the Norman-Anglo-Saxon had 
 established his household altars, from that place he 
 never receded. The rich bottoms and heavy timber 
 of the Ohio and the Kanawha all pointed to future 
 empire, and the soul of the politician-statesman was 
 filled with visions and hopes of the future of such a 
 country bound to the Atlantic and dominated by 
 the liberty-loving, freeborn race that for a thousand 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 29 1 
 
 years had been engaged in one constant struggle 
 for liberty and justice and right. As soon as Wash- 
 ington arrived at Mount Vernon he set to work with 
 that patient pertinacity which above all others was 
 his distinguishing characteristic. 
 
 He wrote to Madison, then attending the Congress 
 at Annapolis, urging him to bring up in the Maryland 
 Legislature, in session at the same place, the ques- 
 tion of some arrangement between Maryland and 
 Virginia about jurisdiction over and the navigation 
 of the Chesapeake. Under the public law, as it then 
 stood, the nation controlling the mouth of a river had 
 the right to regulate and tax the access to the high 
 sea of all the inhabitants of its upper waters. It 
 was not until the Treaty of Vienna that the com- 
 mercial navigation of rivers which separate States 
 was declared to be entirely free in their whole course. 
 This made the Rhine and its confluents free. Similar 
 regulations as to the Elbe were made by the Treaty 
 of Dresden in 182 1, and of the Vistula and Po in 
 1815, and of the Danube by the Treaty of Paris in 
 1850. The English secured the right of navigation 
 of the Mississippi by the Treaty of 1763 with France, 
 and the right was secured to the English and Amer- 
 icans by the Treaty of 1783. 
 
 Therefore, when the Treaty of 1783 acknowledged 
 and recognized thirteen sovereign and independent 
 States, each State had absolute control of all navi- 
 gable waters within its limits. Connecticut controlled 
 the Connecticut River ; New Jersey and Delaware, 
 the Delaware; Virginia, the lower Chesapeake; and 
 thus Maryland and Pennsylvania might both be cut 
 off from the viai^e libermn^ the free highway of com- 
 merce of the nations of the world. An agreement 
 20 
 
292 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 between the States was thus absolutely necessary to 
 secure proper commercial facilities to them, and 
 Washington proposed to use the necessities of the 
 situation to promote the grand object he had in 
 view — to wit, the foundation of a solid Union, by 
 binding the East and boundless West by the ties of 
 mutual interest. 
 
 While the Maryland Legislature, at his instance, 
 was initiating negotiations with Virginia as to the 
 jurisdiction over and navigation of the Potomac and 
 the Chesapeake, he pressed the Virginia Legislature 
 to grant a charter to the Potomac Company— the 
 enterprise which he had started in 1762, and only 
 gave up when he went to Congress in 1774. He was 
 made president of the company, which was to con- 
 struct a slack water navigation from Rock Creek, 
 the head of tide, to Wills' Creek, and then a series of 
 smaller canals and dams across the mountain to the 
 Monongahela, and so bind the East and West, by the 
 ties of interest, into a Union which should last for- 
 ever. But the fundamental idea in the undertaking 
 was that the navigable line proposed to be created 
 should be a free highway forever to all the people of 
 the United States. 
 
 While the Legislature of Virginia was thus pro- 
 viding for making the Potomac a free highway, that 
 of Maryland appointed commissioners to meet those 
 from Virginia, to settle the jurisdiction and naviga- 
 tion of the Potomac and the Chesapeake. Annapolis 
 is within visiting distance of Mount Vernon. It was 
 then within a good day's ride. The general would 
 send a servant on a horse to Governor Johnson or 
 Colonel Tilghman or Colonel Howard, requesting 
 the pleasure of their company to dinner the next 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 293 
 
 day, to meet some comrade of Germantown or York- 
 town, or some foreign officers visiting Mount Ver- 
 non, and by sunrise the following morning the caval- 
 cade would be en route to Mount Vernon for a three 
 o'clock dinner. Such intimate relations increased his 
 influence among the Marylanders, who were already 
 devoted to him. He pressed the Potomac Company 
 and the question of navigation of the Chesapeake 
 first on the Virginians who were farther off, and then 
 on the Marylanders right at his hand. The Virgin- 
 ians chartered the Potomac Company. The Mary- 
 landers appointed Thomas Johnson, Thomas Stone, 
 Samuel Chase, and Daniel, of St. Thomas, Jenifer, 
 to meet commissioners from Virginia to settle the 
 navigation and jurisdiction question. Virginia then 
 appointed Edmund Randolph, George Mason, James 
 Madison, Jr., and Alexander Henderson, to meet the 
 Maryland Commissioners, and Maryland then re- 
 enacted the charter of the Potomac Company. 
 
 Washington's first move was successful. He had 
 secured the consent and guarantee of Virginia and 
 Maryland that the navigation of the upper Potomac 
 should be free forever, and that the great West should 
 have a free access to tide. But that gave them no 
 access to the ocean. So, when the commissioners of 
 the two States met at Alexandria, in January, 1785, 
 the general met them, and adjourned the whole mat- 
 ter and meeting and negotiations to Mount Vernon. 
 The agreement then made was thoroughly imbued 
 with the ideas of Washington. It gave Maryland- 
 ers and Virginians equal rights in the Pocomoke, 
 the Potomac, and the Chesapeake, and made these 
 waters free highways to the open sea. The Com- 
 pact of 1785, as it is called, was the germ of the 
 
 ; 
 
294 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Constitution of 1789, and it came from the brain 
 and heart of Washington. It forbade Maryland or 
 Virginia making any regulations of commerce as 
 between their respective ports or over their re- 
 spective waters which would interfere with the equal 
 rights of citizens of the two States. It declared that 
 the flag covered the cargo, and that the citizens of 
 each State should have the right to be tried for all 
 crimes and offenses committed on the waters of the 
 Pocomoke, the Potomac, and the Chesapeake, by the 
 courts of the State of which he was a citizen. It 
 made the records of judicial proceedings in one State 
 evidence in the other, and it provided for the acces- 
 sion of Pennsylvania and Delaware to it. The Arti- 
 cles of Confederation distinctly prohibited the States 
 from '' entering into any treaty, alliance, or confed- 
 eration." The negotiations of the Compact of 1785 
 distinguished between treaty, alliance, or confedera- 
 tion, and the agreement between the two States, and 
 they not only made the agreement between those 
 two, but invited two others to unite with them in the 
 agreement. The compact was promptly ratified by 
 each State, and forms the law of each State to-day. 
 
 The consultations at Mount Vernon disclosed the 
 identity of opinions between those present as to the 
 evil and the remedy and the crying necessity for 
 prompt action. The Articles of Confederation were 
 worse than useless. The very compact they were ar- 
 ranging was a nullification of its plain provisions, 
 while the one which they proposed, if accepted, 
 would result in the subversion of the entire confed- 
 eration. It was plain that if Delaware and Pennsyl- 
 / vania came into the compact of 1785 and thus se- 
 cured free trade among themselves, then the other 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 295 
 
 States would hasten to clamor for admission to its 
 benefits. Madison caused to be passed by the Vir- 
 ginia Legislature a resolution, calling on the States 
 to meet in convention in Annapolis in 1786 to revise 
 the Articles of Confederation. That convention was 
 only attended by four of the States, and it issued an- 
 other call for them all to send delegates to another 
 convention of revision to meet at Philadelphia dur- 
 ing the next year. 
 
 Virginia promptly selected Washington to head 
 her delegation to that meeting, and associated with 
 him Randolph, Madison, and Mason — three of the 
 Mount Vernon negotiators — and the consultations 
 for Union were transferred from Mount Vernon to 
 Philadelphia, and the negotiations for it from two 
 States to thirteen. On the meeting of the conven- 
 tion Washington was made president, and, although 
 there is no record of his active participation in its de- 
 bates, there is no doubt that his influence was potent 
 in directing its action. 
 
 From the day he assumed command of the army 
 at Cambridge he had suffered from the impotence of 
 the Confederation. His practical mind understood 
 that leagues and alliances between States can never 
 withstand concentrated powers moving against them 
 from the outside, and that dissension and difference 
 in interest and sentiment will always produce feeble- 
 ness in council and inefficiency in execution among 
 themselves. From the beginning of the movement 
 at Mount Vernon he was not anxious for any action 
 at all as to the Articles of Confederation. The time 
 had not come and opinion was not ripe for their total 
 abrogation, and he wished no half-way measures. 
 He wanted ^governments not influence; for, as he said 
 
296 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 about the Shay rebellion in Massachusetts, " influence 
 i s n o t govern?nent. ' ' 
 
 The Confederation was an advisory body, where 
 each party did as they pleased, and were constrained 
 by no authority save their own sense of right. Wash- 
 ington knew that the Union, which he considered the 
 great guarantee of public liberty and individual hap- 
 piness and prosperity, required a concrete govern- 
 ment, a law-making power to make laws, a judicial 
 power to construe them, and an executive to admin- 
 ister them. He and Randolph arrived at the con- 
 clusion, early in the discussion, that the laws must be 
 made by the people, for the people, and be applied 
 to the people. No scheme would operate or last 
 which looked to coercing States; that would lead to 
 war, and the idea of coercion of States was fatal to 
 Union and destructive to liberty. 
 
 But they believed that a government might be 
 constructed that, passing by the State governments, 
 would directly represent the citizens, and would op- 
 erate on the citizens. They had no conception of the 
 idea of a citizenship of the United States apart from 
 the citizenship of the State, but they believed that, 
 securing and preserving the autonomy of States, they 
 would thereby secure the highest guarantee for the 
 perpetuation of the Union, the Union being con- 
 structed of a number of States whose citizens became 
 citizens of the Union and on whom the Union oper- 
 ated directly. 
 
 With infinite labor, patience, perseverance, and 
 courage, Washington labored in support of the "Vir- 
 ginia plan " introduced in the convention by Mr. Ran- 
 dolph for the new government, and all his influence 
 was exerted toward the creation of a government to 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 297 
 
 Operate on individuals and not on States. George 
 Mason separated from liis associate negotiators of 
 the Compact of 1785, and resolutely opposed any plan 
 to create a government with centralized power. The 
 idea of a government that governs prevailed over 
 that of one that advises, and the Constitution of the 
 United States was adopted by the convention, and 
 sent to the States for ratification. Then began the 
 greatest, most pregnant labor of Washington's life. 
 If it can be said " he was the Revolution," it is be- 
 yond doubt equally true that " he was the Constitu- 
 tion and the Union." 
 
