mmBw H OBI 01 BANCROFT LIBRARY < THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA x fi> : AV * ' ' - HISTORICAL AND REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS OP THE EARLY SETTLERS OF THE UNITED STATES. WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES (JF THE LIVES OF ALLEN, BOONE, KENTON, AND OTHER CELEBRATED PIONEERS. BY 0. W. WEBBER, K AUTHOR OF "THE HUNTER NATURALIST," "SHOT IN THE EYE," "OLD HICKS, THEOUIDE,' "GOLD MINES OF THE QILA," "CHARLES WINTERFIELD PAPERS," ETC., ETC., ETC. PHILADELPHIA : DUANE RULISON, QUAKER CITY PUBLISHING HOUSE, 33 SOUTH THIRD STREET. 1859. E 1 7 4 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by DUANE RULJSON, In the Clerk's Office, of the District Court of the United States, in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. UBRMtt PEEFACE. THE following work contains an ^authentic narrative of many of the most remarkable and thrilling events which have occurred during the past history of the United States. 'Commencing with the formation of the London Emigration Company, which sent forth the first hardy and adventurous colonists to Virginia, it presents the most thrilling incidents and catastrophes of American history down to the conclusion of the second war be- tween this country and England. ISTor is the work confined merely to political and military history. It also presents a view of some of the most interesting religious and missionary movements which have been put forth at an early day for the conversion of the Indian tribes to Christianity. An explanation, and perhaps an apology, may be necessary to justify the frequent use which the writer has made throughout the work of the word " Sam." If not properlv understood, this term will seem absurd and (3) 4 PREFACE. in bad taste; if, on the contrary, the reader obtains the proper idea involved in it, and intended to be conveyed by it, it will not only appear justifiable but command his respect. In the popular phraseology of the day, this word has become familiar as the representative of the Government and the people of the United States. It involves also the idea of the native-born inhabitants of the land, in opposition to the foreign element which helps to make up the immense and heterogeneous aggregate of our existing population. In using this word " Sam," therefore, the author was justified, inasmuch as it is a term already familiar to most readers. But the writer has somewhat enlarged and expanded the meaning which he attaches to this word. By it he intended to signify and embody the conception of " Young America," of the "Genius of American Liberty," of the " Onward Pathway of Destiny and Empire." All these grand and imposing conceptions the writer em- bodies, and wishes to express, by the use of this laconic epithet; and if the reader, in perusing these diversified and checkered pages, will bear this explanation in me- mory, he will in all cases readily penetrate the meaning of the writer, and never be incommoded by any appar- ent obscurity. TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Formation of the London Company for the Settlement of Vir- ginia Birthplace of Capt. John Smith, and early crosses Enters the service of Austria Single combats in presence of both armies Prisoner among the Tartars Romantic adven- tures and escape Joins the London Company Prisoner among the Indians Saved from death by the youthful Pocahontas Other achievements in America 9 CHAPTER II. Historical depreciation of " Sam's" Southern children Abusive epithets current Contrast with the first Northern Settle- ments Who, apparently, under the ban of Providence ? Who were the Discoverers and Explorers of the New World? 17 CHAPTER III. Prosperity of the Colony of Jamestown under the rule of Capt. Smith Sudden Treachery of the Indians and great Massacre of the Settlers 25 CHAPTER IV. Origin of " First Families" in Virginia Auction of wives to the Virginians " Sam's" idea of Aristocracy Virginians obtain the right of trial by Jury of Representative Government also Religious toleration, first granted them, repealed 28 CHAPTER V. Repeal of Charter of London Company The Bacon Rebellion Death of Bacon, and character of same 33 CHAPTER VI. A new mystery The rise of Luther, and Protestant wars Ad- vent of the mystery of Jesuitism 38 1* (5) 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII. Life of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order Spiritual exer- cises The Weeks The Contemplations Loyola a Pilgrim to the Holy Places His persecutions His first disciples, Xavier, Le Fevre Lainez and Rodriques vow to go to the Holy Land and convert Infidels Yow of perpetual chastity and poverty The vow of unquestioning obedience Refusal of the Holy See to recognize the Order Cunning vow of obedience to the Pope Obtains his recognition Bull of recognition. . . 42 CHAPTER VIII. The deadly war of the Jesuits against Protestantism continued in the New "World Cant of Bancroft the Historian Illustra- tions Martyrdom ? Facts and Motives of Jesuit Missions League of the Iroquois Intrigues of the Jesuits First Inter- colonial War Predominance of Jesuit Instigation 52 CHAPTER IX. The Queen Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial War" between " Sam" and the Order of Jesuits The Order not quite ready for formidable operations in the South Retrospective glance at acts and influences of the Catholic Priesthood in Mexico from the Conquest Evidence of Clavigero, the Catholic His- torian of Mexico The monstrous destruction of the archives of Historical Pictures in Yucatan by an " Ecclesiastic" De- struction of the most precious Arts, which were common throughout Mexico 67 CHAPTER X. Vandalism of the Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico Antiquarian researches concerning the first Missions to New Mexico Conquest of California Various efforts to penetrate the mysterious gold region by the Catholic governors of Cal- ifornia Extermination of the Catholic Spaniards of the Con- questator-Occupation Hidden ruins and strange Traditions Ruins of magnificent Catholic Cities Marvelous treasures won by Cortez from Montezuma 72 CHAPTER XI. Alas, Poor Mexico! Marquette and Joliet La Salle His pretended retirement from the Order of Jesus His Fur Mo- nopoly He descends the Mississippi to its mouth His Death Remarks Commencement of the Second Intercolonial War.. 89 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER XII. Commencement of the final struggle between the French and English for the country on the great Lakes and the Missis- sippi Fourth Intercolonial War 115 CHAPTER XIII. Hildreth's account of the Progress and Conclusion of the Fourth Intercolonial War Accession of George III. The English masters of the Continent north of the Gulf of Mexico and east of the Mississippi 146 CHAPTER XIY. Condition of the Colonies at the conclusion of the Fourth Inter- colonial War Theory of the English Parliament Grenville's Scherffe of Colonial Taxation Passage and Repeal of the Stamp Act., 167 CHAPTER XV. Dawn of the Revolutionary Period Humorous " History of John Bull's Children" Contrast between causes which led to the Revolution of 1688 in England, and those which led to the American Revolution ; from Judge Drayton's Charge in 1776. 185 CHAPTER XYI. Townshend's Scheme of Colonial Taxation Repeal of the new taxes, except that on Tea Local Affairs Trade of the Col- onies Attempt to collect the Tax on Tea Reminiscences of the position of the Tea Ships at Boston Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor 196 CHAPTER XYII. The troubles thicken Gage reinforced Assembly of the first Continental Congress at Philadelphia 213 CHAPTER XVIII. Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point Gage's Proclamation exempting from pardon John Hancock and Adams Battle of Bunker Hill 239 CHAPTER XIX. The first Sea Fight, and origin of the United States Navy Ethan Allen taken captive and sent to England Capture of St. Johns and Montreal The Expedition against Quebec Reorganization of the Army Lord Howe in Boston Move- ments of the British in Virginia 259 8 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. The Settlements in the West Biography of Boone, by Himself Biography of Simon Kenton 290 CHAPTEE XXI. Interesting Sketch of the Life of General Stark, the Hero of Bennington The Battle of Bennington Boston a century ago Captain William Cunningham 308 CHAPTER XXII. Sketch of Colonel Daniel Morgan The Non-Resistant Prin- ciple of the Quakers Its consequences about these times. . . . 