Chapter CDLI: Act 8: Parliament 1. repeated in Act 99. Parliament 7 (48)

Many explanations have been given, of which some at least
appear the outgrowth of personal likings and dislikings. It is
certain that Jefferson was not only preëminently fitted for
the very difficult task of this peculiar composition, but also
that he was a man without an enemy. His abstinence from any
active share in debate had saved him from giving irritation;
and it is a truth not to be concealed, that there were cabals,
bickerings, heart-burnings, perhaps actual enmities among the
members of that famous body, which, grandly as it looms up,
and rightly too, in the mind's eye, was after all composed of
jarring human ingredients. It was well believed that there was
a faction opposed to Washington, and it was generally
suspected that irascible, vain, and jealous John Adams, then
just rising from the ranks of the people, made in this matter
common cause with the aristocratic Virginian Lees against
their fellow-countrymen. … So it is likely enough that a
timely illness of Lee's wife was a fortunate excuse for
passing him by, and that partly by reason of admitted
aptitude, partly because no risk could be run of any
interference of personal feelings in so weighty a matter,
Jefferson was placed first on the committee, with the natural
result of doing the bulk of its labor.
{3234}
On July 1, pursuant to assignment, Congress, in committee of
the whole, resumed consideration of Mr. Lee's resolution, and
carried it by the votes of nine colonies. South Carolina and
Pennsylvania voted against it. The two delegates from Delaware
were divided. Those from New York said that personally they
were in favor of it and believed their constituents to be so,
but they were hampered by instructions drawn a twelvemonth
since and strictly forbidding any action obstructive of
reconciliation, which was then still desired. The committee
reported, and then Edward Rutledge moved an adjournment to the
next day, when his colleagues, though disapproving the
resolution, would probably join in it for the sake of
unanimity. This motion was carried, and on the day following
the South Carolinians were found to be converted; also a third
member 'had come post from the Delaware counties' and caused
the vote of that colony to be given with the rest;
Pennsylvania changed her vote; and a few days later the
Convention of New York approved the resolution, 'thus
supplying the void occasioned by the withdrawing of her
delegates from the vote.' On the same day, July 2, the House
took up Mr. Jefferson's draft of the Declaration, and debated
it during that and the following day and until a late hour on
July 4. Many verbal changes were made, most of which were
conducive to closer accuracy of statement, and were
improvements. Two or three substantial amendments were made by
the omission of passages; notably there was stricken out a
passage in which George III. was denounced for encouraging the
slave-trade. … No interpolation of any consequence was made.
Jefferson had ample cause to congratulate himself upon this
event of the discussion. … He himself spoke not a word in the
debate. … The burden of argument, from which Jefferson wisely
shrank, was gallantly borne by John Adams, whom Jefferson
gratefully called 'the colossus of that debate.' Jefferson
used afterward to take pleasure in tingeing the real solemnity
of the occasion with a coloring of the ludicrous. The debate,
he said, seemed as though it might run on interminably, and
probably would have done so at a different season of the year.
But the weather was oppressively warm, and the room occupied
by the deputies was hard by a stable, whence the hungry flies
swarmed thick and fierce, alighting on the legs of the
delegates and biting hard through their thin silk stockings.
Treason was preferable to discomfort, and the members voted
for the Declaration and hastened to the table to sign it and
escape from the horse-fly. John Hancock, making his great
familiar signature, jestingly said that John Bull could read
that without spectacles; then, becoming more serious, began to
impress on his comrades the necessity of their 'all hanging
together in this matter.' 'Yes, indeed,' interrupted Franklin,
'we must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang
separately.' … Amid such trifling, concealing grave thoughts,
Jefferson saw his momentous document signed at the close of
that summer afternoon."

_J. T. Morse, Jr.,
Thomas Jefferson,
chapter 3._

"The statements relative to signing the Declaration are
conflicting. Jefferson states that it was signed generally on
the 4th (Memoirs i, 94), and he in other places reiterates
this statement, but this manuscript is not known to be extant.
… According to the journals, Congress, on the 19th of July,
resolved that the 'declaration, passed on the 4th, be fairly
engrossed on parchment, with the title and style of "The
unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of
America," and that the same, when engrossed, be signed by
every member of Congress.' On the 2d day of August, the
journals say, 'The Declaration being engrossed, and compared
at the table, was signed by the members.' … This manuscript is
preserved in the office of the Secretary of State."