 From the day the convention adjourned at Phila- 
 delphia until the ratification by the ninth State ful- 
 filled the terms upon which the Constitution was to be 
 put into operation, his correspondence was incessant, 
 copious, all-pervading. He wrote to gentlemen in 
 different States that they must become members of 
 their State conventions to which the Constitution 
 was to be submitted for ratification. He substantially 
 appointed the Convention of Maryland, for he se- 
 lected the leading members of it. He wrote Johnson 
 that the Constitution ought to be ratified at once, 
 without conditions or amendments. He was not sat- 
 isfied with it, and some features of it he probably 
 never would assent to, but it was the best that could 
 be done, and the only present means of preserving 
 peace and the Union. The action of New York and 
 Massachusetts was very uncertain, Rhode Island 
 and North Carolina had promptly rejected it. New 
 Hampshire was hanging back, and if the vote of 
 Virginia was to be permitted to be the casting vote, 
 the vanity of that State, he wrote, would be so much 
 inflamed that her action would be very doubtful. If, 
 
298 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 however, Maryland promptly accepted the new form 
 of government, this would place its ratification by 
 nine States beyond doubt, and render the position 
 of Virginia of little consequence. The situation 
 would ultimately decide her to join the Union. It 
 would be a necessity. The Maryland Convention, 
 accepting the orders from Mount Vernon, ratified the 
 Constitution, and adjourned while a committee to 
 consider amendments, raised on motion of William 
 Paca, was out, and that committee of the last cen- 
 tury has not reported to this day. 
 
 When the Constitution was accepted by eleven 
 States, its author and creator of necessity became 
 its director, and was selected, by the unanimous vote 
 of all the States and the unanimous wish of all the 
 people, to put it in operation. He secured the elec- 
 tion in the different States of men selected by him, 
 known to him, and esteemed by him, to constitute 
 the first Congress. He had great doubts about the 
 success of the experiment, but he was determined 
 that he would give every energy of mind, heart, and 
 body to insure it. He was convinced that the para- 
 mount, overreaching, all-pervading duty of patriot- 
 ism was to secure a perpetual union of all the 
 States. He was convinced that the first step toward 
 that, beyond government or administration, above 
 mere constitutional arrangements, was to secure the 
 valley of the Ohio to the seaboard by proper com- 
 mercial connections. Hence the Potomac and the 
 James River Companies and the Compact of 1785. 
 
 With this territory, bound together by social and 
 material ties, he believed a State would be founded 
 which would eventually include the Great Lakes, the 
 Mississippi, and the islands of the W^est Indies, and 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 299 
 
 he foresaw the time when the Gulf of Mexico would 
 become an American sea, dominated by the arts and 
 the arms, the intelligence and the valor of the Union, y 
 The key of Washington's whole conduct for the rest 
 of his life will be found in this deep faith of his in 
 the manifest destiny of the Union. 
 
 There was a great deal of human nature in him, 
 and he resented the conduct of the British Govern- 
 ment toward the Americans during the war. Theories 
 about taxation without representation, and trials 
 without juries, did not affect his mind so much; but 
 he felt bitterly to the day of his death — as did all the 
 men of that time — the hiring of the Hessians to rav- 
 age and destroy, and the inciting of the Indians to 
 all the horrors of savage warfare. He insisted on his 
 Americanism — that the American, in courage, in intel- 
 lect, in force and vigor, in regard for justice and right 
 and reverence for truth, was the equal of any race 
 that ever lived, and he repudiated for himself, his 
 compatriots, and his country, that provincialism 
 which looks to other social conditions for standards y 
 for morals or other political systems for ideas and 
 models. He believed that the American was to de- 
 velop a new race and a new civilization, which for 
 power, for energy, for virtue, and for valor has never 
 been equaled in this world. For this reason he laid 
 down the broad principle, ever since received by the 
 Republic, that America never would enter into the 
 politics of Europe nor be bound by entangling alli- 
 ances with it. This doctrine was afterward applied 
 by Mr. Monroe to mean that, as America took no 
 part in the disputes of Europe, Europe should not 
 acquire interests in America, so as to embroil herself 
 in American interests. 
 
300 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 And it seems as if the doctrine of nonintervention 
 was to apply not only to the two American continents 
 and the Atlantic islands on the American coast, but 
 as well to the archipelagoes of the Pacific. By the 
 Treaty of Peace the British were to deliver posses- 
 sion of the posts in the Northwest to the Americans. 
 They did not do so, and during President Washing- 
 ton's first term he was constantly harassed by the 
 apprehension that they would stir up the savages 
 against the outlying settlements in the vast counties 
 of Illinois and Kentucky. 
 
 As the French Revolution developed he never 
 was sanguine that any great good would result from 
 the destruction of institutions which were the growth 
 of centuries. He saw the suffering that would surely 
 ensue; the benefits that were to grow out of it he 
 failed to appreciate. He organized his government 
 with Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State; Alexan- 
 der Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury ; Henry 
 Knox, Secretary of War, and Edmund Randolph, At- 
 torney General. Hamilton and Randolph had served 
 on his staff, and Knox had been known and trusted 
 since the camp at Cambridge. Jefferson was the 
 only one who had not been a soldier and a comrade. 
 He had been American minister to France, where he 
 had fraternized with that Revolution, and adopted 
 some of the most extreme ideas of the French phi- 
 losophy of human rights. 
 
 On the breaking out of the war in Europe the 
 sympathies of the Americans naturally crystallized 
 around France, and the French Revolutionary Gov- 
 ernment claimed the assistance of the United States 
 against Great Britain as guaranteed by the Treaty 
 of Alliance. Washington loved Lafayette, he liked 
 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 301 
 
 De Rochambeau and De Grasse, and many French 
 comrades of the war, but he never did admire French 
 ways ; their demonstrativeness, their effusion, were 
 offensive to him; and while he was anxious to fulfill 
 all the obligations of public faith, he was equally 
 anxious to afford the Americans opportunity to build 
 up their enormous country and develop their great 
 destiny by the arts of peace. 
 
 The Union was his highest aspiration, and peace 
 and neutrality had become necessary to the Union. 
 Hamilton gave as his opinion that the other party to 
 the Treaty of Alliance 'having ceased to exist, its 
 successor — the Revolutionary Government— could 
 not claim the benefit of its treaties. Jefferson 
 claimed that the treaty was made with the French 
 nation, which lives forever, and therefore the treaty 
 bound the American succession to the Confederation, 
 as well as the French Republic succeeding the mon- 
 archy. AVashington decided with Hamilton— proper- 
 ly decided, but on the wrong ground. Treaties are 
 not modified by changes in the form of government of 
 the contracting parties, but continue in force as long 
 as the contractors choose to perform their obliga- 
 tions. But for that very reason there can be no per- 
 petual treaty. No Government can bind the future 
 forever, and the same right to change forms of gov- 
 ernment, of which each nation must, of course, be 
 the sole judge for itself, must reserve to each party 
 the right to release itself from the obligations of any 
 treaty upon fair notice. 
 
 The United States preserved their neutrality. 
 The first duty presented to the new Government was 
 that of creating public credit and public revenue. 
 Hamilton, in a report unequaled in any language in 
 
302 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 any age of the world for grasp of conditions, for 
 appreciation of principles, for vigor of intellect, pro- 
 posed as the first step toward rehabilitation of credit, 
 that the Union should assume all the debts of all the 
 States created in the course of the war in the com- 
 mon enterprise. Washington understood that such 
 a measure would draw large and powerful interests 
 to the support of a government on maintenance of 
 which their property depended, and he urged the 
 measure with all his influence. It was adopted as 
 part of a compromise by which the site of the Fed- 
 eral city was finally fixed on the Potomac River, at 
 the mouth of Rock Creek. 
 
 The revenue measure was unfortunately con- 
 ceived. It levied a tax on distilled spirits in the 
 hands of the manufacturer. Hamilton was neither 
 an Englishman nor an American. He was West In- 
 dian by birth, and he knew nothing by observation of 
 the deep-seated aversion people have for tax-gather- 
 ers spying about their houses. But theoretically a 
 tax on spirits was an ideal tax. It taxed a luxury; 
 no one need pay it unless he chose to use spirits, and 
 it would be cheaply and easily collected. These the- 
 oretical views did not turn out to be practical. The 
 mountaineers from Fort Pitt to King's Mountain 
 flew to arms and drove the Federal tax-gatherers 
 from their borders. 
 
 In 1785 there had been an insurrection against 
 the State authorities of Massachusetts, led by one 
 Shay, and Washington had been urgent upon the 
 Governor that it was of the greatest importance 
 that the power of Government should be promptly 
 exhibited, and the rising suppressed without a mo- 
 ment's delay and by the strong hand. " We must 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 303 
 
 show to the world," said he, "that we have 2^ govern- 
 meiit which will govern, and not advised As soon as 
 he was assured that rebellion against the Union had 
 arisen in Pennsylvania, he made Congress pass a law 
 authorizing him to call out the militia to suppress 
 any insurrection anywhere ; and he issued his procla- 
 mation calling out the militia of New Jersey, Penn- 
 sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, and appointed 
 Light Horse Harry, Governor Lee, of Virginia, to 
 command them. 
 
 The States furnished fifteen thousand troops, and 
 Washington accompanied them as far as Bedford, in 
 Pennsylvania. Lee moved farther west, but the in- 
 surrection dispersed. Some of the leaders were ar- 
 rested and tried by the Federal Court at Philadel- 
 phia and convicted of treason, and v/ere pardoned 
 by the President. The necessary lesson that there 
 was a government which could and would govern 
 had been taught. 
 
 By one of the curious antitheses of history, the 
 only other time the power of the President to call 
 out the militia to suppress rebellion was exercised, 
 was when it was invoked to suppress rebellion led 
 by the Governor of Virginia and the son of Light 
 Horse Harry Lee. Washington assumed control of 
 the Government impressed with the idea that better 
 government could be obtained by ignoring those dif- 
 ferences of opinion that must exist in free societies, 
 and the organizations that of necessity arise to en- 
 force policies. The great difference that had arisen 
 before the Constitutional Convention was whether 
 or not the Articles of Confederation should be re- 
 vised or a new government formed; and in the con- 
 vention itself, whether the new government to be or- 
 
304 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 ganized should be founded on States or on the people. 
 Hamilton and Edmund Randolph favored a consoli- 
 dated government, with great powers to operate di- 
 rectly on the people ; William Patterson, of New 
 Jersey, and Patrick Henry advocated a government 
 representing sovereign States, of whom the Federal 
 agent should be the representative, and connected 
 with the people only through the States. The Con- 
 stitution was a compromise between the two theories, 
 but was more largely impressed with the ideas of 
 Randolph than those of Patterson. It was a Vir- 
 ginian victory, to be, in the future, the source of un- 
 numbered woes to her. 
 