337 CHAPTER XXIII. The Treaty with France The Progress of the War, North and South The Cowpens Yorktown Surrender of Cornwallis Letter from General Washington 350 CHAPTER XXIV. Trouble with the Indians Tecumseh's League General Har- rison Battles with the Indians The British treat with them Death of Tecumseh 365 CHAPTER XXY. Causes of the War Debates in Congress Extracts from Mr. Clay's Speeches on the different phases of the War Question. . 391 HISTORICAL AND KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. CHAPTER I. Formation of the London Company for the Settlement of Virginia Birth- place of Capt. John Smith, and early crosses Enters the service of Aus- tria Single combats in presence of both armies Prisoner among the Tartars Romantic adventures and escape Joins the London Com- pany Prisoner among the Indians Saved from death by the youthful Pocahontas Other achievements in America. PRIOR to the year 1607, a period of one hundred and fif- teen years from the discovery of San Salvador, by Columbus, attempts had been made to effect settlements in various parts of North America ; but no one proved successful until the settlement at Jamestown. In 1606, King James I, of England, granted letters patent, an exclusive right or privilege, to two companies, called the London and Plymouth Companies, by which they were au- thorized to possess the lands in America, lying between the 34th and 45th degrees of north latitude ; the southern part called South Virginia, to the London, and the northern, called North Virginia, to the Plymouth Company. Under this patent the London Company sent Capt. Christo- pher Newport to Virginia, December 20, 1606, with a colony of one hundred and five persons to commence a settlement on the island Roanoke, now in North Carolina. After a tedious voyage of four months, by the circuitous route of the West Indies, he entered Chesapeake Bay, having been driven north of the place of his destination. Here it was concluded to land ; and proceeding up a river, called by the Indians Powhattan, but by the colony, James river, on a beautiful peninsula, in May, 1607, they began the first permanent settlement in North America, and called it Jamestown. 10 HISTORICAL AND The government of this colony was formed in England by the London Company. It consisted of a council of seven per- sons, appointed by the Company, with a president chosen by the council from their number, who had two votes. All mat- ters of moment were examined by this council, and determined by a majority. Capt. Newport brought over the names of this council, carefully .sealed in a box, which was opened after their arrival. Among the most enterprising and useful members of this colony, and one of its magistrates, was Captain John Smith. As he acted a distinguished part in the early history of the colony of Virginia, a brief sketch of his life will be interesting. He was born in Willoughby, in Lincolnshire, England, in 1579. From his earliest youth, he discovered a roving and romantic genius, and appeared irresistibly bent on extrava- gant and daring enterprises. At the age of thirteen, becom- ing tired of study, he disposed of his satchel and books, with the intention of escaping to sea ; but the death of his father just at that time, frustrated his plans for the present, and threw him upon guardians, who, to repress the waywardness of his genius, confined him to a counting-room. From a con- finement so irksome, however, he contrived to escape not long after, and with ten shillings in his pocket, entered the train of a young nobleman traveling to France. On their arrival at Orleans, he received a discharge from further attendance upon Lord Bertie, who advanced him money to return to England. Smith had no wish, however, to return. With the money he had received he visited Paris, from which he proceeded to the low countries, where he enlisted into the service as a soldier. Having continued some time in this capacity, he was induced to accompany a gentleman to Scotland, who promised to recommend him to the notice of King James. Being dis- appointed, however, in this, he returned to England and vis- ited the place of his birth. Not finding the company there that suited his romantic turn, he erected a booth in some wood, and in the manner of a recluse, retired from society, devoting himself to the study of military history and tactics, diverting himself at intervals with his horse and lance. Recovering, about this time, a part of his father's estate, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. It which had been in dispute, in 1596 he again commenced his travels, being then only seventeen years of age. His first stage was Flanders, where, meeting with a Frenchman who pretended to be heir to a noble family, he was prevailed upon to accompany him to France. On their arrival at St. Valory, in Picardy, by the connivance of the shipmaster, the French- man and attendants robbed him of his effects, and succeeded in making their escape. Eager to pursue his travels, he endeavored to procure a place on board a man-of-war. In one of his rambles, search- ing for a ship that would receive him, he accidentally met one of the villains concerned in robbing him. Without ex- changing a word, they both instantly drew their swords. The contest was severe, but Smith succeeded in wounding and disarming his antagonist, and obliged him to confess his guilt. After this rencounter, having received pecuniary assistance from an acquaintance, the Earl of Ployer, he traveled along the French coast to Bayonne, and then crossed to Marseilles, visiting and observing everything in his course which had reference to naval or military architecture. At Marseilles he embarked for Italy in company with a number of pilgrims. But here, also, new troubles awaited him. During the voyage, a tempest arising, the ship was forced into Toulon, after leaving which contrary winds so impeded their progress that, in a fit of rage, the pilgrims imputing their ill fortune to the presence of a heretic, threw him into the sea. Being a good swimmer, he was enabled to reach the island of St. Mary, off Nice, at no great distance, where he was taken on board a ship, in which, altering his course, he sailed to Alexandria in Egypt, and thence coasted the Levant. Having spent some time in this region, he sailed on his re- turn, and on leaving the ship, received about two thousand dollars, as his portion of a rich prize, which they had taken during the voyage. Smith landed at Antibes. He now traveled through Italy, crossed the Adriatic, and passed into Styria, to the seat of Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria. The Emperor being at that time at war with the Turks, he entered his army as a volunteer. By means of his valor and ingenuity, aided by his military 12 HlSTOBICAL AND knowledge and experience, he soon distinguished himself, and was advanced to the command of a company, consisting of two hundred and fifty horsemen, in the regiment of Count Meldrick, a nobleman of Transylvania. The regiment in which he served was engaged in several hazardous enterprises, in which Smith exhibited a bravery admired by all the army, and when Meldrick left the Imperial service for that of his native prince, Smith followed. At the siege of Eegal he was destined to new adventures. Tne Ottomans deriding the slow advance of the Transylva- nia army, the Lord Turbisha dispatched a messenger with a challenge, that for the diversion of the ladies of the place, he would fight any captain of the Christian troops. The honor of accepting this challenge was determined by lot, and fell on Smith. At the time appointed, the two champions appeared in the field on horseback, and in the presence of the armies, and of the ladies of the insulting Ottoman, rushed impetuously to the attack. A short but desperate conflict ensued, at the end of which Smith was seen bearing the head of the lifeless Turbisha in triumph to his general. The fall of the chief filled his friend Crualgo with indig- nation, and roused him to avenge his death. Smith accord- ingly soon after received a challenge from him, which he did not hesitate to accept, and the two exasperated combatants, upon their chargers, fell with desperate fury upon each other. Victory again followed the falchion of Smith, who sent the Turk headlong to the ground. It was now the turn of Smith to make the advance. He dispatched a messenger therefore to the Turkish ladies, that if they were desirous of more diversion of a similar kind, they should be welcome to his head, in case their third champion could take it. Bonamalgro tendered his services, and haughtily accepted the Christian's challenge. When the day arrived the spec- tators assembled, and the combatants entered the field. It was an hour of deep anxiety to all; as the horsemen ap- proached a deathlike silence pervaded the multitude. A blow