_R. Frothingham,
The Rise of the Republic,
page 545 and foot-note._

"Because statesmen like Dickinson and communities like
Maryland were slow in believing that the right moment for a
declaration of independence had come, the preposterous theory
has been suggested that the American Revolution was the work
of an unscrupulous and desperate minority, which, through
intrigue mingled with violence, succeeded in forcing the
reluctant majority to sanction its measures. Such a
misconception has its root in an utter failure to comprehend
the peculiar character of American political life, like the
kindred misconception which ascribes the rebellion of the
colonies to a sordid unwillingness to bear their due share of
the expenses of the British Empire. It is like the
misunderstanding which saw an angry mob in every town-meeting
of the people of Boston, and characterized as a 'riot' every
deliberate expression of public opinion. No one who is
familiar with the essential features of American political
life can for a moment suppose that the Declaration of
Independence was brought about by any less weighty force than
the settled conviction of the people that the priceless
treasure of self-government could be preserved by no other
means. It was but slowly that this unwelcome conviction grew
upon the people; and owing to local differences of
circumstances it grew more slowly in some places than in
others. Prescient leaders, too, like the Adamses and Franklin
and Lee, made up their minds sooner than other people. Even
those conservatives who resisted to the last, even such men as
John Dickinson and Robert Morris, were fully agreed with their
opponents as to the principle at issue between Great Britain
and America, and nothing would have satisfied them short of
the total abandonment by Great Britain of her pretensions to
impose taxes and revoke charters. Upon this fundamental point
there was very little difference of opinion in America. As to
the related question of independence, the decision, when once
reached, was everywhere alike the reasonable result of free
and open discussion; and the best possible illustration of
this is the fact that not even in the darkest days of the war
already begun did any state deliberately propose to reconsider
its action in the matter. The hand once put to the plough,
there was no turning back."

_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 4 (volume 1). _

ALSO IN:
_G. Bancroft,
History of the United States
(Author's last revision),
volume 4, chapter 28._

_H. S. Randall,
Life of Jefferson,
volume 1, chapter 5._

_C. F. Adams,
Life of John Adams,
chapter 4._

_J. Madison,
Papers,
volume 1, pages 9-27._

_J. Sanderson,
Biographies of the Signers of the Declaration._

See, also, INDEPENDENCE HALL.

{3235}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Text of the Declaration of Independence.

The following is the text of the great manifesto:

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for
one people to dissolve the political bands which have
connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of
the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of
Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the
causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these
truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the
pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments
are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the
People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new
Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most
likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed,
will dictate that Governments long established should not be
changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all
experience hath shown, that mankind are more disposed to
suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when
a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off
such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future
security.—Such has been the patient sufferance of these
Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them
to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of
the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated
injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the
establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world. He has
refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary
for the public good. He has forbidden his Governors to pass
Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in
their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when
so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. He
has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the
right of Representation in the Legislature, a right
inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. He has
called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public
Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into
compliance with his measures. He has dissolved Representative
Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his
invasions on the rights of the people. He has refused for a
long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be
elected; whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their
exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all
the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States;
for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of
Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their
migration hither, and raising the conditions of new
Appropriations of Lands. He has obstructed the Administration
of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing
Judiciary Powers. He has made Judges dependent on his Will
alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and
payment of their salaries. He has erected a multitude of New
Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our
People, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in
times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our
legislature. He has affected to render the Military
independent of and superior to the Civil Power. He has
combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving
his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: For
quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: For
protecting them, by a mock Trial, from Punishment for any
Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these
States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing taxes on us without our Consent: For depriving us
in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury: For
transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended
offences: For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a
neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary
government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at
once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same
absolute rule into these Colonies: For taking away our
Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering
fundamentally the Forms of our Governments: For suspending our
own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with Power
to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. He has abdicated
Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and
waging War against us. He has plundered our seas, ravaged our
Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our
people. He is at this time transporting large armies of
foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation
and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty &
perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and
totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation. He has
constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas
to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners
of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their
Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and
has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers,
the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is
an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and
conditions. In every stage of these Oppressions We have
Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated
Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A
Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may
define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free People.
Nor have We been wanting in attention to our Brittish
brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by
their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over
us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our
emigration and settlement here.
{3236}
We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and
we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to
disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt
our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to
the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore,
acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation,
and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War,
in Peace Friends. We, therefore, the Representatives of the
united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled,
appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude
of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the
good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare,
That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free
and 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; and that as Free and
Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude
Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right
do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm
reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually
pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred
Honor.