 The new Government was organized on the prin- 
 ciple of ignoring these radical differences. Hamil- 
 ton was placed at the head of finance, and Randolph 
 made supervisor of the administration of the laws, 
 while Jefferson, just returned from France, where he 
 had signalized himself as the ardent sympathizer 
 with the radical democracy of the Revolution, was 
 charged with the conduct of foreign affairs and ex- 
 terior relations. It required the experience of four 
 years to convince the President that popular govern- 
 ment can only be carried on by means of parties — 
 organizations of citizens who agree in desiring that 
 certain things shall be done and certain policies be 
 applied to public affairs, and who agree to join to- 
 gether in united effort to secure the objects of their 
 desires. Mr. Jefferson, the radical Democrat, did 
 not agree on any single principle with Mr. Hamilton, 
 the conservative Republican. The one believed that 
 mankind had sufficient virtue, intelligence, and self- 
 control to organize society so as to secure the largest 
 happiness to the great body of the citizenship. 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 305 
 
 Col. Hamilton, referring to the history of the 
 English race and the experience of mankind, be- 
 lieved that liberty and happiness could only be ob- 
 tained and retained by constant struggle against the 
 selfishness of human nature; that the strong would 
 oppress the weak, the wise would take advantage of 
 the simple, unless they were restrained by the whole 
 of society acting through a strong government. Mr. 
 Jefferson believed that the less government there 
 was, the better for the happiness, the liberty, and 
 the security of the people. Mr. Hamilton was con- 
 vinced that happiness, liberty, and security would 
 all be lost unless preserved by a powerful govern- 
 m.ent; that reliance upon the virtue and patriotism 
 and unselfishness of individuals to protect the weak 
 and preserve their rights would be found by experi- 
 ence to be futile, and that selfishness would prove 
 to be the radical motive of general human action. 
 Such opinions of necessity produced clashing acts. 
 The advocates of Union gathered around Hamilton, 
 and he selected all his agents in administering his 
 great office from among them. Jefferson selected peo- 
 ple who sympathized with him to carry out his plans 
 and to advocate his ideas and to expound his demo- 
 cratic principles. 
 
 Washington, after a worrying experience, became 
 convinced that his preconceived idea that govern- 
 ment could be administered on nonpartisan lines by 
 nonpartisans was radically wrong; and he became 
 equally well satisfied that to carry on a government 
 for free people, its conduct must accord with their V' 
 opinions and sympathize with their sentiments; that 
 a government of opinion must be operated along the 
 line of that opinion, and this required that every 
 
3o6 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 agent, from President to tide waiter, must sympathize 
 with and earnestly support that opinion. The idea 
 that a government of opinion could or would be suc- 
 cessfully conducted by agents, principals, or subor- 
 dinates opposed to such opinion and hostile to its 
 development, was effectually refuted in President 
 Washington's mind. 
 
 Early in 1793 war was declared between Great 
 Britain and France. After mature consideration by 
 the Cabinet, the policy of neutrality was determined 
 upon, and Randolph drafted the proclamation which 
 has been the model for precise statement and the 
 basis of the policy of neutrality which has been prac- 
 ticed by the United States ever since, and which has 
 as much as any one thing contributed to the enfran- 
 chisement, the development, and the perpetuity of 
 the Union of the States. Directly after the procla- 
 mation of neutrality Genet landed at Charleston as 
 minister from the Revolutionary Government of 
 France to the United States of America. The Gallic 
 temperament is never inclined to minimize its own 
 importance or to diminish the value of the achieve- 
 ments of its people. In the great gallery of pictures 
 of French exploits at St. Cloud is a conspicuous 
 representation of the surrender of a British army 
 under Lord Cornwallis to a French one under the 
 General Count de Rochambeau and Admiral Count 
 de Grasse, at Yorktown, in America ; and at that 
 period among the French the American Revolution 
 v/as regarded as an achievement of French states- 
 manship executed by French arms. 
 
 The part played by the Americans was regarded 
 as merely subsidiary and insignificant. As the Brit- 
 ish had Indian allies, so the French had American 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 307 
 
 auxiliaries, only differing from the other in degrees 
 of barbarism. Of course, among French officers, the 
 aristocracy, and the educated classes generally, a 
 clearer appreciation of the conditions obtained ; but 
 the French democracy believed that America was 
 the creation and should be the creature of France. 
 Mr. Genet, therefore, upon landing, assumed the part 
 of a Roman proconsul taking possession of a con- 
 quered province, or a British political agent advising 
 an Indian rajah. He began at once to equip ves- 
 sels, arm them, man them, and send them out with 
 letters of marque to attack British commerce on the 
 high seas. He authorized and ordered all French 
 consuls in American ports to sit as courts of admi- 
 ralty and to adjudicate all questions of prize of war. 
 
 The general American feeling was partial to 
 France and bitter against England, and Genet's 
 measures and movements were hailed with enthusi- 
 asm wherever he went in the Southern country. His 
 route was a triumphal march from Charleston to 
 Philadelphia. His letters of marque began to bring 
 in prizes to Charleston and to Norfolk, and there 
 was profit as well as glory and danger in attacking 
 the British under the French flag. Privateers multi- 
 plied, and in a few months would swarm the seas. 
 Genet brought an English prize, the Little Sarah, to 
 Philadelphia, where he proceeded to fit her out as 
 a fighting ship. Mifflin, ex-quartermaster general 
 and ex-President of the Board of War of the Con- 
 federacy, was then Governor of Pennsylvania, and 
 in concert with Alexander Hamilton took appropriate 
 steps to arrest the vessel and prevent the infraction 
 of the proclamation. 
 
 Jefferson, alarmed for his friends, the French, 
 
3o8 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 applied to Genet to stop his illegal proceedings. 
 Genet frankly declined to engage that the vessel 
 should not sail, but stated that she would not be 
 ready before Wednesday. Upon this statement 
 Jefferson procured Mifflin's guard to be withdrawn, 
 and the Little Sarah, rechristened La Petite Demo- 
 crat, dropped down the river and lay in the stream 
 opposite Chester. Genet then promised that the 
 vessel should not sail until the President, absent at 
 Mount Vernon, should decide as to the legality of 
 his action. While Washington was hurrying from 
 Mount Vernon, La Petite Democrat went to sea, and 
 the Secretary of State went to the country. 
 
 The affair of Genet brought matters to a crisis. 
 The Secretary of State had two years before brought 
 Philip Freneau, a writer, to Philadelphia, paid him 
 out of the public purse as a sinecure clerk in the 
 State Department, and established him in charge of 
 the organ of the Jeffersonian Radical Democracy, 
 the National Gazette. The propaganda of the new 
 philosophy distinguished itself by a prompt attack 
 on the Hamiltonian theories and the Federalists. 
 Of course this led to opposition to the chief of the 
 Federalists, the President, and criticism of his policy, 
 his principles, his manners, and his morals. 
 
 Curious as it seems now, the leaders of the 
 Democracy pretended to believe, and taught their 
 disciples to believe, during the three first presiden- 
 tial terms — the two of Washington and the one of 
 John Adams — that there was a deep-seated purpose 
 in the minds of the Federalists to establish a mon- 
 archical government in America, on the basis of the 
 Federal Union, and as a preparation for this to 
 introduce aristocratic customs in social life. Wash- 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 309 
 
 ington always opened the Congress in person, read- 
 ing his address to them from manuscript. He made 
 a general rule that the President of the United States 
 would return no calls nor accept social invitations. 
 He set apart a day for the reception of everybody, 
 gentle and simple, but he received them standing, 
 and they were presented to him individually by 
 name by one of his aids-de-camp. He invariably 
 wore a velvet suit, silk stockings, lace ruffles, a dress 
 sword, and powder. This was the custom of the 
 society in which he had been reared in Fairfax, at 
 Williamsburg, at Belvoir, and the way he was ac- 
 customed to live at Mount Vernon. 
 
 He had been occupying a conspicuous and respon- 
 sible place — the most conspicuous and responsible 
 in America — for twenty years, and position and power 
 of necessity produce dignity and gravity in the 
 possessor. But these simple, reasonable, and neces- 
 sary social rules gave real offense to many, and were 
 made the pretext of complaint by some. The clerk 
 of the Secretary of State filled the National Gazette 
 with complaints of the aping of regal state by his 
 Excellency. Powdered hair was held up to special 
 detestation as a sign of aristocracy and a mark of 
 gentle birth and breeding. 
 
 So the Democrats attended on the President's 
 levees with plain hair and unpowdered heads. After 
 one of these official functions, a friend found Mrs. 
 Martha busily engaged going through the parlors 
 with a maid and a basin, soap and towel, erasing 
 from the walls the marks made by the unpowdered 
 heads of the callers of the preceding evening by re- 
 posing their unwigged craniums against her freshly 
 whitened walls. " Why, Mrs. Washington, what in 
 
310 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the name of goodness are you about?" cried the 
 visitor. " Oh, those dirty Democrats ! " was the tidy 
 housewife's reply, pointing to the spots made by 
 Democratic polls on the walls. With such a temper 
 " in kitchen and in castle hall " an issue was soon 
 made. In August, 1793, the French Government 
 was requested to recall Mr. Genet, who, deprived of 
 his official status and relieved of his political inflam- 
 mation, remained in the country, and lived and died 
 a good patriotic American citizen. But the issue 
 with Genet proved that Jefferson and the Democ- 
 racy were not to control the policy of the country. 
 Events soon demonstrated that as long as Wash- 
 ington was President they were not to exert any 
 influence over it. In the following year (1794) he 
 sent Thomas Pinckney, of South Carolina, to Spain 
 who negotiated a treaty which defined the boundaries 
 of Florida, and secured to the United States the free 
 navigation of the Mississippi. The termination of 
 the war had left the Americans with feelings of bit- 
 ter hatred, detestation, and horror toward the British 
 and the Tories. The enormities of the invading 
 troops engaged in suppressing the rebellion are al- 
 most incredible. The British sacked the town of New 
 Haven and carried off the library of Yale College, as 
 they did also at Princeton and Williamsburg. 
 