from the saber of the Turk brought Smith to the ground, and for *a moment it seemed as if the deed of death was done. Smith, however, was only stunned. He rose like a lion, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 13 when he shakes the dew from his mane for the fight, and vaulting into the saddle, made his falchion "shed fast atone- ment for its first delay." It is hardly necessary to add that the head of Bonamalgro was added to the number. Smith was received with transports of joy by the prince of Transylvania, who, after the capture of the place, pre- sented him with his picture set in gold, granted him a pen- sion of three hundred ducats a year, and conferred on him a coat of arms, bearing three Turks' heads in a shield. In a subsequent battle between the Transylvanian army and a body of Turks and Tartars, the former was defeated, with a loss of many killed and wounded. Among the wounded was the gallant Siuith^T^IIs df^ss bespoke his con- sequence, and he was tre|ffced kindly. On his recovery from his wounds, he was sold to the Bashaw Bogul, who sent him as a present to his mistress at Constantinople, assuring her that he was a Bohemian nobleman whom he had conquered, and whom he now presented to her as her slave. The present proved more acceptable to the lady than her lord intended. As she understood Italian, in that language Smith informed her of his country and quality, and by his singular address and engaging manners, won the affection of her heart. Designing to secure him to herself, but fearing lest some misfortune should befall him, she sent him to her brother, a Bashaw, on the borders of the sea of Asoph, with a direction that he should be initiated into the manners and language, as well as the religion of the Tartars. From the terms of her letter, her brother suspected her design, and resolved to disappoint her. Immediately after Smith's arrival, there- fore, he ordered him to be stripped, his head and beard to be shaven, and with an iron collar about his neck, and a dress of hair-cloth, he was driven forth to labor among some Christian slaves. The circumstances of Smith were peculiarly afflicting. He could indulge no hope, except from the attachment of his mistress, but as her distance was great, it was improbable that she would soon become acquainted with the story of his misfortunes. In the midst of his distress, an opportunity to escape pre- sented itself, but under circumstances, which, to a person of 2 M HISTORICAL AND a less adventurous spirit, would have served only to high ten his distress. His employment was thrashing, at the distance of a league from the residence of the Bashaw, who daily vis-' ited him, but treated him with rigorous severity, and in a fit of anger, even abused him with blows. This last, was treat- ment to which the independent spirit of Smith could not submit. Watching a favorable opportunity, on an occasion of the tyrant's visit, and when his attendants were absent, he lev- eled his thrashing instrument at him and laid him in the dust. He then hastily filled a bag with grain, and mounted the Bashaw's horse, put himself upon fortune. Directing his course toward a desert, he entered its recesses, and continuing to conceal himself in its obscurities for several days, at length made his escape. In sixteen days he arrived at Exapolis, on the river Don, where meeting with the Russian garrison, the commander treated him kindly, and gave him letters of recommendation to other commanders in that region. He now traveled through a part of Russia and Poland, and at length reached his friends in Transylvania. At Leipsic he enjoyed the pleasure of meeting his Colonel, Count Mel- drick, and Sigismund, Prince of Transylvania, who presented him with fifteen hundred ducats. His fortune being thus in a measure repaired, he traveled through Germany, France, and Spain, and having visited the kingdom of Morocco, re- turned once more to England. Such is a rapid view of the life of this interesting adven- turer, down to his arrival in his native land. At this time, the settlement of America was occupying the attention of many distinguished men in England. The life of Smith, united to his fondness for enterprises of danger and difficul- ty, had prepared him to embark with zeal, in a project so novel and sublime as that of exploring the wilds of a newly discovered continent. He was soon attached to the expedition, about to sail under Newport, and was appointed one of the magistrates of the colony sent over at that time. Before the arrival of the colony, his colleagues in office becoming jealous of his influ- ence, arrested him on the absurd charge that he designed to murder the council, usurp the government, and make him- self king of Virginia. He was, therefore, rigorously confined during the remainder of the voyage. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 15 On their arrival in the country he was liberated, but could not obtain a trial, although in the tone of conscious integrity, he repeatedly demanded it. The infant colony was soon in- volved in perplexity and danger. Notwithstanding Smith had been calumniated, and his honor deeply wounded, his was not the spirit to remain idle when his services were needed. Nobly disdaining revenge, he offered his assistance, and by his talents, experience, and indefatigable zeal, fur- nished important aid to the infant colony. Continuing to assert his innocence, and to demand a trial, the time at length arrived when his enemies could postpone it no longer. After a fair hearing of the case, he was hon- orably acquitted of the charges alleged against him, and soon after took his seat in the council. The affairs of the colony becoming more settled, the active spirit of Smith prompted him to explore the neighboring country. In an attempt to ascertain the source of Chicka- homing river, he ascended in a barge as far as the stream was uninterrupted. Designing to proceed still further, he left the barge in the keeping of the crew, with strict injunc- tions on no account to leave her, and with two Englishmen and two Indians left the party. But no sooner was he out of view, than the crew, impatient of restraint, repaired on board the barge, and proceeding some distance down the stream, landed at a place where a body of Indians lay in am- bush, by whom they were seized. By means of the crew, the route of Smith was ascertained, and a party of Indians were immediately dispatched to take him. On coming up with him, they fired, killed the Eng- lishmen, and wounded himself. With great presence of mind, he now tied his Indian guide to his left arm, as a shield from the enemies' arrow, while with his musket he dispatched three of the most forward of the assailants. In this manner he continued to retreat toward his canoe, while the Indians, struck with admiration of his bravery, followed with respectful caution. Unfortunately, coming to a sunken spot filled with mire, while engrossed with eyeing his pursuers, he sunk so deep, as to be unable to extricate himself, and was forced to surrender. Fruitful in expedients to avert immediate death, he pre- sented an ivory compass to the chief, whose attention was 16 HISTORICAL AND arrested by the vibrations of the needle. Taking advantage of the impression which he had thus made, partly by signs, and partly by language, he excited their wonder still more by telling them of its singular powers. Their wonder, however, seemed soon to abate, and their attention returned to their prisoner. He was now bound and tied to a tree, and the savages were preparing to direct their arrows at his breast. At this instant the chief holding up the compass, they laid clown their arms, and led him in triumph to Powhattan, their king. Powhattan and his council doomed him to death, as a man whose courage and genius were peculiarly dangerous to the Indians. Preparations were accordingly made, and when the time arrived, Smith was led out to execution. His head was laid upon a stone, and a club presented to Powhattan, who, himself claimed the honor of becoming the executioner. The savages in silence were circling round, and the giant arm of Powhattan had already raised the club to strike the fatal blow, when, to his astonishment, the young and beau- tiful Pocahontas, his daughter, with a shriek of terror, rushed from the throng, and threw herself upon the body of Smith. At the same time she cast an imploring look toward her furious but astonished father, and in all the eloquence of mute, but impassioned sorrow, besought his life. The remainder of the scene was honorable to Powhattan. The club of the chief was still uplifted, but a father's pity had touched his heart, and the eye that had first kindled