John Hancock.
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett,
Wm. Whipple,
Matthew Thornton.
Massachusetts Bay
Saml. Adams, John Adams, Robt. Treat Paine,
Elbridge Gerry.
Rhode Island
Step. Hopkins, William Ellery.
Connecticut.
Roger Sherman, Sam'el Huntington, Wm. Williams,
Oliver Wolcott.
New York
Wm. Floyd, Phil. Livingston, Frans. Lewis, Lewis Morris.
New Jersey
Richd. Stockton, Jno. Witherspoon, Fras. Hopkinson,
John Hart, Abra. Clark.
Pennsylvania
Robt. Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benja. Franklin, John Morton,
Geo. Clymer, Jas. Smith, Geo. Taylor, James Wilson,
Geo. Ross.
Delaware.
Cæsar Rodney, Geo. Read, Tho. M'Kean.
Maryland
Samuel Chase, Wm. Paca, Thos. Stone,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton.
Virginia.
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Th Jefferson,
Benja. Harrison, Thos. Ne]son, jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee,
Carter Braxton.
North Carolina.
Wm. Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn.
South Carolina.
Edward Rutledge, Thos. Heyward, Junr.,
Thomas Lynch, Junr., Arthur Middleton.
Georgia.
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, Geo. Walton."

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Constitutional effect of the Declaration of Independence.

"The Declaration of Independence did not create thirteen
sovereign states, but the representatives of the people
declared that the former English colonies, under the name
which they had assumed of the United States of America,
became, from the 4th day of July, 1776, a sovereign state and
a member of the family of nations, recognized by the law of
nations; and further, that the people would support their
representatives with their blood and treasure, in their
endeavor to make this declaration a universally recognized
fact. Neither congress nor the people relied in this upon any
positive right belonging either to the individual colonies
or to the colonies as a whole. Rather did the Declaration of
Independence and the war destroy all existing political jural
relations, and seek their moral justification in the right of
revolution inherent in every people in extreme emergencies. …
Political theories had nothing to do with this development of
things. It was the natural result of given circumstances and
was an accomplished fact before anyone thought of the legal
consequences which might subsequently be deduced from it."

_H. von Holst,
Constitutional and Political History of the United States,
volume 1, chapter 1._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (July).
Independence declared in New Jersey
and Governor Franklin arrested.

See NEW JERSEY: A. D. 1774-1776.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (August).
The struggle for New York and the Hudson.
Battle of Long Island.