 It is recorded that ''Arnold, after his Virginia 
 raid, returned to New York rich as a nabob with the 
 plunder of Virginia. Phillips was now sent to make 
 his fortune out of what Arnold left unplundered." 
 Judge Thomas Jones, an eminent New York judge 
 under the royal Government of one of the richest and 
 most aristocratic families of the province who ad- 
 hered to the loyal side, has left a History of New 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 311 
 
 York during the Revolutionary War, which has 
 been recently published. He says : " The war, in fact, 
 was not levied at rebellion, but at the Treasury of 
 Great Britain ; at his Majesty's loyal subjects within 
 the lines; indiscriminately against all persons wherever 
 the army moved ; against erudition, religion, and 
 literature in general. Public libraries were robbed, 
 colleges ruined, and churches of all denominations 
 burned and destroyed ; while plunder, robberies, 
 peculation, whoring, gaming, and all kinds of dissi- 
 pations were cherished, nursed, encouraged, and 
 openly countenanced." 
 
 General Fitzpatrick, with Sir William Howe's 
 army advancing to the occupation of Philadelphia, 
 wrote to his sister-in-law, Lady Ossory, " from the 
 Head of Elk River, Maryland, September i, 1777," 
 on the advance to Brandy wine : " The scene we are 
 witnesses to is the most vile and execrable that 
 can be conceived. A soldier of ours was yesterday 
 taken by the enemy beyond our lines, 7vho had chopped 
 off an unforttmate wojnans fingers in order to plunder 
 her of her rings. I really think the return of this army 
 to England is to be dreaded by the peaceable inhab- 
 itants, and will occasion a prodigious increase of busi- 
 ness for Sir J. Fielding and Jack Ketch. I am sure 
 the office of the latter can never find more deserving 
 objects for its exercise." 
 
 In addition to the native British ruffian and bru- 
 tal Hessian, the Administration called to its aid the 
 red savages of the wilderness, armed them, and set 
 them loose. They offered and paid rewards for 
 scalps without regard to age or sex ; that of the 
 babe in arms was merchantable as well as that of 
 feeble old age, that of the matron or maid as well 
 
312 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 as that of stalwart ranger or sturdy farmer. War 
 is barbarism. It is the release of the fierce, bad pas- 
 sions of men from the moral and physical restraint 
 imposed by generations of self-control. But there 
 is no law in war but the law of force. The strong- 
 est do as they please ; and in a war of invasion, sup- 
 pressing a rebellion, all restraints of religion, morals, 
 sentiment, and right are thrown aside, and its taint 
 infects everything, and must be destroyed. It was so 
 in 1688, after Monmouth's rebellion ; it was so in 
 1745, after Charles Edward's rising; and it was so in 
 i775-'8i, and always will be so. The revival of such 
 memories would be detrimental, if unnecessary ; but 
 their recall is now useful to better understand the 
 next episode and trial in Washington's life. 
 
 The Treaty of Peace had bound the English to 
 surrender to the United States all the military posts 
 on the lakes and west of the Ohio. With a profound 
 sense of the importance of the Western country to 
 the prosperity, the safety, and the glory of the 
 United States, Washington had urged on the Confed- 
 eration the necessity of securing the fulfillment of 
 this treaty engagement. But the British Government 
 deferred and delayed, postponed and procrastinated, 
 until Washington became President. It had never 
 gone beyond acknowledging the independence of the 
 several States, but had never recognized the United 
 States — the Union under the Constitution. It sent 
 no minister to the Union, and received none from the 
 Union. Inflamed by the passion the war had cre- 
 ated — for he had felt none before — Washington be- 
 came satisfied that the British intended to make a 
 new effort at conquest. 
 
 It was this suspicion that was a potent force in 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 313 
 
 directing his energy, his mind, and his enthusiasm 
 toward the prompt construction of a Union which 
 would have concentrated power enough to resist the 
 attack on liberty more vigorously than the Confed- 
 eracy had been enabled to do. It was this feeling 
 that prompted his first move at Mount Vernon in 
 arranging the Compact of 1785, the Annapolis Con- 
 vention of 1786, and that in Philadelphia in 1787. 
 A speech was reported as having been made by 
 Lord Dorchester at Montreal to a grand council of 
 Indian chiefs, promising them that he would soon 
 send them on the warpath against the Americans. 
 At the same time the British Administration pub- 
 lished an order m council substantially excluding 
 American commerce from British West Indian ports. 
 Next to the Western country and the policy of 
 neutrality, and as part of the same grand system to 
 build up and solidify the Union, Washington desired 
 peace. Arts, industry, happy labor, would, he knew, 
 construct a powerful nation, which in time would 
 lead the world in arts and arms, as in virtue and 
 valor, intelligence and character. He wrote Lafay- 
 ette, in 1791, "We must have the free navigation of 
 the Mississippi, and we surely will have it if we re- 
 main a nation." Everything depended on that — 
 peace, order, happiness, progress. He proposed to 
 send Hamilton to England. But by this time it had 
 become clear to him, that if he was to adminis- 
 ter the Government on the lines of the policy he had 
 marked out, he could only do it by the assistance of 
 those who believed in that policy and in him. Mr. 
 Jefferson had diverged so far from the President that 
 both became convinced that it was wisest to sever 
 official relations. The Secretary of State resigned, 
 
314 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 and Mr. Randolph, the Attorney-General, was pro- 
 moted to the place. After a short service Randolph 
 retired, on account of some captured dispatches sent 
 by the French minister to his Government, reflecting 
 on Randolph's official conduct, and sent by the cap- 
 tors to the British minister at Philadelphia. Washing- 
 ton offered the portfolio to Thomas Johnson, his old 
 partner in the Ohio and Potomac Companies, who 
 had nominated him for commander in chief, who 
 had been the first State Governor of Maryland, and 
 filled the place of Associate Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, until forced to resign by 
 ill health. He urged Johnson to accept the duty, for, 
 said he, " there has never been a time in which the 
 services of tried friends of the Government were as 
 much needed as they are now." Johnson, though a 
 younger man than Washington by some months, in- 
 sisted that his age relieved him from the duty and 
 incapacitated him for the labor, and so declined. He 
 then invited Patrick Henry to take the place, and 
 upon his declining, offered it to Timothy Pickering. 
 Pickering, in the Continental Congress, representing 
 Massachusetts, had been one of the coterie of which 
 the Adamses and James Lovell were members, who 
 criticised Washington's " Fabian policy " during the 
 war, and who always opposed his recommendations 
 for a regular army. He was not, therefore, bound to 
 the President by sentimental ties, but he was an able 
 man, a sincere patriot, and a convinced Federalist. 
 He believed the system of a Federal Union was wise, 
 was strong, and could be successfully operated, and 
 would serve to maintain liberty. 
 
 Washington had directed Gouverneur Morris, who 
 was going to England on private business, to sound 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 315 
 
 the British Government unofficially as to when the 
 surrender of the Western posts might be expected, 
 the complete execution of the treaty would be car- 
 ried out and ministers interchanged, and as to the 
 feasibility of negotiating a commercial treaty. Mor- 
 ris made advances, was repelled with indifference 
 bordering on insolence, and reported that nothing 
 was to be done, except that they would send a min- 
 ister to the United States. In due time George 
 Hammond arrived, and almost immediately opened 
 a spirited correspondence with Mr. Jefferson con- 
 cerning Mr. Genet's notorious violation of treaty 
 rights by fitting out privateers in American ports to 
 prey upon the British. 
 
 The dismissal of Genet got matters into better 
 train, and Washington returned to his fixed purpose 
 to establish certain relations with Great Britain. If 
 she intended to live up to the treaty in good faith he 
 intended to know it. If she purposed to use it as 
 a cloak to cover designs of future aggression on 
 American commerce or the Western country, he in- 
 tended to know that. He was clear in his convic- 
 tion that the new nation could only vindicate its 
 right to live by being ready at all times to defend 
 that right by arms. A people that will not fight for 
 their rights have none, was his belief. 
 
 The proposition to send Hamilton as minister 
 plenipotentiary met with such an acrid opposition 
 from the Jeffersonian Democracy that he gave it up, 
 and selected John Jay, Chief-Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, a man of ability, spot- 
 less character, experience in affairs of learning, 
 and thoroughly imbued with the American ideas of 
 the President. Jay was a gentleman and an accom- 
 
3i6 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 plished man of the world, and was received with the 
 distinction due to his personal character, his social 
 standing, and his official position by the society of 
 London. He was presented, and kissed the Queen's 
 hand, which was denounced as a grave infraction of 
 republican principles by the Jeffersonians. 
 
 He negotiated a treaty which provided for the pay- 
 ment by the United States of debts due to British mer- 
 chants, as settled by arbitration, for surrender of the 
 Western posts on July i, 1796, and that Americans 
 should have the right to trade with the West Indies 
 on condition that they should not transport the pro- 
 ductions of those colonies to Europe. It secured the 
 right to trade direct with the colonies of Great 
 Britain in the East or the West, but excluded the 
 right to participate in the carrying trade between 
 those countries, and also between them and Europe. 
 The commercial clauses were entirely unsatisfactory 
 to the American aspiration for freer trade. They 
 felt already the pulsations of the growing vigor 
 which will in time make them lords of the seas; and 
 the seaboard, from Boston to Charleston, blazed 
 with indignant protests against the treaty, and was 
 lighted by the burning of John Jay's effigy. 
 
 Washington determined to sign the treaty, as the 
 best that could be done at that time, after the Sen- 
 ate had ratified it, on condition that the West India 
 article should be modified. But before anything 
 definite was done, the British Government, with 
 British insolence, put its own construction on the 
 unratified treaty by ordering the seizure of all ves- 
 sels carrying provisions to France or French terri- 
 tories and allies. That is, they declared the high seas 
 a mare clausum^ to be regulated and used at the will 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 31^7 
 
 of Great Britain. No such storm of popular indigna- 
 tion against any public act of public officials has ever 
 been raised in the United States as that exhibited 
 against Jay's Treaty. 
 
 Public meetings at Boston, at New York, at Balti- 
 more, at Richmond — presided over by Chancellor 
 Wythe, in Richmond, by Livingston in New York, 
 Rodney in Delaware, Christopher Gadsden and the 
 Rutledges in South Carolina — all denounced the sale 
 of American rights of free trade on the high seas. 
 Washington disapproved of the agreement, but it was 
 the best that could be done at that time. It settled 
 the question of the Western posts and the Western 
 country, that was extremely pressing and demanded 
 prompt settlement. 
 