with wrath, was now fast losing its fiercenesss. He looked round as if to collect his fortitude, or perhaps, to find an ex- cuse for his weakness, in the pity of the attendants. A similar sympathy had melted the savage throng, and seemed to join in the petition, which the weeping Pocahontas felt, but durst not utter: "My father! let the prisoner live." Powhattan raised his daughter, and the captive, scarcely yet assured of safety, from the earth. Shortly after, Powhattan dismissed Captain Smith with assurances of friendship, and the next morning, accompanied with a guard of twelve men, he arrived safely at James- town, after a captivity of seven weeks. Burk's Virginia. CHAPTER II. Historical depreciation of Sam's Southern children Abusive epithets cur. rent Contrast with the first Northern Settlements Who, apparently, under the ban of Providence ? Who were the Discoverers and Explorers of the New World? So much for the peerless chevalier the Father of Vir- ginia, and Explorer of the North, illustrious John Smith ! Nor is this all of his career. It had been chiefly through his influence, that James I was induced to grant the " first colonial charter " under which the English were planted in America; although the great majority of Sam's children have never to this day, heard that there was any other place settled in " the beginning," but Plymouth, or any code of laws instituted than the precious "Body" of Eights, with its " Blue " Lights, or Laws, to which we have referred ; yet not only is it true, that to John Smith and Virginia we owe the "first colonial charter" in 1606, but to John Smith and Virginia do we owe, in June, 1619, the " first colonial assem- bly " that ever met in America, and which was convened at Jamestown. While John Carver, Cotton Mather, and the " Saintly Winthrop," are names canonized throughout the land as the select forerunners of Freedom so many "Baptists" pro- claiming in the wilderness the " good news" of the approach- ing regeneration of humanity John Smith remains plain "John Smith," who was "saved by Pocahontas." In 1614, Captain John Smith s died from England, with two ships, to America. He ranged the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod. On his return to England, he presented a map of the country to Prince Charles, who named it New England. Thus was the first survey of her own coast, and which resulted in giving her a name, made by the founder of these South ern institutions now sc villified by New England. 2* 17 18 HISTORICAL AND Sam says fiddle-faddle ! the " brazen tongue " wagged by tliese clerkly fellows is tiresome ; they have kept up one eternal toooo ! too-oo ! too-oot ! in defense of the saintly villains and villainies of their early times when nobody was attacking them. For who troubled themselves about it, since vices and cruelties were, as everybody knew, to be ex- pected in the settlement of all new countries ? But not content with taking their chances in the impartial recogni- tion of mankind, and confining themselves to the plain nar- rative of facts, they have exhibited a systematic effort to forestall what might be expected to become the natural sen- timent a conscious, nervous special pleading in advance, has betrayed the apprehension of justifiable attack. The pur- pose to "make a character" where they could lay claim to none. Demanding of the credulity of mankind for the Pu- ritan, the united attributes of apostle, saint, lawgiver, states- man, warrior, and psalmodist, they dismiss the renowned and noble founder of Virginia with the contemptuous implication of petty adventure his illustrious name coupled with a silly story of rescue by a forlorn Indian maiden, (who was in fact, a little child) as though this "lovely Indian princess" were indeed the heroic actor in the only scene in his career worth recording, while the poor John Smith was merely a passive instrument. Nor is this all, saith Sam. While, although with preten- tious humility, they have very properly, never emulated the "gallant spirit" of the cavaliers, yet, as a saving clause for their self-righteousness, they have stigmatized them as " dis- solute gallants, packed off to escape worse destinies at home, broken tradesmen, gentlemen impoverished in spirit and for- tune, rakes and libertines ; men more fitted to corrupt than to found a commonwealth," winding up this delectable cata- logue with the pious exclamation : "It was not the will of God that the new State shouM be formed of these materials that such men were to be the fathers of a progeny born on the American soil, who were one day to assert American liberty by their eloquence, and defend it by their valor."| Then as cumulative evidence that the hand of Providence had clearly interposed to prevent such prayerless " vaga- Bancroft, page 138, 1st. vol. jldem, page 138. REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 19 bonds" from becoming fathers of a State, they say in the next breath: "John Smith, being wounded and compelled to return to Europe, at his departure, he had left more than four hundred and ninety persons in the colony ; in six months, indolence, vice, and famine reduced the number to sixty, and these were so feeble and dejected, that if relief had been delayed but ten days longer, they must have utterly per- ished." Away with such driveling cant, says Sam. If suffering from famine and other necessary and usually attendant dan- gers of settlement in a new country, be any evidence that God has willed that a set of " vagabonds " should not be per- mitted to perpetuate their spawn upon the face of a new country, destined to be the home of a free people, what be- comes of your own story of the sufferings of the " Pilgrim Fathers?" "After some days they began to build a diffi- cult task for men of whom one-half were wasting away with consumptions and lung fevers." f This only a few days after landing, too, quoth Sam : pretty recreations these ascetic self-denying Puritans must have indulged in on board that same immaculate May- Flower ! Ask any of my physicians out of New England what habits are most likely to engender consumption, under such circumstances, thunders he in wrath, ask them too if men usually " waste away with consumptions and lung- fevers " in three or four days ! and you will be apt to find why it is that these fellows did not emulate the " gallant spirit " of the cavaliers. But this is not all, continues the inexorable Sam, whose pluck is up at hearing his southern children th s gratuitously made the sole plenary examples of the results of vice, in- dolence and crime. Was the hand of Providence in it for the extermination of the embryo of a race of hypocritical blue-law enactors, persecuting witch-burners and savage kidnappers, when " a shelter not less than comfort, had been wanting, the living being scarcely able to bury the dead, the well not sufficient to take care of the sick ? At the season of distress, there were but seven able to render assistance. The benevolent Bancroft, page 140, vol. 1. fldem, page 313, vol. 1. 20 HISTORICAL AND Carver had been appointed Governor ; at his first landing he had lost a son ; soon after the departure of the May- Flower for England his health sunk under a sudden attack, and his wife, broken-hearted, followed him in death. William Bradford, the historian of the colony, was soon chosen his successor. The record of misery was kept by the graves of the governor and half his company." Was this the hand of Providence? But let us hear more. "But if sickness ceased to prevail, the hardships of privation and want remained to be encountered. In the autumn an arrival of new emigrants, who came unprovided with food, compelled the whole colony, for six months in succession, to subsist on half allowance only." " I have seen men," says Winslow, " stag- ger by reason of faintness for want of food." They were once saved from famishing by the benevolence of fishermen off the coast. Sometimes they suffered from oppressive ex- action on the part of ships that sold them provisions at the most exorbitant prices. Nor did their miseries soon termi- nate. Even in the third year of the settlement the victuals were so entirely spent, that " they knew not at night where to have a bit in the morning." Tradition declares that, " at one time, the colonists were reduced to a pint of corn, which being parched and distributed, gave to each individual only five kernels ; but rumor falls short of reality ; for three or four months together they had no corn whatever. When a few of their old friends arrived to join them, a lobster or a piece of fish, without bread or anything else but a cup of fair spring water, was the best dish which the hospitality