"Washington had been informed, early in January, that General
Sir Henry Clinton had sailed from Boston, with a considerable
body of troops, on a secret expedition. Apprehending that the
city of New York was his destination, he immediately
dispatched General Charles Lee to Connecticut to raise troops,
and to proceed to that city to watch and oppose Clinton
wherever he might attempt to land. Six weeks before the
evacuation of Boston [March 17, 1776], Lee had encamped near
New York with twelve hundred militia. Already the Sons of
Liberty had been busy, and overt acts of rebellion had been
committed by them. They had seized the cannons at Fort George,
and driven Tryon, the royal governor, on board the Asia, a
British armed vessel in the harbor. In March, Clinton arrived
at Sandy Hook, just outside New York harbor, and on the same
day, the watchful Lee providentially entered the city. The
movement, although without a knowledge of Clinton's position,
was timely, for it kept him at bay. Foiled in his attempt upon
New York, that commander sailed southward. … The destination
of Howe, when he left Boston, was also unknown to Washington.
Supposing he, too, would proceed to New York, he put the main
body of his army in motion toward that city, as soon as he had
placed Boston in a state of security. He arrived in New York
about the middle of April [April 14], and proceeded at once to
fortify the town and vicinity, and also the passes of the
Hudson Highlands, fifty miles above. In the mean while,
General Lee, who had been appointed to command the American
forces in the South, had left his troops in the charge of
General Lord Stirling [March 7], and was hastening toward the
Carolinas to watch the movements of Clinton, arouse the Whigs,
and gather an army there. … Pursuant to instructions, General
Howe proceeded toward New York, to meet General Clinton and
Parker's fleet. He left Halifax on the 11th of June, [1776],
and arrived at Sandy Hook on the 29th. On the 2d of July he
took possession of Staten Island, where he was joined by Sir
Henry Clinton [July 11], from the South, and his brother,
Admiral Lord Howe [July 12], with a fleet and a large land
force, from England. Before the first of August, other vessels
arrived with a part of the Hessian troops, and on that day,
almost 30,000 soldiers, many of them tried veterans, stood
ready to fall upon the republican army of 17,000 men, mostly
militia, which lay intrenched in New York and vicinity, less
than a dozen miles distant. The grand object in view was the
seizure of New York and the country along the Hudson, so as to
keep open a communication with Canada, separate the patriots of
New England from those of the other states, and to overrun the
most populous portion of the revolted colonies.
{3237}
This was the military plan, arranged by ministers. They had
also prepared instructions to their commanding generals, to be
pacific, if the Americans appeared disposed to submit. Lord
Howe and his brother, the general, were commissioned to 'grant
pardon to all who deserved mercy,' and to treat for peace, but
only on terms of absolute submission on the part of the
colonies, to the will of the King and parliament. After making
a foolish display of arrogance and weakness, in addressing
General Washington as a private gentleman, and being assured
that the Americans had been guilty of no offense requiring a
'pardon' at their hands, they prepared to strike an immediate
and effective blow. The British army was accordingly put in
motion on the morning of the 22d of August [1776], and during
that day, 10,000 effective men, and forty pieces of cannon,
were landed on the western end of Long Island, between the
present Fort Hamilton and Gravesend village. Already
detachments of Americans under General Sullivan, occupied a
fortified camp at Brooklyn, opposite New York, and guarded
seven passes on a range of hills which extend from the Narrows
to the village of Jamaica. When intelligence of the landing of
the invading army reached Washington, he sent General Putnam,
with large reinforcements, to take the chief command on Long
Island; and to prepare to meet the enemy. The American troops
on the island now [August 26], numbered about 5,000. The
British moved in three divisions. The left, under General
Grant, marched along the shore toward Gowanus; the right,
under Clinton and Cornwallis, toward the interior of the
island; and the center, composed chiefly of Hessians, under De
Heister, marched up the Flatbush road, south of the hills.
Clinton moved under cover of night, and before dawn on the
morning of the 27th, he had gained possession of the Jamaica
pass, near the present East New York. At the same time, Grant
was pressing forward along the shore of New York Bay, and at
day-break, he encountered Lord Stirling, where the monuments
of Greenwood cemetery now dot the hills. De Heister advanced
from Flatbush at the same hour, and attacked Sullivan, who,
having no suspicions of the movements of Clinton, was watching
the Flatbush Pass. A bloody conflict ensued, and while it was
progressing, Clinton descended from the wooded hills, by the
way of Bedford, to gain Sullivan's rear. As soon as the latter
perceived his peril, he ordered a retreat to the American
lines at Brooklyn. It was too late; Clinton drove him back
upon the Hessian bayonets, and after fighting desperately,
hand to hand, with the foe in front and rear, and losing a
greater portion of his men, Sullivan was compelled to
surrender. As usual, misfortunes did not come single. While
these disasters were occurring on the left, Cornwallis
descended the port-road to Gowanus, and attacked Stirling.
They fought desperately, until Stirling was made prisoner.
Many of his troops were drowned while endeavoring to escape
across the Gowanus Creek, as the tide was rising; and a large
number were captured. At noon the victory for the British was
complete. About 500 Americans were killed or wounded, and
1,100 were made prisoners. These were soon suffering dreadful
horrors in prisons and prison-ships, at New York. The British
loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was 367. It was with
the deepest anguish that Washington had viewed, from New York,
the destruction of his troops, yet he dared not weaken his
power in the city, by sending reinforcements to aid them. He
crossed over on the following morning [August 28], with
Mifflin, who had come down from the upper end of York island
with a thousand troops, and was gratified to find the enemy
encamped in front of Putnam's lines, and delaying an attack,
until the British fleet should co-operate with him. This delay
allowed Washington time to form and execute a plan for the
salvation of the remainder of the army, now too weak to resist
an assault with any hope of success. Under cover of a heavy
fog, which fell upon the hostile camps at midnight of the
29th, and continued until the morning of the 30th, he silently
withdrew them from the camp, and, unperceived by the British,
they all crossed over to New York in safety, carrying
everything with them but their heavy cannons. … Howe, who felt
sure of his prey, was greatly mortified, and prepared to make
an immediate attack upon New York, before the Americans should
become reinforced, or should escape from it."

_B. J. Lossing,
Family History of the United States,
period 5, chapter 3._

ALSO IN:
_H. P. Johnston,
The Campaign of 1776 around New York and Brooklyn,
chapters 1-5,
(Members of Long Island History Society, volume 3)._

_T. W. Field,
The Battle of Long island
(Members of Long Island History Society, volume 2)._

_W. A. Duer,
Life of Wm. Alexander, Earl of Stirling,
chapter 5._

_J. Fiske,
The American Revolution,
chapter 5 (volume 1)._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (September).
Quiet death of proprietary government in Pennsylvania
and adoption of a State Constitution.

See PENNSYLVANIA: A. D. 1776.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (September-November).
The struggle for New York and the Hudson.
Successes of the British.
Washington's retreat into New Jersey.