 That other question of equal rights for American 
 commerce on the high seas, and freer trade with all 
 the world, his broad mind knew would settle itself in 
 time. If the United States became strong enough to 
 maintain its claim to rights by arms, they would be 
 conceded; if not, not. And it required another war 
 with Great Britain to settle the right, in which the 
 military genius of the American race was exhibited 
 on land and sea, and the right to a free flag estab- 
 lished, never to be questioned by any power which 
 shall ever arise in this world. The War of 1812 was 
 waged to resist the British claim to the right of 
 search and of impressment on the high seas. The 
 treaty of 1815 made peace between the belligerents, 
 without referring to the casus belli, but the right of 
 search and the right of impressment perished under 
 the thunder of American guns, and since then has 
 been as dead as the first Pharaoh. 
 
 Therefore, content to do what could be done, 
 
3i8 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 confident that the future could take care of itself, 
 immovable by popular clamor and impenetrable to 
 popular rage, on August i8, 1795, he signed the Jay 
 Treaty. The episode of the Jay Treaty was but an- 
 other illustration of the powerful intellect of Wash- 
 ington. His indomitable will had been known of all 
 men for the preceding twenty years. But the coun- 
 try needed peace — rest to grow ; that secured, every- 
 thing would be safe. The constant threat from the 
 Spaniard and the British was on the Western border. 
 
 At any moment Indian war might break out from 
 the Ohio to the Savannah. The counties of Ken- 
 tucky and Illinois would at once seize the British 
 posts on the lakes and the Spanish garrison at the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and the country be precipi- 
 tated into a war with Spain and Great Britain, insti- 
 gated by them through their savage agents. He 
 therefore took the step to guarantee peace and save 
 the Union. Maritime rights must settle themselves 
 in time. The creation of a great, large, wide-spread- 
 ing Americanism, which would obliterate petty local 
 jealousies and provincial narrowness, and would em- 
 brace the continent in its patriotism and the illimita- 
 ble future in its hope, was the most earnest desire of 
 Washington's heart. 
 
 He was the most direct man that ever lived, and 
 as clear-sighted. He saw as far and went as straight 
 to his object as any statesman of history. But he 
 was also gifted with an intuition into character and 
 motive which was almost unerring. He never made 
 a mistake about men but twice. He sometimes 
 did about policies. But his treatment of the Jay 
 controversy was an interesting exhibition of sagacity 
 and tact. The selectmen of Boston sent him the 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 319 
 
 burning protest of the town meeting against the 
 ratification of the treaty. He answered the whole 
 proceeding with a phrase. His reply to them is -X 
 dated, "United States, 28th of July, 1795." It is 
 the only instance in his whole life where he dated 
 any paper in this way. But the phrase told the 
 whole story: The United States to the town of Bos- 
 ton ; the grand, magnificent whole — custodian of the 
 happiness, the hopes, the aspirations of untold gen- 
 erations yet to be born — to the infinitesimal part, 
 about a question of present barter, exchange, and 
 trade. That was the thought he presented to the 
 world in the date of his letter to Boston. 
 
 Washington had been elected to the presidency a 
 second time by the unanimous vote of the electoral 
 colleges, and there was a general desire that he should 
 serve for a third term. But he felt that he had done 
 his duty, and earned his retirement from public life 
 and the enjoyment of domestic comfort. In Septem- 
 ber, 1796, he issued his farewell address — a paper un- 
 equaled in the language for grasp of intellect, for 
 patriotic sentiment, and for prophetic forecast. In 
 it he set forth the principles which had guided him 
 since the definitive Treaty of Peace had established 
 the United States. " Be united," he said, " be Ameri- 
 cans. . . . Observe justice and good faith toward all 
 nations, . . . and be independent politically of all. 
 In a word, be a nation, be Americans, and be true 
 to yourselves." The "nation" that he exhorted 
 them to form was a homogeneous race, controlling 
 geographical territory with the same political insti- 
 tutions, united by identity of descent, customs, tradi- 
 tions and principles. But Washington never dreamed 
 of a Nation which would obliterate State lines and 
 
320 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 local institutions, and reduce the historic States to 
 the status of counties. 
 
 He supported the administration of John Adams, 
 who succeeded him in 1797 as the lineal successor 
 to his policy. Adams sent Charles Cotesworth 
 Pinckney, John Marshall, and Elbridge Gerry as 
 ministers plenipotentiary to France, to negotiate a 
 treaty with the French Republic. The gentlemen of 
 the Directory demanded $6,400,000 from the United 
 States by way of loan to the Republic, and a bonus 
 of $250,000 to the Directory themselves. The Ameri- 
 can envoys spurned the demand with spirit. They 
 remained in Paris seeking to come to some under- 
 standing. The Directory emphasized their view of 
 the unreasonableness of the American position by 
 passing a decree subjecting to capture neutral ves- 
 sels and their cargoes if any portion of such cargoes 
 were of British manufacture. As the Americans 
 controlled the carrying trade of the world, this was 
 equivalent to a confiscation of their commerce. 
 
 Congress promptly authorized the President to 
 enlist ten thousand men as a provisional army to be 
 called into actual service in case of war. Adams 
 nominated Washington to be lieutenant general and 
 commander in chief of all the armies raised or to be 
 raised, on July 3, 1798, and he was confirmed the next 
 day. He was then sixty-six years and five months 
 old, a vigorous, hale man. He might have dis- 
 charged the duties of commander in chief in the field? 
 but the experiment was a doubtful one. He himself 
 was of the opinion that the senior generals of the last 
 war were too old for active service, and therefore 
 selected Alexander Hamilton for inspector general 
 and chief of staff, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 321 
 
 Henry Knox to have the rank of major generals in 
 the order named. 
 
 The view which Washington had taken concern- 
 ing the old generals was justified, as the exception 
 in favor of Knox was not, by the event. Knox re- 
 fused to serve under Hamilton and Pinckney, both 
 of whom he had ranked in the old army sixteen years 
 before. But Pinckney promptly accepted, with the 
 offer that, if it would reconcile General Knox, he 
 would give up second place to him and take the 
 junior rank himself. Early in November, 1798, 
 Washington went to Philadelphia to consult with his 
 two major generals and the Secretary of War. Five 
 weeks were spent on this work, and the result was 
 reduced to form by Hamilton, signed by Washing- 
 ton, and forwarded to the Secretary of War, James 
 McHenry. The organization of the army was per- 
 fected on paper. He proposed Alexander Hamil- 
 ton, inspector; Charles C. Pinckney, Henry Knox, 
 or, if either refuses, Henry Lee, with the rank of 
 major generals ; Henry Lee — if not a major general 
 — John Brooks, William S. Smith, or John E. Howard, 
 brigadiers ; Edward Hand, or Jonathan Dayton, or 
 William S. Smith, adjutant general ; Edward Carring- 
 ton, quartermaster general ; James Craik, director 
 of the hospital. Washington never believed that 
 there would be a French invasion. Acting on his life- 
 long principle, that the best way to prevent war was 
 to be prepared for it, he arranged for the collection 
 of his army, its organization and its mobilization. 
 The promptness with which the Americans took up 
 the glove satisfied the French. Their governors 
 were changed, and the new organization opened ne- 
 gotiations with the United States for a peaceful set- 
 
322 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 tlement. John Quincy Adams, then envoy to Paris, 
 made an amicable adjustment, and war was averted. 
 But Washington did not live to see the restoration 
 of peace. At Mount Vernon he was busy, since 
 his return from Philadelphia on the expiration of 
 his second term, in putting his farms in order, in 
 restoring his property, which had been greatly im- 
 paired in his twenty years' absence, and in arranging 
 his affairs generally. He erected a separate building 
 for the safe keeping of his papers, military and civil, 
 and employed a gentleman named Rawlins to record 
 his vast and extended correspondence. He also 
 gave to Tobias Lear, his old comrade and secretary, 
 charge of all his papers, and supervised him in ar- 
 ranging and docketing them. No stranger of dis- 
 tinction came to America without calling at Mount 
 Vernon to pay his respects to the greatest character 
 of the age, as was the common phrase — " to gratify 
 curiosity " was Washington's own word. They were 
 invariably invited to stay to dinner and to remain 
 overnight. The invitation was always accepted at 
 the giving, and the acceptance was the custom of the 
 country, and consequently the table of Mount Ver- 
 non from year's end to year's end was never without 
 guests. As was the custom with all country gentle- 
 men, Washington's work of the day was done in the 
 morning — the largest part before breakfast, the re- 
 mainder before noon. The host rises with the sun 
 and rides over the plantation in early morning, to see 
 that the machinery has been properly started and is 
 working smoothly. The guests meet first at breakfast. 
 That was and is the custom at Virginian country 
 houses on great estates. It prevails to-day at West- 
 over, just as it did at Belvoir before the war, and at 
 
THE UNION AND THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 323 
 
 Mount Vernon after the master had returned. The 
 morning of December 12, 1799, was overcast and 
 cloudy. He rode out as usual to make the rounds 
 of his farms and look after his servants and his 
 stock. By midday a light, powdery snow began to 
 fall, which soon changed into a cold, drizzling rain, 
 penetrating the clothes and pervading the lungs — 
 such a rain as is usual in the Chesapeake region at 
 that time of year. After being out two hours he 
 came in, and declined to change his clothes, for he 
 said they were dry, and had protected him perfectly. 
 The next day he went out again, and that night he 
 was taken with an acute sore throat — acute oedema- 
 tous laryngitis is now known to be the scientific 
 designation of it. Dr. James Craik, his comrade, 
 friend, and medical adviser, was called in, who ar- 
 rived with two other physicians. They bled him 
 and administered calomel, and he died the next day. 
 The medical treatment has been greatly criticised as 
 ignorant, barbarous, and the cause of his death. It 
 seems that this criticism is unjust, and the highest 
 authorities as specialists on diseases of the throat 
 of the present day say that the science and skill of 
 Washington's medical attendants were fully up to the 
 standard of medical knowledge in Virginia and in 
 America at that day. At this time the case would 
 be conducted differently, but it was treated with the 
 best knowledge that any one had at that time. He 
 had directed Colonel Lear that his body should not 
 be placed in the vault for three days after his death, 
 and the funeral took place on the i8th of December, 
 1799. It was attended by the militia. Free Masons 
 and corporation of Alexandria, and his many friends 
 from the neighborhood. 
 22 
 