of the whole colony could offer. Neat cattle were not introduced till the fourth year of the settlement. Yet during all this season of self-denial and suffering, the cheerful confidence of the Pilgrims in the mercies of Providence remained un- shaken." Ho ! ho ! says Sam, with a laugh that makes the very codfish stand upon their tails in wonder. " The living scarce able to bury the dead ! the well not able to take care of the sick !" but seven were " able to render assistance." " Colonists reduced to five grains of corn apiece !" this seems a bad busi- ness ! What was the hand of Providence of which they are so fond of speaking familiarly doing with these saints about these times ? Not exterminating them as unfit to REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 21 become the "progenitors of freemen I" oh, no ! " Chastening us ; but as for those blackguard cavaliers down yonder at Jamestown, he is exterminating them !" Hoo ! ho ! yet you were the nearest exterminated of the two ! But as " the cheerful confidence of the Pilgrims in the mercies of Pro- vidence remained unshaken," we must take it for granted that the Providence of the Pilgrims and the Providence of the cavaliers were two different powers in the " State " In no event does this seem more apparent than in the fact that this doleful sixty, the remnant of the doomed four hun- dred and ninety even after having been joined by a destitute reinforcement, which had been wrecked on the way to join them with supplies, thus rendering their despera- tion even more forlorn having embarked with the mad hope of returning across the sea in ships built of cedar logs, with- out provisions, met at the mouth of the river the long boat of Lord Delaware, who had just arrived on the coast with new emigrants and abundant supplies. Now, if Providence be the benign and solemn source of a great and unexpected good to mankind for wise purposes, beyond its ken, which is* the aspect of that majestic power, in which wise and good men love best to regard its mysterious doings, then does Sam look upon this as one of those events which might justly be styled providential ! That thus these "dissolute" and " vagabond 77 sons of Sam did so regard it, let this same narrator from whom we have been quoting show. In the intellectual zeal of natural justice, he sometimes manages to forget his cue of Puritan, and burst forth into an involuntary apotheosis of truth without regard to locality. It was on the tenth day of June that the restoration of the colony was solemnly begun by supplications to God. A deep sense of the infinite mercies of his providence overawed the colonists who had been spared by famine, the emigrants who had been shipwrecked and yet preserved, and the new comers who found wretchedness and want when they had ex- pected the contentment of abundance. The firmness of their resolution repelled despair. " It is, 77 said they, " the arm of the Lord of Hosts who would have his people pass the R>d Sea and the wilderness, and then possess the land of Canaan. 77 Dangers avoided inspire trust in providence. " Doubt not/ 7 " said the emi- 22 HISTORICAL AND grants to the people of England, " 'God will raise one State and build his church in this excellent clime/ After solemn exercises of religion, Lord Delaware caused his commission to he read ; a consultation was immediately held on the good of the colony, and its government was organized with mild- ness hut decision. The evils of faction were healed by the unity of the administration and the dignity and virtues of the governor, and the colonists, excited by mutual emulation , performed their tasks with alacrity. At the beginning of the day they assembled in the little church, which was kept neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country ; next they returned to their houses to receive their allowance of food. The settled hours of labor were from six in the morn- ing till ten, and from two in the afternoon till four. The house was warm and secure, covered above with strong boards, and matted on the inside after the fashion of the Indian wigwams. Security and affluence were returning. 77 Sam thinks that this can hardly be said to describe a doomed and God-forsaken crew of "profligate vagabonds, 77 nor can he conceive from whence on the face of the story the " licentiousness 77 so grievously complained of can proceed, unless it be in the contrast which the " little church kept neatly trimmed with the wild flowers of the country 77 offered to the sulky smoke-dens in which the Pilgrims offered up their morose and vindictive oblations to the God of Light and Peace. " Security and affluence were returning, 77 yet Sam insists that the unfortunate " sixty 77 dedicated by Providence to annihilation were still left to multiply and replenish beneath the protecting arm of the " Lord of Hosts 77 whom they so devoutly adored for his mercies, and that, too, in spite of the " particular Providence 77 of their more unfortunate northern brothers. But, forsooth, what seems to have constituted the knights and gentlemen, the peers and followers of Columbus, the Cabots, Cortes, De Soto, Raleigh, and John Smith "dissolute vagabonds 77 and " mere adventurers ? 77 " They came to search for gold, 7 ' snuffle my puritanical boobies ; says Sam, and what of it ? To what other instincts than the love of gold and glory do we owe the commerce and expanding civilization of the old wqrld, as well as the discovery, con- KEVOLUTIOXARY INCIDENTS. 23 quests, and civilization of the New ? America was then the California of Europe ; your disinterested sons have only crowded into California "for liberty to worship God" of course or " to found an empire," no doubt. When your fractious, meddlesome and noisy progenitors, were driven out of England for England's good, and could not stay even in fat, frouzy and most patient Holland, when the fatigued toleration of Europe would no longer permit you a spot whereon to rest the soles of your feet ; then, of course, as "America was the region of romance, where the heated imagination could indulge in the boldest delusions, where the simple natives wore the most precious ornaments, and by the side of the clear runs of water the sands sparkled with gold ;" thither, your eyes, in common with those of all the world, were turned, and the spirit moved you to " found an empire " based upon "the right to worship God." Not by any manner of means that you were moved thereto by any lust for gold or base carnal desire whatever ! al- though, at that time, gold was being sought with equal eagerness along the whole Atlantic border from the voyagers in search of a northwest passage among the arctic ice and snow, who took home the holds of their vessels filled with what they thought to be golden earth to the ungodly ad- venturers at Jamestown in the South! But " who would have expected to find gold on the bleak rocks of Plymouth?" and beside, their historian says, " They knew they were pilgrims, and looked not much on these things, but lifted up their eyes to heaven, their dearest country, and quieted their spirits."! Very well it would seem then that they had indeed no other country to lift their eyes to, for the same historian says, " they had no homes to go to so that at last the magistrates were glad to be rid- of them on any terms." It would not do to call these people " vagabonds," of course, because, with a sanctimonious upturning of the eyes they had said "they looked not much on these things!" But as with an impious familiarity which has always characterized their modes of speech, they " found God going along with them," and turned their eyes upon North Virginia, applying to the Virginia Company for a patent. Bancroft, f Bradford. 