"At daybreak the British awoke, but it was too late. They had
fought a successful battle, they had had the American army in
their grasp, and now all was over. The victory had melted
away, and, as a grand result, they had a few hundred
prisoners, a stray boat with three camp-followers, and the
deserted works in which they stood. To make such a retreat as
this was a feat of arms as great as most victories, and in it
we see, perhaps as plainly as anywhere, the nerve and
quickness of the man who conducted it. It is true it was the
only chance of salvation, but the great man is he who is
entirely master of his opportunity, even if he have but one.
The outlook, nevertheless, was, as Washington wrote, 'truly
distressing.' The troops were dispirited, and the militia
began to disappear, us they always did after a defeat.
Congress would not permit the destruction of the city,
different interests pulled in different directions,
conflicting opinions distracted the councils of war, and, with
utter inability to predict the enemy's movements, everything
led to halfway measures and to intense anxiety, while Lord
Howe tried to negotiate with Congress, and the Americans
waited for events, Washington, looking beyond the confusion of
the moment, saw that he had gained much by delay, and had his
own plan well defined. … Everyone else, however, saw only past
defeat and present peril.

{3238}

The British ships gradually made their way up the river, until
it became apparent that they intended to surround and cut off
the American army. Washington made preparations to withdraw,
but uncertainty of information came near rendering his
precautions futile. September 15th the men-of-war opened fire,
and troops were landed near Kip's Bay. The militia in the
breastworks at that point had been at Brooklyn and gave way at
once, communicating their panic to two Connecticut regiments.
Washington, galloping down to the scene of battle, came upon
the disordered and flying troops. He dashed in among them,
conjuring them to stop, but even while he was trying to rally
them they broke again on the appearance of some sixty or
seventy of the enemy, and ran in all directions. In a tempest
of anger Washington drew his pistols, struck the fugitives
with his sword, and was only forced from the field by one of
his officers seizing the bridle of his horse and dragging him
away from the British, now within a hundred yards of the spot.
… The rout and panic over, Washington quickly turned to deal
with the pressing danger. With coolness and quickness he
issued his orders, and succeeded in getting his army off,
Putnam's division escaping most narrowly. He then took post at
King's Bridge, and began to strengthen and fortify his lines.
While thus engaged, the enemy advanced, and on the 16th a
sharp skirmish was fought, in which the British were repulsed,
and great bravery was shown by the Connecticut and Virginia
troops, the two commanding officers being killed. This affair,
which was the first gleam of success, encouraged the troops,
and was turned to the best account by the general. Still a
successful skirmish did not touch the essential difficulties
of the situation, which then as always came from within,
rather than without. To face and check 25,000 well equipped
and highly disciplined soldiers, Washington had now some
12,000 men, lacking in everything which goes to make an army,
except mere individual courage and a high average of
intelligence. Even this meagre force was an inconstant and
diminishing quantity, shifting, uncertain, and always
threatening dissolution. The task of facing and fighting the
enemy was enough for the ablest of men; but Washington was
obliged also to combat and overcome the inertness and dullness
born of ignorance, and to teach Congress how to govern a
nation at war. … Meanwhile the days slipped along, and
Washington waited on the Harlem Plains, planning descents on
Long Island, and determining to make a desperate stand where
he was, unless the situation decidedly changed. Then the
situation did change, as neither he nor anyone else apparently
had anticipated. The British warships came up the Hudson past
the forts, brushing aside our boasted obstructions, destroying
our little fleet, and getting command of the river. Then
General Howe landed at Frog's Point, where he was checked for
the moment by the good disposition of Heath, under
Washington's direction. These two events made it evident that
the situation of the American army was full of peril, and that
retreat was again necessary. Such certainly was the conclusion
of the council of war, on the 16th, acting this time in
agreement with their chief. Six days Howe lingered on Frog's
Point, bringing up stores or artillery or something, … and
gave six days to Washington. They were of little value to
Howe, but they were of inestimable worth to Washington, who
employed them in getting everything in readiness, in holding
his council of war, and then on the 17th in moving
deliberately off to very strong ground at White Plains. … On
the 28th, Howe came up to Washington's position, and found the
Americans quite equal in numbers, strongly intrenched, and
awaiting his attack with confidence. He hesitated, doubted,
and finally feeling that he must do something, sent 4,000 men
to storm Chatterton Hill, an outlying post, where some 1,400
Americans were stationed. There was a short, sharp action, and
then the Americans retreated in good order to the main army,
having lost less than half as many men as their opponents.
With caution now much enlarged, Howe sent for reinforcements,
and waited two days. The third day it rained, and on the
fourth Howe found that Washington had withdrawn to a higher
and quite impregnable line of hills, where he held all the
passes in the rear and awaited a second attack. Howe
contemplated the situation for two or three days longer, and
then broke camp and withdrew to Dobbs Ferry. Such were the
great results of the victory of Long Island, two wasted
months, and the American army still untouched. Howe was
resolved, however, that his campaign, should not be utterly
fruitless, and therefore directed his attention to the
defences of the Hudson, Fort Lee, and Fort Washington, and
here he met with better success. Congress, in its military
wisdom, had insisted that these forts must and could be held.
… An attempt was made to hold both forts, and both were lost,
as he [Washington] had foreseen. From Fort Lee the garrison
withdrew in safety. Fort Washington was carried by storm,
after a severe struggle. Twenty-six hundred men and all the
munitions of war fell into the hands of the enemy. It was a
serious and most depressing loss, and was felt throughout the
continent. Meantime Washington had crossed into the Jerseys,
and, after the loss of Fort Lee, began to retreat before the
British, who, flushed with victory, now advanced rapidly under
Lord Cornwallis."