324 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 The world stood uncovered out of respect for the 
 illustrious dead, and America mourned him as her 
 best-beloved son. He was the first, as he is still the 
 greatest, American. The Congress wore black dur- 
 ing the session. When the news of his death reached 
 England, Lord Bridport, who commanded sixty sail 
 of the line lying at Torbay, lowered his flag half 
 mast, every ship doing the same; and the First Con- 
 sul of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, in announcing 
 his death to the army in a general order, directed 
 that all the flags and standards of the armies of 
 France and service of the Republic should be draped 
 in crape for ten days. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 General Charles Lee was captured by a patrol of 
 thirty dragoons of Burgoyne's Regiment of Queen's Light 
 Dragoons (Sixteenth Regiment), commanded by Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Harcourt, after\vard Earl Harcourt. Banastre Tar- 
 leton was in charge of the advance of six men. Lee's party 
 and guard fired on the British horse, and several men 
 were killed or wounded, but Lee surrendered at once, and, 
 as all accounts agree, in the most pusillanimous manner. 
 He was considered a deserter in the British army, and he 
 was doubtful if his surrender would be accepted. Sir Wil- 
 liam Howe without doubt preferred to hang him, and only 
 Washington's firmness and Howe's law doubts gave Lee 
 reprieve until he could make his proposals for treachery. 
 The original paper in Lee's handwriting, found among the 
 papers of Sir Henry Strachey, endorsed " Mr. Lee's plan, 29th 
 March, 1777," has been sold at auction in New York since 
 this work went to press. It belonged to the estate of George 
 H. Moore, formerly Librarian of the New York Historical 
 Society, who published the evidence then known in the case 
 under the title, " The Treason of Charles Lee, Major General, 
 Second in Command in the American Army of the Revolu- 
 tion " (New York, i860), in which is reproduced in facsimile 
 the autograph "Plan of Mr. Lee." Mr. Lee's plan certainly 
 was adopted by General Howe in part, and in his move- 
 ment on Philadelphia, but more curious still, it seems to have 
 been the plan of the War Office of the British Government in 
 the War of i8i2-'i4 for the occupation of the line of the Po- 
 
326 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 tomac and the Chesapeake by the capture of Washington and 
 Baltimore. 
 
 "Mr. Lee's Plan — 29TH March, 1777. 
 
 "As on the one hand it appears to me that by the con- 
 tinuance of the War America has no chance of obtaining 
 the ends She proposes to herself; that altho by struggling 
 She may put the Mother Country to very serious expence 
 both in blood and Money, yet She must in the end, after 
 great desolation, havock and slaughter, be reduc'd to submit 
 to terms much harder than might probably be granted at 
 present — and as on the other hand Great Britain tho' 
 ultimately victorious, must suffer very heavily even in the 
 process of her victories, eveiy life lost and every guinea spent 
 being in fact worse than thrown away : it is only wasting her 
 own property, shedding her own blood and destroying her 
 own strength ; and as I am not only persuaded from the high 
 opinion I have of the humanity and good sense of Lord and 
 General Howe that the terms of accommodation will be as 
 moderate as their powers will admit, but that their powers 
 are more ample than their Successors (shou'd any accident 
 happen) wou'd be vested with, I think myself not only justi- 
 fiable but bound in conscience to furnish all the lights, I can, 
 to enable 'em to bring matters to a conclusion in the most 
 compendious manner and consequently the least expensive to 
 both Parties — 1 do this with the more readiness as I know 
 the most generous use will be made of it in all respects — their 
 humanity will incline 'em to have consideration for Indi- 
 viduals who have acted from Principle and theif good sense 
 will tell 'em that the more moderate are the general condi- 
 tions ; the more solid and permanent wdll be the union for if 
 the conditions were extremely repugnant to the general way 
 of thinking, it would be only the mere patchwork of a day 
 which the first breath of wind will discompose and the first 
 symptoms of a rupture betwixt the Bourbon Powers and Great 
 Britain absolutely overturn — but I really have no apprehensions 
 of this kind whilst Lord and General Howe have the direction 
 of affairs, and flatter myself that under their auspices an ac- 
 
 m 
 
APPENDIX. ^27 
 
 commodation may be built on so solid a foundation as not to 
 be shaken by any such incident— in this persuasion and on 
 these principles I shall most sincerely and zealously contrib- 
 ute all in my power to so desirable an end, and if no unto- 
 ward accidents fall out which no human foresight can guard 
 against I will answer with my life for the success. 
 
 "From my present situation and ignorance of certain 
 facts I am sensible that I hazard proposing things which can- 
 not without difficulties be comply 'd with; I can only act 
 from surmise, therefore hope allowances will be made for my 
 circumstances. I will suppose then that (exclusive of the 
 Troops requisite for the security of Rhode Island and N. 
 York) General Howe's Army (comprehending every species, 
 British, Hessians and Provincials) amounts to twenty thou- 
 shand men capable to take the field and act offensively ; by 
 which I mean to move to any part of the Continent where 
 occasion requires— I will suppose that the General's design 
 with this force is to clear the Jersey's and take possession of 
 Philadelphia— but in my opinion the taking possession of 
 Philadelphia will not have any decisive consequences— the 
 Congress and People adhering to the Congress have already 
 made up their minds for the event; already They have'turn'd 
 their eyes to other places where They can fix their seat of 
 residence, carry on in some measure their Government ; in 
 short expecting this event They have devis'd measures for pro- 
 tracting the War in hopes of some favourable turn of afTairs 
 m Europe— the taking possession therefore of Philadelphia 
 or any or two Towns more, which the General may have in 
 view, will not be decisive— to bring matters to a conclusion, it 
 IS necessary to unhinge or dissolve, if I may so express my- 
 self, the whole system or machine of resistance, or in other 
 terms, Congress Government— this system or machine, as 
 affairs now stand, depends entirely on the circumstances and 
 disposition of the People of Maryland Virginia and Pennsyl- 
 vania—if the Province of Maryland or the greater part of it is 
 reduc'd or submits, and the People of Virginia are prevented 
 or intimidated from marching aid to the Pennsylvania Army 
 the whole machine is dissolv'd and a period put to the War, 
 
328 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 to accomplish which, is, the object of the scheme which I now 
 take the hberty of offering to the consideration of his Lordship 
 and the General, and if it is adopted in full I am so confident 
 of the success that I wou'd stake my life on the issue — I have 
 at the same time the comfort to reflect, that in pointing out 
 measures which I know to be the most effectual I point out 
 those which will be attended with no bloodshed or desolation 
 to the Colonies. As the difficulty of passing and of re-pass- 
 ing the North River and the apprehensions from General 
 Carleton's Army will I am confident keep the New Engend- 
 ers at home, or at least confine 'em to the East side the 
 River ; and as their Provinces are at present neither the seat of 
 Government strength nor Politicks I cannot see that any of- 
 fensive operations against these Provinces wou'd answer any 
 sort of Purpose — to secure N. York and Rhode Island 
 against their attacks will be sufficient. On the supposition 
 then, that General Howe's Army (including every species of 
 Troops) amounts to twenty or even eighteen thoushand men at 
 liberty to move to any part of the Continent; as fourteen 
 thoushand will be more than sufficient to clear the Jersey's 
 and take possession of Philadelphia, I wou'd propose that 
 four thoushand men be immediately embark'd in transports, 
 one half of which shou'd proceed up the Patomac and take 
 post at Alexandria, the other half up Chesepeak Bay and 
 possess themselves of Annapolis. They will most probably 
 meet with no opposition in taking possession of these Posts, 
 and when possess'd they are so very strong by nature that a 
 few hours work and some trifling artillery will secure them 
 against the attacks of a much greater force than can possibly 
 be brought down against them — their communication with 
 the shipping will be constant and sure— for at Alexandria 
 Vessels of a very considerable burthen (of five or six hundred 
 Tons for instance) can lie in close to the shore, and at Annapo- 
 lis within musket shot — all the necessaries and refreshments 
 for an Army are near at hand, and in the greatest abundance — 
 Kent Island will supply that of Annapolis and every part on 
 both banks of the Patomac that of Alexandria. These Posts 
 may with ease support each other, as it is but two easy days 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 329 
 
 march from one to the other, and if occasion requires by a 
 single days march, They may join * and conjunctly carry on 
 their operations wherever it shall be thought eligible to direct 
 'em ; whether to take possession of Baltimore or post them- 
 selves on some spot on the Westward bank of the Susque- 
 hanna which is a point of the utmost importance — but here I 
 must beg leave to observe that there is a measure which if 
 the General assents to and adopts will be attended with mo- 
 mentous and the most happy consequences — I mean that 
 from these Posts proclamations of pardon shou'd be issued to 
 all those who come in at a given day, and I will answer for it 
 with my life — that all the Inhabitants of that great tract south- 
 ward of the Patapsico and lying betwixt the Patomac and 
 Chesepeak Bay and those on the eastern Shore of Maryland 
 will immediately lay down their arms — but this is not all, I 
 am much mistaken if those potent and populous German dis- 
 tricts, Frederic County in Maryland and York in Pennsyl- 
 vania do not follow their example — These Germans are ex- 
 tremely numerous, and to a Man have hitherto been the 
 most staunch Assertors of the American cause ; but at the 
 same time are so remarkably tenacious of their property and 
 apprehensive of the least injury being done to their fine farms 
 that I have no doubt when They see a probability of their 
 Country becoming the seat of War They will give up all 
 opposition but if contrary to my expectations a force should 
 be assembled at Alexandria sufficient to prevent the Corps 
 detach'd thither from taking possession immediately of the 
 place, it will make no disadvantageous alteration, but rather 
 the reverse — a variety of spots near Alexandria on either bank 
 of the Patomac may be chosen for Posts equally well calcu- 
 lated for all the great purposes I have mention'd — viz — for 
 
 " * On the Road from Annapolis to Queen Anne there is one 
 considerable River to be. pass'd, but as the ships boats can easily 
 be brought round from the Bay to the usual place of passage or 
 Ferry, this is no impediment if the Two Corps chuse to unite 
 They may by a single days march either at Queen Annes or 
 Marlborough." 
 
330 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 the reduction or compulsion to submission of the whole Prov- 
 ince of Maryland for the preventing or intimidating Virginia 
 from sending aids to Pennsylvania — for in fact if any force is 
 assembled at Alexandria sufficient to oppose the Troops sent 
 against it, getting possession of it, it must be at the expence 
 of the more Northern Army, as they must be compos'd of 
 those Troops v^hich were otherwise destin'd for Pennsylvania 
 — to say all in a word, it will unhinge and dissolve the whole 
 system of defence. I am so confident of the event that I will 
 venture to assert with the penalty of my life if the plan is 
 fully adopted, and no accidents (such as a rupture betwixt 
 the Powers of Europe) intervenes that in less than two 
 months from the date of the proclamation not a spark of this 
 desolating war remains unextinguished in any part of the 
 Continent." 
 
 
INDEX 
 
 Accounts of Washington set- 
 tled, 276. 
 