24 HISTORICAL AND Now Virginia was understood to be the safest place around which the aroma of hidden wealth in treasure clung, and thither they set out to go in the Speedwell and the Mayflower. They were driven off their course by storms, and landed at Plymouth "on compulsion!" But Sam would remind them that " the beauty and im- measurable wealth of Guiana had been painted in dazzling colors by the brilliant eloquence of Raleigh ; but the terrors of the tropical .climate, the wavering pretensions of England to the soil, and the proximity of bigoted Catholics led them rather to look toward the most northern parts of Virginia." :; We can very well comprehend now, quoth Sam, how, in their humility, they have never emulated the " gallant spirit" of the "vagabond" cavaliers! How many new worlds would have been discovered ? How many Perus and Mexicos conquered? How many Missis- sippis found and Virginias built up, had these stigmatized cavaliers been turned aside by the "terrors" of tropical rli mates, wavering pretensions of kings, or proximity of ad- verse creeds? Bancroft CHAPTER III. Prosperity of the Colony of Jamestown under the rule of Captain Smith Sudden Treachery of the Indians and great Massacre of the Settlers. BUT enough of this. It would seem that under the tute- lary guardianship of Smith, the colonies were now prospering greatly. The first cotton grown in the United States had now been planted under his auspices (1621); and its "plen- tiful coming up" had been a subject of interest in America and England. "Yes," says Sam, "these libertine vagabonds seem likely to prove themselves first in everything." The relations with the natives had been, as yet, compara tively pleasant. There had been quarrels, but no wars. From the first landing of colonists in Virginia, the power of the natives was despised. Their strongest weapons were such arrows as they could shape without the use of iron such hatchets as could be made from stone, and an English mas- tiff seemed to them a terrible adversary. Within sixty miles of Jamestown, it is computed, there were no more than five thousand souls, or about fifteen hundred warriors. The natives, naked and feeble compared with the Europeans, were nowhere concentrated in considerable vil- lages, but dwelt dispersed in hamlets, with from forty to sixty in each company. Few places had more than two hundred, and many had less. It was also unusual for any large por- tion of the tribes to assemble together. Smith once met a party that seemed to amount to seven hundred, and so complete was the superiority conferred by the use of fire-arms, that with fifteen men he was able tc withstand them all. No uniform care had been taken to con ciliate their good-will, although their condition had been improved by some of the arts of civilized life. A house 3 26 26 HISTORICAL AND having been built for Opeehancanough, after the English fashion, he took such delight in the lock and key that he would lock and unlock the door a hundred times a day, and thought the device incomparable. When Wyatt arrived, the natives expressed fear lest his intentions should be hostile. He assured them of his wish to preserve inviolable peace, and the emigrants had no use for tire-arms except against a deer or fowl. The penalty of death for teaching an Indian to use a musket was forgotten ; and they were now employed as fowlers and huntsmen. The plantations of the English were widely extended in unsus- pecting confidence wherever rich land invited to the culture of tobacco ; nor were solitary places avoided, since there would be less competition for the ownership of the soil. Powhattan, the father of Pocahontas, remained, after the marriage of his daughter, the firm friend of the English. He died in 1618, and his younger brother was now the sole heir to his influence. Should the native occupants of the soil consent to be driven from their ancient patrimony ? Should their feebleness submit to contempt, injury, and the loss of their lands? The desire of self-preservation, the necessity of self-defense seemed to demand an active resistance. To preserve their dwellings, the English must be exterminated. In open battle the Indians would be powerless. Conscious of their weakness, they could not hope to accom- plish their end, except by a preconcerted surprise. The crime was one of savage ferocity. They were timorous and quick of apprehension, and consequently treacherous. The attack was concocted with impenetrable secrecy. To the very last hour the Indians preserved the language of friendship ; they borrowed the boats of the English to attend their own as- semblies ; on the very morning of the massacre they were in the houses and at the tables of those whose death they were plotting. " Sooner," said they, " shall the sky fall than peace be violated on our part. 77 At length, on the 22d of March, at one and at the same instant of time, the Indians fell upon an unsuspecting popu- lation, which was scattered through distant villages extending one hundred and forty miles on both sides of the river. The onset was so sudden that the blow was not discerned until it fell. None were spared children and women as well as KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 27 men ; missionaries, who had cherished the natives with un- tiring gentleness ; the liberal benefactors from whom they had received daily kindnesses ; all were murdered with indis- criminate barbarity and every aggravation of cruelty. The savages. fell upon the dead bodies, as if it had been possible to commit on them fresh murder. In one hour three hundred and forty-seven persons were cut off, yet the carnage was not universal, and Virginia was saved from so disastrous a grave. The night before the execution of the conspiracy, it was revealed by a converted Indian to an Englishman whom he wished to rescue. James- town and the nearest settlements were well prepared against an attack, and the savages, as timid as they were ferocious, fled with precipitation from the apparent wakeful resistance. Thus the larger part of the colony was saved. A year, after the massacre, there still remained two thou- sand five hundred men. The total number of the emigrants had exceeded four thousand. Thus it seems that these " dissolute adventurers" had, up to this time, cultivated the most amicable relations with their savage neighbors, and that it was not until this horrible massacre of the trusting colonists, that " plans of industry were entirely succeeded by schemes of revenge," and a war of extermination ensued. These conditions, Sam thinks, as something unlike those which preceded the ruthless slaughter of the miserable and defenseless Pequods by his sanctimoni- ous sons ! Nor does Sam hear anything of " Rum " as a contracting party in the peace which was made with Pow- hattan. This account we epitomize from Bancroft. CHAPTER IV. Origin of "First Families" in Virginia Auction of wives to the Vir- ginians Sam's idea of Aristocracy Virginians obtain the right of trial by Jury of Representative Government also Religious toleration first granted them, repealed. BUT Sam turns now suddenly toward the South, and a hu- morous twinkle broadens on his wide countenance, as he re- gards for a moment the lordly airs of " some of our First Families " then planting his huge finger upon the page of History which follows he bursts into a great guffaw. " * The people of Virginia had not been settled in their minds, 7 and, as before the recent changes, they had gone there with the design of ultimately returning to England, it was necessary to multiply attachments to the soil. Few women had as yet dared to cross the Atlantic ; but now, the promise of prosperity, induced ninety agreeable persons, young and incorrupt, to listen to the wishes of the company, and the benevolent advice of Sandys, and to embark for the colony, where they were assured of a welcome. They were transported at the expense of the corporation, and were mar- ried to the tenants of the company, or to men who were able to support them, and who willingly defrayed the cost of their passage, which was rigorously demanded. The adventure, which had been in part a mercantile speculation, succeeded so well, that it was designed to send, the next year, another consignment of one hundred ; but before these could be col- lected, the company found itself so poor, that its design could be accomplished only by a subscription. After some delays, sixty were actually dispatched maids of virtuous education, young, handsome, and well recommended. The price rose from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pounds 28 REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 29 of tobacco, or even more ; so that all the original charges might be repaid. The debt for a wife was a debt of honor, and took precedence of any other ; and the company in con^ ferring employments, gave preference to the married men. Domestic ties were formed ; virtuous sentiments and habits of thrift ensued; the tide of emigration swelled; within three years, fifty patents for land were granted, and three thousand, five hundred persons found their way to Virginia, which was a refuge even for ' Puritans/ ;; "Hoo, hoo, hoo!" " first families" indeed ! when your great, great grandmothers, were bought off of transport ships for a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco each. " Here is the aristocratic for you !" he shouts hoarsely, clutching with outstretched arm the tufted crest of an Alleghany summit, which he rocks and heaves as if to tear it by its roots from out his path, and thereby shaking the chain along its whole length into a shiver. " The power and will to