_H. C. Lodge,
George Washington,
volume 1, chapter 6._

ALSO IN:
_H. B. Carrington,
Battles of the American Revolution,
chapters 33-36._

_G. W. Greene,
Life of Nathanael Greene,
chapters 8-11 (volume 1)._

_B. J. Lossing,
Field Book of the American Revolution,
volume 2, chapter 23._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776 (October).
Connecticut assumes independence and sovereignty.

See CONNECTICUT: A. D. 1776.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1777.
Washington's retreat through New Jersey and his
masterly return movement.
The victories at Trenton and Princeton
retrieving the situation.

"On the 17th [of November] Washington ordered Lee [who had
lately returned from the south, and who had command of 7,000
men at Northcastle] to come over and join him; but Lee
disobeyed, and in spite of repeated orders from Washington he
stayed at Northcastle till the 2d of December. General Ward
had some time since resigned, so that Lee now ranked next to
Washington. A good many people were finding fault with the
latter for losing the 3,000 men at Fort Washington, although,
as we have seen, that was not his fault but the fault of
Congress.
{3239}
Lee now felt that if Washington were ruined, he would surely
become his successor in the command of the army, and so,
instead of obeying his orders, he spent his time in writing
letters calculated to injure him. Lee's disobedience thus
broke the army in two, and did more for the British than they
had been able to do for themselves since they started from
Staten Island. It was the cause of Washington's flight through
New Jersey, ending on the 8th of December, when he put himself
behind the Delaware river, with scarcely 3,000 men. Here was
another difficulty. The American soldiers were enlisted for
short terms, and when they were discouraged, as at present,
they were apt to insist upon going home as soon as their time
had expired. It was generally believed that Washington's army
would thus fall to pieces within a few days. Howe did not
think it worth while to be at the trouble of collecting boats
wherewith to follow him across the Delaware. Congress fled to
Baltimore. People in New Jersey began taking the oath of
allegiance to the crown. Howe received the news that he had
been knighted for his victory on Long Island, and he returned
to New York to celebrate the occasion. While the case looked
so desperate for Washington, events at the north had taken a
less unfavourable turn. Carleton [who began preparations to
invade the province of New York as soon as Arnold retreated
from Canada] had embarked on Lake Champlain early in the
autumn with his fine army and fleet. Arnold had fitted up a
small fleet to oppose his advance, and on the 11th of October
there had been a fierce naval battle between the two near
Valcour Island, in which Arnold was defeated, while Carleton
suffered serious damage. The British general then advanced
upon Ticonderoga, but suddenly made up his mind that the
season was too late for operations in that latitude. The
resistance he had encountered seems to have made him despair
of achieving any speedy success in that quarter, and on the 3d
of November he started back for Canada. This retreat relieved
General Schuyler at Albany of immediate cause for anxiety, and
presently he detached seven regiments to go southward to
Washington's assistance. On the 2d of December Lee crossed the
Hudson with 4,000 men, and proceeded slowly to Morristown.
Just what he designed to do was never known, but clearly he
had no intention of going beyond the Delaware to assist
Washington, whom he believed to be ruined. Perhaps he thought
Morristown a desirable position to hold, as it certainly was.
Whatever his plans may have been, they were nipped in the bud.
For some unknown reason he passed the night of the 12th at an
unguarded tavern, about four miles from his army; and there he
was captured next morning by a party of British dragoons, who
carried him off to their camp at Princeton. The dragoons were
very gleeful over this unexpected exploit, but really they
could not have done the Americans a greater service than to
rid them of such a worthless creature. The capture of Lee came
in the nick of time, for it set free his men to go to the aid
of Washington. Even after this force and that sent by Schuyler
had reached the commander-in-chief, he found he had only 6,000
men fit for duty. With this little force Washington instantly
took the offensive. It was the turning-point in his career and
in the history of the Revolutionary War. On Christmas, 1776,
and the following nine days, an Washington's most brilliant
powers were displayed. The British centre, 10,000 strong, lay
at Princeton. The principal generals, thinking the serious
business of the war ended, had gone to New York. An advanced
party of Hessians, 1,000 strong, was posted on the bank of the
Delaware at Trenton, and another one lower down, at
Burlington. Washington decided to attack both these outposts,
and arranged his troops accordingly, but when Christmas night
arrived, the river was filled with great blocks of floating
ice, and the only division which succeeded in crossing was the
one that Washington led in person. It was less than 2,500 in
number, but the moment had come when the boldest course was
the safest. By daybreak Washington had surprised the Hessians
at Trenton and captured them all. The outpost at Burlington,
on hearing the news, retreated to Princeton. By the 31st
Washington had got all his available force across to Trenton.
Some of them were raw recruits just come in to replace others
who had just gone home. At this critical moment the army was
nearly helpless for want of money, and on New Year's morning
Robert Morris was knocking at door after door in Philadelphia,
waking up his friends to borrow the $50,000, which he sent off
to Trenton before noon. The next day Cornwallis arrived at
Princeton, and taking with him all the army, except a
rear-guard of 2,000 men left to protect his communications,
came on toward Trenton. When he reached that town, late in the
afternoon, he found Washington entrenched behind a small creek
just south of the town, with his back toward the Delaware
river. 'Oho!' said Cornwallis, 'at last we have run down the
old fox, and we will bag him in the morning.' He sent back to
Princeton, and ordered the rearguard to come up. He expected
next morning to cross the creek above Washington's right, and
then press him back against the broad and deep river, and
compel him to surrender. Cornwallis was by no means a careless
general, but he seems to have gone to bed on that memorable
night and slept the sleep of the just. Washington meanwhile
was wide awake. He kept his front line noisily at work digging
and entrenching, and made a fine show with his camp-fires.
Then he marched his army to the right and across the creek,
and got around Cornwallis's left wing and into his rear, and
so went on gayly toward Princeton. At daybreak he encountered
the British rear-guard, fought a sharp battle with it and sent
it flying, with the loss of one-fourth of its number. The
booming guns aroused Cornwallis too late. To preserve his
communications with New York, he was obliged to retreat with
all haste upon New Brunswick, while Washington's victorious
army pushed on and occupied the strong position at Morristown.
There was small hope of dislodging such a general from such a
position. But to leave Washington in possession of Morristown
was to resign to him the laurels of this half-year's work. For
that position guarded the Highlands of the Hudson on the one
hand, and the roads to Philadelphia on the other. Except that
the British had taken the city of New York-which from the
start was almost a foregone conclusion—they were no better off
than in July when Lord Howe had landed on Staten Island. In
nine days the tables had been completely turned.
{3240}
The attack upon, an outpost had developed into a campaign
which quite retrieved the situation. The ill-timed
interference of Congress, which had begun the series of
disasters, was remedied; the treachery of Lee was checkmated;
and the cause of American Independence, which on Christmas Eve
had seemed hopeless, was now fairly set on its feet. Earlier
successes had been local; this was continental. Seldom has so
much been done with such slender means."