 Adams, John, gg, loi. 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, 322. 
 
 Adams, Samuel, g4, 102, 125. 
 
 Admiralty courts, 87, 88, 8g. 
 
 Admiralty jurisdiction, gi, g3. 
 
 Aix la Chapelle, Treaty of, 35. 
 
 Alamance, battle of, 64. 
 
 Albany, congress at, 80. 
 
 Alexander, Sir William, 35. 
 
 Allerton, Major, 5. 
 
 Alliance, The French, 193 ; dis- 
 tasteful to Washington, 193, 
 ig4 ; entered into, 195. 
 
 Americanism of Washington, 
 299 ; his opinion of, 319. 
 
 Amherst, General, 120. 
 
 Andre captured ; tried by court- 
 martial ; Lafayette on the 
 court ; found guilty of being 
 a spy, and executed as a spy, 
 229, 230. 
 
 Annapolis, Washington resigns 
 his commission at, 278. 
 
 Arnold, Benedict, 109 ; at Sara- 
 toga, 178 ; badly treated by 
 Congress, 218 ; put in com- 
 mand of Philadelphia, 2ig ; 
 
 marries Miss Shippen, 223 ; 
 passed over by Congress 
 in promotion, 222 ; charges 
 against, preferred by Reed, 
 222 ; intrigue with Andre, 
 225 ; found guilty and sen- 
 tenced to be reprimanded in 
 orders, 226 ; assigned to com- 
 mand West Point ; arranges 
 to sell the post to Sir Henry 
 Clinton, 227. 
 Assistance, writ of, go. 
 
 Ball, Mary, her family and edu- 
 cation, g. 
 
 Bayard, John, I5g. 
 
 Beaujeu, De, 4g. 
 
 Berkeley, Sir William, investi- 
 gates massacre at Piscata- 
 way, 7. 
 
 Board of War, 185. 
 
 Boston port bill, g8 ; massacre, 
 g8 ; evacuated, 117. 
 
 Braddock, Major-General Ed- 
 ward, 39 ; his council of war, 
 3g ; appoints Washington aid- 
 de-camp, 41 ; marches from 
 Cumberland, 46 ; killed, 54. 
 
 Brandywine, battle of, 164. 
 
332 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Brooklyn Heights, battle of, 141. 
 
 Brooks, John, brigadier gen- 
 eral, 321. 
 
 Burgoyne, Sir John, 146 ; his 
 surrender, 178. 
 
 Byrd, Colonel William, 18. 
 
 Cadwalader, John, 159. 
 
 Camden, battle of, 243. 
 
 Carleton, General Sir Guy, 121, 
 145, 272. 
 
 Carrington, Edward, quarter- 
 master general, 321. 
 
 Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 
 
 95. 
 
 Carroll, John, Provincial of the 
 Society of Jesus, loi. 
 
 Carter, Landon, 161. 
 
 Caswell, Richard, 95 ; defeats 
 McDonald, 118. 
 
 Cavalier theory of life, 137. 
 
 Champlain, line of Lake, 120. 
 
 Charles II, King of Maryland, 
 62. 
 
 Chatham, Earl of, 123. 
 
 Clark, George Rogers, 209 ; 
 conquers the Northwest, 210. 
 
 Clinton, George, Governor of 
 New York, 182. 
 
 Clinton, Sir HeJiry, 121, 139, 
 140 ; succeeds Sir William 
 Howe in command, 195 ; at- 
 tacks Savannah, 241 ; captures 
 Charleston, 241. 
 
 Confederation impossible until 
 Virginia gave up the Western 
 lands, 245 ; reasons why, 245, 
 246 ; weakness of, 285. 
 
 Congress at Albany, 80 ; at New 
 
 York, 82 ; at Philadelphia, 
 
 77. 
 
 "Congress's Own," ill, 285. 
 
 Connecticut regiments, panic of, 
 142. 
 
 Conococheague, 44. 
 
 Constitution, Washington's in- 
 fluence in framing it and hav- 
 ing it adopted, 297, 298. 
 
 Continental Congress called, 77 ; 
 corruption of, 183. 
 
 Contrecoeur, 29-32. 
 
 Convention at Annapolis, 295 ; 
 at Philadelphia, 295. 
 
 Conway cabal, 188, 189 ; Cad- 
 walader fights Conway about 
 it, 191 ; Washington's letter 
 to Conway, 189. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord, 146, 155 ; in 
 the South, 237, 239, 240 ; in 
 Virginia, 250 ; at York, 
 252. 
 
 County committees, 76. 
 
 Craik, James, director of the 
 hospital, 321. 
 
 Cresap, Michael, 109. 
 
 Crown Point captured, no. 
 
 Cumberland, 30-42. 
 
 Dayton, Jonathan A. G., 321. 
 
 De Barras, 254. 
 
 De Choise, 254. 
 
 D'Estaing, Count, 214. 
 
 De Fersen's description of Wash- 
 ington, 248. 
 
 De Grasse, 251, 252, 254, 
 
 De Guichen, 249. 
 
 De Kalb commands Maryland 
 and Delaware line, 242. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 333 
 
 Democrats, Mrs. Washington 
 
 and the, 310, 
 De Rochambeau arrives, 236 ; 
 
 arrives with an army and a 
 
 fleet, 247. 
 Dictator, Washington made, 156, 
 
 171. 
 Dinner napkins at Braddock's 
 
 rout, 51. 
 Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-Govern- 
 or, 27. 
 Dispatch of Howe's captured, 
 
 162. 
 Dorchester Heights occupied, 
 
 116. 
 Dunbar, Colonel, Forty-eighth 
 
 Regiment, 46. 
 Dunmore, Lord, 1 18-124. 
 
 Fairfax, Anne, marries Law- 
 rence Washington, 16. 
 Fairfax, Lord, 19. 
 Fairfax resolutions, 76. 
 First City Troop, 106. 
 Flag, first Continental, 107. 
 Florida, Blanca proposes peace, 
 
 244. 
 France, colonies to supply men 
 
 and money for war with, 37. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, threatens 
 
 the Pennsylvanians with " The 
 
 Hussars," 44. 
 Fraunce's Tavern, Washington 
 
 takes leave of his officers at 
 
 276. 
 Frazier, Lieutenant, 29. 
 Frederick, County Court of, re- 
 pudiates stamp act, 65. 
 French as allies, not as leaders, 
 
 232 ; depredations on Amer- 
 ican commerce, 320. 
 Fry, Colonel, 27, 28. 
 
 Gadsden, Christopher, 95-101. 
 
 Gage, Lieutenant-Colonel, 46, 
 47 ; at Boston, 98 ; evacuates, 
 117. 
 
 Gates, General Horatio, 156 ; 
 assigned to the Army of the 
 North, 176 ; member Board of 
 War, 186 ; president Board of 
 War, 186 ; assigned to com- 
 mand in the South, 242. 
 
 Genet, French minister, issues 
 letters of marque, 307 ; prog- 
 ress through the country, 307 ; 
 fits out La Petite Democrat 
 and sends her to sea, 308 ; re- 
 called, 310. 
 
 Germaine, Lord George, cen- 
 sures the British generals, 
 
 195. 
 Germantown, battle of, 168. 
 Gerry, Elbridge, sent to France, 
 
 320. 
 Gimat, Major, 257. 
 Graves, Admiral, 254, 255. 
 Grayson at Monmouth, 201. 
 Great Bridge, battle of, 118. 
 Greene, Nathanael, 109, 161 ; 
 
 quartermaster general, 192; at 
 
 Monmouth, 202 ; sent South, 
 
 237. 
 
 Halkett, Colonel Sir Peter, of 
 44th, 43; killed, 57; brigade 
 major, killed, 57. 
 
 Hancock, John, 183. 
 
334 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 Hand, Edward, adjutant gen- 
 eral, 321. 
 Hamilton, Alexander, sent to 
 
 Gates, 179 ; at Yorktown, 256 ; 
 
 Secretary of Treasury, 300 ; 
 
 Chief of Staff and Inspector 
 
 General, 320. 
 Hazen's Canadian regiment, 
 
 252. 
 Heath, General, at West Point, 
 
 252. 
 Henry's, Patrick, defiance, 86 ; 
 
 Governor of Virginia, 182 ; 
 
 the Conway cabal, 189. 
 Hillsborough, Gates at, 242. 
 Hobby, William, 13. 
 Howard, John E., brigadier 
 
 general, 321. 
 Howe, Lord, 114. 
 Howe, Sir William, 114 ; sails 
 
 from New York, 162 ; returns 
 
 to England to defend himself 
 
 against Lord George Ger- 
 
 maine's attacks, 195. 
 Hunting Creek, Mount Vernon, 
 
 II, 12. 
 
 Illinois, County of, 210, 245. 
 Independence, movement to- 
 
 wai-d, 118. 
 Irving, Washington, viii. 
 
 Jacobitism on the Chesapeake, 
 61. 
 
 Jay, John, 183 ; Chief Justice, 
 315 ; minister to England, 
 315 ; negotiates a treaty, 316; 
 treaty denounced, 317 ; Wash- 
 ington signs it, 318. 
 
 Jefferson, Governor of Virginia, 
 246 ; Secretary of State, 300. 
 
 Johnson, Thomas, father, a 
 Jacobite, 61 ; nominated 
 Washington, 95, 101-104 ; 
 Governor of Maryland, 182 ; 
 Secretary of State, 314. 
 
 Jumonville killed, 31. 
 
 Jury, trial by, 87. 
 
 Kentucky, County of, 300. 
 
 Knox, Henry, 109, 161 ; Secre- 
 tary of War, 300 ; refuses to 
 serve as major general, 321. 
 
 Lafayette goes to France for 
 Washington, 235, 247. 
 
 Langlade's, Charles de, French 
 account of Braddock's defeat, 
 48. 
 
 Laurens, Henry, 268. 
 
 Laurens, John, President of 
 Congress, 189. 
 
 Lear, Tobias, secretary, 322. 
 
 Lee, Henry, major, captures 
 Paulus Hook, 236 ; his legion 
 sent South, 250 ; major gen- 
 eral, 321. 
 
 Lee, Major-General Charles, 
 106-114, 147, 156, 198 ; his 
 capture, 148 ; " plan " of, 148, 
 vide Appendix, 325 ; treason 
 of, 199 ; at Monmouth, 202 ; 
 court-martialed and found 
 guilty, 204 ; dismissed from 
 the army by Congress, 204 ; 
 fights Colonel John Laurens, 
 aid-de-camp to Washington, 
 205. 
 