do to move to overcome this is my aris- tocracy." The indignation of Sam was only transient, for as he saw the startled mountains cradled back to sleep again in short- ened vibrations, he smiled complacently, and said, with a slow speech and humorous twinkle : " Why, that youngster of mine, California, will, at this rate, soon be pluming him- self upon a special aristocratic caste, sprung from the loins of those innocent maidens captivated and bewitched into his embraces by that enterprising admirer of the multiplication and replenishing of the earth system Mrs. Farnham ! " But then, he adds thoughtfully, with his foot in a notch, and leaning his elbow upon the now quiet summit of the mountains as he looks out on the West " this young fellow is rather knowing of his age ; he was born with a pickaxe in his hand; and understands that honor is alone to be won by labor he '11 do." But the mood of Sam has suddenly changed ; and so ye slavish " Howlers of the East," it has never got into your " round heads," that after the formal concession of " legisla- tive liberties," the next charter of rights obtained for the " liberty of which ye cant so much, was that of the right of trial by jury of peers" in this profligate and ungodly colony of Virginia ! and furthermore, that this right was 3* 30 HISTORICAL AND obtained in defiance of the interference of King James, by tbe London Company, who elected as Treasurer, the Earl of Southampton, the early friend of Shakspeare ! Under this organization, the Treasurer was in reality the most important officer. Indeed nothing could move without his co-operation, and " it is natural," says Sam, " that the early friend of Shakespeare who was so far before the old world in reach of freedom of thought should have been the earli- est promoter of the right of trial by jury in the New World." Sam disdains to call himself the "child of Shakespeare," or anybody else, because he is alone the child of the elements, and his children the sons of Sam ; yet it rather pleases the stalwart gentleman that his children down South obtained the "right of trial by jury" first through an early friend of Shakespeare, and perpetuated it, together with the novelty of "legislative liberties" to all the other colonies. The system of representative government and trial by jury was thus (1621) established in the new hemisphere as an acknowledged right. The colonists ceasing to depend as servants on a commercial company, now became enfranchised citizens. Henceforward the supreme power was held to re- side in the hands of the colonial parliament and of the King, as King of Virginia. The ordinance was the basis on which Virginia erected the superstructure of its liberties. Its in- fluences were wide and enduring, and can be traced through all following years of the history of the colony. It consti- tuted the plantation in its infancy a nursery of freemen, and succeeding generations learned to cherish institutions which were as old as the first period of the prosperity of their fathers. The privileges which were now conceded could never be wrested from the Virginians ; and as new colonies arose at the South, their proprietaries could hope to win emigrants only by bestowing franchises as large as those enjoyed by their elder rival. The London company merits the fame of having acted as the successful friend of liberty in America. It may be doubted whether any public act during the reign of King James was of more permanent or pervading influence ; and it reflects glory on the Earl of Southampton, Sir Edwin Sandys, and the patriot party of England, who, unable to REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 31 establish guarantees of a liberal administration at home, were careful to connect popular freedom so intimately with the life, prosperity and state of society of Virginia, that they never could be separated. Thus it would appear, says Sam, that my dissolute vaga- bonds of Virginia managed to thrive in one way and another amazingly. Not only did they contrive to obtain first from the Crown those concessions which constitute in themselves the magna charta of American freedom, and were afterward emulated and imitated in the constitutions of other colonies, but they likewise set the noble example of religious tolera- tion, and while their bigoted and canting brothers of Ply- mouth were banishing a Roger Williams and the Anabap- tists, hanging the inoffensive Quakers, burning, pressing, and drawing and quartering miserable old women, under the name of witches ; these profligate colonists, although firm believers in the union of church and state, were inviting these very Puritans- to come among them and settle in peace. The condition of contending parties in England had now given to Virginia an opportunity of legislation independent of European control ; and the voluntary act of the assembly restraining religious liberty, adopted from hostility to polit- ical innovation, rather than a spirit of fanaticism, or respect to instructions, proves conclusively the attachment of the representatives of Virginia to the Episcopal church and the cause of royalty. Yet there had been Puritans in the colony almost from the beginning ; even the Brownists were freely offered a serene asylum. " Here," said the tolerant Whita- ker, " neither surplice nor subscription is spoken of," and sev- eral Puritan clergy emigrated to Virginia. They were so contented with their reception, that large numbers were pre- paring to follow, and were restrained only by the forethought of English intolerance. We have seen that the Pilgrims at Plymouth were invited to remove within the jurisdiction of Virginia ; Puritan merchants planted themselves at James river without fear, and emigrants from Massachusetts had recently established themselves in the colony. The honor of Land had been vindicated by a judicial sentence, and south of the Potomac the decrees of the court of high commission were allowed to be valid, but I find no traces of persecution in the earliest history of Virginia. 82 HISTORICAL AND This is the self same historian who calls the early settlers of Virginia by such terrible hard names and denounces them as under the ban of Providence, because of their un worthi- ness to become the perpetuators of a race of freemen. " Strange," says Sam, " that a people accursed of God should have been the very originators of the fundamental ideas of freedom." Although this gracious invitation had, by a special mission sent to Boston for the purpose, been extended in form to the ministers of Puritanism to come and settle in Virginia, yet the breaking out of the democratic revolution in England alarmed the loyalty of the colonists, who now dreaded the well-known meddlesome, prying, mischief-making proclivities of the malignant Calvinists which had procured their extir- pation from the old world, and the invitation was withdrawn and such non-conformists with Episcopacy were very properly banished from the colony. Sam says they did perfectly right in this, for from all the facts of their old world career, the Virginians had the very best reasons for expecting nothing but incendiary agitation at such a crisis, and were justly indisposed to warm a viper in their own bosoms. The historians of Puritanism are compelled to speak of this justifiable act of self-defense only in such modified terms as the following : " Virginia thus displayed, though with comparatively little bitterness, the intolerance which for cen- turies had almost universally prevailed throughout the Christian world." CHAPTER V. Repeal of Charter of London Company The Bacon Rebellion Death of Bacon and character of same. BUT the great event of Virginia history was the repeal of the Charter of the London Company about this period, (June, 1624,) and the colony now became dependent upon herself her own legislative assembly and the king directly. They purchased a confirmation of all those franchises which the liberal prepossessions of the London Company had gradually conceded by the struggle for the surrender of the monopoly of tobacco to the spendthrift monarch Charles I. " The first recognition on the pa,rt of a Stuart of a representative assem- bly in America " was of that called by Charles to consider his offer of a contract for the whole crop of tobacco. The erring monarch, to obtain the monopoly, carelessly overlooked the dangers of this elective legislature. Fortu- nate recklessness ! though the firmness of the Virginia Assem- bly defeated him. Yet this auspicious event has its drawbacks, which proved sufficiently formidable, beyond a doubt. This first attach- ment of the crown was rapidly followed by other interferences with, and encroachments upon, the