_J. Fiske,
The War of Independence,
chapter 6._

"The effect of these two unexpected strokes at Trenton and
Princeton was to baffle Howe, and utterly disconcert his
plans. Expecting to march upon Philadelphia at his leisure, he
suddenly finds Washington turning about and literally cutting
his way through the British posts, back to a point where he
threatened Howe's flank and rear. The enemy were at once
compelled to retire from all their positions below Brunswick,
give up the thought of wintering in Philadelphia, and fall
back to the vicinity of New York. When Horace Walpole heard of
these movements, he wrote to Sir Horace Mann: 'Washington has
shown himself both a Fabius and a Camillus. His march through
our lines is allowed to have been a prodigy of generalship. In
one word, I look upon a great part of America as lost to this
country.' Here the campaign closed. Washington could not be
dislodged from his strong mountain position, and Howe was
satisfied to rest his troops and postpone further operations
until the next season. Meantime the country took heart,
Congress voted troops and supplies, and the army was recruited
and organized on a better basis. 'The business of war is the
result of Experience,' wrote Wolcott from Congress, with faith
unshaken during the darkest hours of the campaign; and
experience was now put to good profit. The crisis was passed.
Events proved decisive. Hardship and anxiety were yet to come
during succeeding years of the war; but it was the result of
this year's struggle that cleared away misgivings and
confirmed the popular faith in final success. England could do
no more than she had done to conquer America; while America
was now more ready than ever to meet the issue. Independence
was established in the present campaign—in the year of its
declaration; and more than to any others we owe this political
privilege to the men who fought from Long Island to
Princeton."