 Lee, R. H., 95 ; moves for in- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 335 
 
 dependence, 130 ; friendship 
 
 for Washington, 235. 
 Light Horse, troop of, 158. 
 Lincoln, General Benjamin, 161 ; 
 
 loses Charleston, 236. 
 Littlepage, Colonel Lewis, 18. 
 Lovell, James, 189. 
 Lowland beauty, 67. 
 
 Manifest destiny, log. 
 
 Marshall, Chief-Justice, viii ; 
 sent to France, 320. 
 
 Maryland in the Revolution, 
 127 ; declares independence, 
 130 ; line at Camden, 243 ; 
 joins the confederation, 286. 
 
 Mason's, George, ancestor a 
 Jacobite, 61 ; friendship for 
 Washington, 75 ; opposed to 
 disunion, 94. 
 
 McDonald, Donald, defeated, 
 118. 
 
 McDowell, plan of the first bat- 
 tle of Manassas, 212. 
 
 McHenry, James, Secretary of 
 War, 321. 
 
 Meadows, Great, 31. 
 
 Meadows, Little, 30. 
 
 Mecklenburg declares inde- 
 pendence, 128. 
 
 Meeting of officers of the army, 
 
 273. 
 
 Mercer, Hugh, General, 57 ; 
 killed, 154. 
 
 Mifflin, quartermaster general 
 and President Board of War, 
 185. 
 
 Monmouth, Court-House, bat- 
 tle of, 200. 
 
 Monongahela, battle of, 47. 
 
 Montgomery, Richard, 110,208. 
 Montreal captured, no. 
 Moore's Creek, battle of, 118. 
 Morgan, Daniel, 109, 163, 238. 
 Morgan, Jacob, 159. 
 Morris, Gouverneur, 314. 
 Morris, Robert, 268. 
 Moultrie, William, 139. 
 Mount Vernon, 12. 
 Murray, Mrs., lunches Sir Wil- 
 liam Howe, 142. 
 Muse, Battaille, 23. 
 Mutiny in 1778-79, 234. 
 
 Necessity, Fort, useless, 31 ; 
 surrender of, 33. 
 
 Neutrality, proclamation of, 306. 
 
 New England, the rising of, 
 176. 
 
 Newport occupied, 215 ; Sulli- 
 van's attack on, 215 ; failure 
 of French co-operation at, 215. 
 
 New York, Congress at, 82. 
 
 Nicola, Colonel Lewis, 271. 
 
 O'Hara, General, surrenders the 
 British army at Yorktown, 
 262. 
 
 Otis, James, 99. 
 
 Oxford, Virginians at, 13. 
 
 Pakenham, Sir Edward M., ix. 
 Paris, Treaty of, 58. 
 Parke, Colonel John, 18. 
 Parker, Sir Peter, 140. 
 Patton at Monmouth, 20. 
 Paulus Hook, Henry Lee cap- 
 tures, 236. 
 Peace, treaty of, 275 ; pro- 
 
336 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 claimed in general orders, 
 
 275. 
 
 Peters, Richard, on Board of 
 War, 186. 
 
 Philadelphia occupied, 167 ; 
 evacuation of, 195. 
 
 Pickering, Timothy, Board of 
 War, 186. 
 
 Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 
 95 ; sent to France, 320 ; ma- 
 jor general, 321. 
 
 Pinckney, Thomas, negotiates 
 treaty with Spain, 310. 
 
 Piscataway, massacre at, 5. 
 
 Pope, Anne, marries John Wash- 
 ington, 9. 
 
 Potomac Company, 289, 292 ; 
 compact, 291, 293. 
 
 Prescott, Edward, 2. 
 
 Princeton, battle of, 154. 
 
 Pulaski killed at Savannah, 241. 
 
 Puritan theory of life, 136. 
 
 Putnam, Israel, 109. 
 
 Quebec Act offensive to the 
 colonies, loi, 209. 
 
 Rahl attacks White Plains, 143. 
 
 Ramsay, Nathaniel, at Mon- 
 mouth, 201. 
 
 Randolph, Edmund, member of 
 Congress, loi ; attorney gen- 
 eral, 300. 
 
 Randolph, Peyton, President of 
 Congress, 100. 
 
 Randolph's, Sir John, forged 
 Washington letters, 185. 
 
 Rebellion, status of, 119. 
 
 Rebels defined by Washington, 
 113- 
 
 Rhode Island captures the Gas- 
 
 pe, 64. 
 Roman Catholics, hatred of, 37, 
 
 58, 59- 
 Rush's, Benjamin, anonymous 
 
 letter to Patrick Henry and 
 
 Laurens, 189. 
 Rutledge, John, 139. 
 
 St. Clair, Sir John, 42-57. 
 
 St. Simon, Marquis de, 254. 
 
 Self-defense, right of, 206. 
 
 Shako of British grenadier ruin- 
 ous, 42. 
 
 Shay's rebellion, 302. 
 
 Shirley, William, killed, 57. 
 
 Smith, William S., brigadier 
 general, 321. 
 
 Smuggling in New England, 60. 
 
 Stamp Act, 79, 85 ; repudiated 
 in Maryland, 165 ; and in 
 South Carolina, 89. 
 
 Stamp officer for Maryland a 
 fugitive, 89. 
 
 Stark, John, 109. 
 
 Stedman's opinion of Washing- 
 ton, 155. 
 
 Stephen, General Adam, 161. 
 
 Steuben, Von, drills the army, 
 196. 
 
 Stirling, Lord, 141-161, 252 ; 
 at Monmouth, 202. 
 
 Stony Point, Wayne captures, 
 236. 
 
 Strategy of the war, 134 ; of the 
 Revolution, 207, 210, 211. 
 
 Sullivan, General John, 161, 170; 
 quarrels with the French at 
 Newport, 231. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 337 
 
 Tarleton, Colonel Bannastre, 
 241 ; raid to Charlottesville, 
 251. 
 
 Tax on tea, 94, 96 ; thrown over- 
 board at Boston, 97 ; vessel 
 with tea, the Peggy Stewart, 
 burned at Annapolis, 97. 
 
 Taxation without representa- 
 tion, 63, 64. 
 
 Ticonderoga captured, 110. 
 
 Tilghman, Mathew, loi. 
 
 Tilghman, Tench — his ride, car- 
 rying the news to Congress, 
 263. 
 
 Tories, the, 224 ; in the Middle 
 States and the South, 288-311. 
 
 Treasons, Statute of, 87. 
 
 Trent, Captain, 29. 
 
 Trenton, surprise of, 151 ; sec- 
 ond battle of, 151. 
 
 Truman, Major, trial of, 7. 
 
 Trumbull, Jonathan, 157. 
 
 Trumbull, Joseph, ex-Commis- 
 sary-General on Board of 
 War, 186. 
 
 Union, projects for, 80 ; neces- 
 sity for, 81, 82 ; Washington 
 moves for, 296 ; necessity for, 
 313. 
 
 Valley Forge, 182 ; troops at, 
 182. 
 
 Van Braam, Jacob, 23, 33. 
 
 Varnum, of Rhode Island, 180. 
 
 Venango, 26. 
 
 Vergennes declines to co-operate 
 with Florida Blanca in forc- 
 ing peace on the basis of the 
 uti possidetis^ 244. 
 
 Viomenil, Baron de, 254 ; at 
 
 Yorktown, 258. 
 Virginia club at Edinburgh, 18. 
 Virginia proposes independence, 
 
 130. 
 Virginians, extravagance of, 17 ; 
 
 culture of, 18. 
 
 Wadsv/orth, Jeremiah, commis- 
 sary general, 192. 
 
 Ward, General Artemas, 114, 
 183. 
 
 Washington, Augustine, marries 
 Jane Butler and Mary Ball, 
 9-10. 
 
 Washington, Fort, capture of, 
 144. 
 
 Washington, George, bom, 10 ; 
 a typical Virginian, 19 ; sur- 
 veyor for Lord Fairfax, 21 ; 
 county surveyor, 22 ; goes to 
 Barbadoes, 22 ; assistant ad- 
 jutant general Northern Dis- 
 trict of Virginia, 23 ; envoy to 
 Indians on the Ohio, 25 ; pro- 
 moted lieutenant colonel, 27; 
 attacks and kills Jumonville, 
 31 ; resigns, 38 ; aid-de-camp 
 to Braddock as captain, 41 ; 
 conduct in battle, 54 ; rides 
 to bring up Dunbar, 55 ; mar- 
 ries Martha Dandridge Custis, 
 69 ; as vestryman, 74 ; dele- 
 gate to Congress, 77 ; appoint- 
 ed commander in chief, 105 ; 
 marches the army to New 
 York, 122 ; favors independ- 
 ence, 132 ; as a letter-writer, 
 139 ; evacuates Long Island, 
 141 ; resigns his commission, 
 
338 
 
 GENERAL WASHINGTON. 
 
 267 ; president of the Consti- 
 tutional Convention, 295 ; his 
 influence there, 296 ; Presi- 
 dent, 298 ; Adams appoints 
 him lieutenant general and 
 commander in chief, 320 ; 
 death of, 323. 
 
 "Washington, John, 2. 
 
 Washington, Lawrence, marries 
 Mildred Warner, 9. 
 
 Washington, Lawrence, marries 
 Anne Fairfax, 11. 
 
 Washington, Mary Ball, man- 
 agement of her children and 
 their estates, 12. 
 
 Washingtons of Virginia, the, i. 
 
 Wayne goes to Virginia, 250. 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, ix. 
 
 Western lands, value of, 207. 
 
 Wharton, President of Pennsyl- 
 vania, 180, 
 
 Whisky insurrection, 303. 
 
 White Plains, battle of, 143. 
 
 Wilkinson, James, chief of staff 
 for Gates, 187 ; carries report 
 of Burgoyne's surrender to 
 Congress, 187 ; tells Stirling's 
 staff that the Board of War was 
 going to supersede Washing- 
 ton with Gates, 188 ; tells of 
 Conway's letter to Gates, 
 188. 
 
 Williams, Thomas, 14. 
 
 Wills Creek, 28. 
 
 Wilson, James Grant, ix-x. 
 
 Witch trial by Prescott, 3. 
 
 Yorktown, in Virginia — Corn- 
 wallis reaches there, 252 ; Con- 
 tinental troops there, 252 ; 
 French troops there, 252; army 
 marches to, 252 ; De Grasse 
 re-enforces Lafayette there, 
 254 ; troops at, 256 ; siege of, 
 256 ; assault at, 256 ; capitula- 
 tion of, 261, 262. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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