_H. P. Johnston,
Campaign of 1776,
Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society,
volume 3, part 1, chapter 8._

ALSO IN:
_J. F. Hageman,
History of Princeton,
chapter 4, sections 4-5 (volume 1)._

_J. O. Raum,
History of New Jersey,
chapter 20 (volume 2)._

_W. B. Reed,
Life of Joseph Reed,
volume 1, chapter 4._

_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 3, chapter 21._

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1777.
Prisoners and exchanges.
British treatment of captives.
The Jersey Prison-ship and the Sugar-house prison.

In New York, during the British occupation of the city,
"wretched indeed was the condition of the poor refugee, of the
sick soldier, and, above all, the patriot prisoner. The
newspapers are filled with calls for charitable contributions
for women and children perishing with cold and hunger, for
disabled soldiers and families without a shelter. … But if the
favored Tories suffered, what must have been the condition of
the patriot prisoners, confined by thousands in bleak
barracks, churches, and prison-ships? Let us pass up Broadway,
amidst the uncleared ruins, and, turning down Liberty Street,
pause before a huge brick building near the Middle Dutch
Church. It is five stories high, with broken windows, through
which the fierce winds of winter rush unrestrained. Through
its imperfect roof and various openings, snow, ice, and water
penetrate to every part of the building. Sentries pace round
its walls prepared to fire upon any of its maddened inmates
who attempt in desperation to escape. Wounded men crawl to the
windows begging aid; but the impassive sentinel turns back the
gifts of the charitable. No communication with the prisoners
can be allowed. The walls within are bare and cheerless, nor
do any of the common conveniences of life soften the horrors
of those dreary chambers. Yet the old Sugar-House is the most
crowded building in New York, and hundreds of prisoners, some
chained, others at large, fill its comfortless interior. In
the old Sugar-House were confined the prisoners of Long
Island, the captives of sudden forays, the patriot citizen,
and the heroes of the rebel army. Clothed in rags and scarcely
covered from the winter air, crowded in narrow apartments and
broken by hunger and disease, the prisoners died by thousands.
The sick lay down on beds of snow to perish; the feeble
wounded quivered in the February blast. Food of the coarsest
kind was served out to them in scanty measure, and devoured
with the eagerness of famine. Every night ten or twenty died;
every day their corpses were thrown into pits without a single
rite of burial. When led out to be exchanged, the glad hope of
freedom gave them no joy—they died on the way to their
friends, or lingered out a few weeks of miserable decline in
the hospitals of the Jerseys. So wretched was their condition
that Washington refused to consider them fit subjects for
exchange. 'You give us only the dead or dying,' he wrote to
Howe, 'for our well-fed and healthy prisoners.' Howe, as if in
mockery, replied that they had been kept in 'airy, roomy
buildings,' on the same fare as his own soldiers. Washington
pointed to the condition in which they reached him—diseased,
famished, emaciated, and dying, as they were conducted to his
quarters. Across the river, in Wallabout Bay, lay the
prison-ship 'Jersey.' She was the hulk of a 64 gun ship, long
unseaworthy, her masts and rigging gone, her figurehead broken
off, and her whole appearance singularly repulsive. Yet on
board of the Jersey were confined 1,200 captured seamen. She
was never cleansed, and lay in that condition seven years. No
fires warmed her occupants in winter, no screen sheltered them
from the August sun; no physician visited the sick, no
clergyman consoled the dying there. Poor and scanty food, the
want of clothing, cleanliness, and exercise, and raging
diseases that never ceased their ravages, made the Jersey a
scene of human suffering to which the Black Hole of Calcutta
might favorably compare. Benevolent Tories would sometimes
convey by stealth food or clothing to her unhappy inmates; but
this was little. Toward the close of the war the British, from
shame or pity, made some improvement in her condition; but she
remained throughout the contest a centre of sickness and
death, always decimated by disease and always replenished with
new victims. The bones of her dead, estimated at 11,000, lie
buried on the Brooklyn shore. The crowded city itself was
never free from contagion. In winter the smallpox made fearful
ravages."

_E. Lawrence,
New York in the Revolution
(Harper's Magazine, July, 1868)._

ALSO IN:
_Force's American Archives,
4th Series, volume 6,
5th Series, volumes 1-3._

_History Magazine, 1866, sup._

_W. C. Bryant and S. H. Gay,
Popular History of the United States,
volume 3, chapter 21._

{3241}

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1776-1778.
Attitude and feeling of France.
Her disposition to aid the colonies and the reasons for it.
The American embassy to the French court.
Silas Deane and Beaumarchais.
Franklin at Passy.