liberty of trade, until at last, in 1641, "England claimed that monopoly of colonial commerce which was ultimately enforced by the navigation act of Charles II." Charles I, although he had pertinaciously expressed his " will and pleasure to have the sole pre-emption of all tobacco," had as yet failed of accomplishing his object. He, however, by a cunning indirection, finally succeeded in achieving what amounted to the same end. 33 34: HISTORICAL AND No vessel laden with colonial commodities might sail from the harbors of Virginia for any ports but those of England, that the staple of those commodities might be made in the mother country ; and all trade with foreign vessels, except in case of necessity, was forbidden. This ordinance, which constituted the original of the oppressive " Navigation Act," was the cause of infinite and grievous troubles to the Vir- ginia colony. In 1676, while the Indian war was still going on, com- plaints were made in England against the colonies for violat- ing the acts of trade. These acts imposed oppressive customs upon certain commodities, if imported from any country beside England, or if transported from one colony to another. The acts were considered by the colonies as unjust, impolitic and cruel. For several years they paid little attention to them, and his majesty at length required that agents should be sent to England to answer in behalf of the colonies for these violations. By the acts of trade none of the colonies suffered more than Virginia and Maryland, their operation being greatly to lessen the profits on their tobacco trade, from which a great portion of their wealth was derived. In addition to these sufferings, the colony of Virginia, in fiolation of chartered rights^ was divided and conveyed away in proprietary grants. Not only uncultivated woodlands were thus conveyed, but also plantations which had long been possessed, and improved according to law and charter. The Virginians complained, petitioned, remonstrated, but without effect. Agents were sent to England to lay their grievances at the foot of the throne, but were unsuccessful. At length their oppression became insupportable, and the discontent of the people broke out into open insurrection. At the head of this insurrection was placed one Nathaniel Bacon, an Englishman, who, soon after his arrival had been appointed a member of the council. He was a young man of commanding person, and great energy and enterprise. The colony at this time was engaged in war with the Sus- quehanna Indians. Bacon dispatched a messenger to Gov- ernor Berkley, requesting a commission to go against the Indians. This commission the governor refused, and, at the same time, ordered Bacon to dismiss his men, and on penalty BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 35 of being declared a rebel, to appear before himself and the council. Exasperated by such treatment, Bacon, without dis- banding the rest of his men, proceeded in a sloop with forty of them, to Jamestown. Here a quarrel ensued, and Berk- ley illegally suspended him from the council. Bacon departed in a rage with his sloop and men, but the governor pursued him, and adopted such measures that he was taken, and brought to Jamestown. Finding that he had dismissed Bacon from the council illegally, he now admitted him again, and treated him kindly. Soon after, Bacon renewed his importunity for a commission against the Indians. Being unable to effect his purpose, he left Jamestown privately, but soon again appeared with six hundred volunteers, and demanded of the assembly then sit- ting, the required commission. Being overawed, the assem- bly advised the governor to grant it. But soon after Bacon had departed, the governor, by the same advice, issued a proclamation, denouncing him as a rebel. Hearing what the governor had done, Bacon, instead of marching against the Indians, returned to Jamestown, wreak- ing his vengeance upon all who opposed him. Governor Berkley fled across the bay to Accomac, but the spirit of rebellion had gone before him. He therefore found himself unable to resist Bacon, who now ranged the country at pleasure. At length, the governor, with a small force under com- mand of major Robert Beverly, crossed the bay to oppose the malcontents. Civil war had now commenced. Jamestown was burnt by Bacon's followers ; various parts of the colony were pillaged, and the wives of those that adhered to the governor's party were carried to the camp of the insurgents. In the midst of these commotions, it pleased the Supreme Ruler to withdraw Bacon by a natural death. The malcon- tents, thus left to recover their reason, now began to disperse. Two of Bacon's generals surrendered and were pardoned, and the people quietly returned to their homes. Upon this Berkley resumed the government, and peace was restored. This rebellion formed an era of some note in the history of Virginia, and its unhappy effects were felt for thirty years. During its continuance, husbandry was almost wholly neglected, and such havoc was made among all kinds 86 HISTORICAL AND of cattle that the people were threatened with distressing famine. Sir William Berkley, after having been forty years governor of Virginia, returned to England, where he soon after died. Three years afterward, 1679, lord Culpepper was sent over as governor, with certain laws prepared in conformity to the wishes of the ministry of England, and designed to be enacted by the assembly in Virginia. One of those laws provided for raising a revenue for the support of the government. It made the duties perpetual, and* placed them under the direc- tion of his majesty. On presenting these laws to the Assembly, Culpepper in- formed them that in case they were passed, he had instructions to offer pardon to all who had been concerned in Bacon's re- bellion, but if not, he had commissions to try and hang them as rebels, and a regiment of soldiers on the spot to support him. The Assembly, thus threatened, passed the laws. Berkley resumed the government indeed, but it seems to have been a bloody peace which he restored. After the death of Bacon, the mortified vanity of the irascible old cavalier raged against his broken and disbanded followers and abettors, until twenty-two had been hanged. It will be recollected, however, that he was a royalist governor, appointed by the king, and that his victims were the first martyrs to freedom on the American soil. Even the king disapproved of his ferocity. "The old fool," said the kind-hearted Charles II, " has taken away more lives in that naked country, than I for the murder of my father." " He would have hanged half the country had we let him alone," said the colonial member from Northampton to his colleague from Stafford. The Nathaniel Bacon who headed this unfortunate (in one sense only that he died so early,) rebellion, appears to have been from the first distrusted by Berkley. A native of Eng- land, born during the contests between parliament and the king, his active mind had been awakened to a consciousness of popular rights and popular power, he had not, therefore," yielded the love of freedom to the enthusiasm of royalty. " Possessed of a pleasant address and powerful elocution," he had rapidly risen to distinction in Virginia. Quick of appre- hension, brave, choleric, yet discreet in action, the young and wealthy planter carried to the banks of James river, the KEVOLUTIOXARY INCIDENTS. 37 liberal principles which he had gathered from " English experience;" no wonder, then, that groaning under the grievous imposition of the " navigation acts," under the arbitrary distribution of their lands many of which were old, settled and improved plantations given away without any regard to the rights of the settlers, by the careless prod- igality of Charles II, to such men as Lord Culpepper, one of the most covetous in England, and Henry, Earl of Arling- ton, the dissolute, but accomplished father-in-law to the king's son by lady Castlemain, who, in a word, became jointly, fac- tors of the King as joint owners of Virginia together with the immediate pressure of a fierce war with the Susquehan- nas and Seneca Indians, retaliations for which the royalist, Governor Berkley, refused to sanction with his commission to Bacon; no wonder then, we say, that the people were " much infected" with the principles of this gallant planter, and of the Speaker of their assembly, Thomas Godwin, "notoriously a friend to all the rebellion and treason which distracted Vir- ginia ;" no wonder, too, that the gallant Bacon was hailed as the " darling of their hopes, the appointed defender of Vir- ginia," when, having been elected by the Assembly, com- mander-in-chief, he took charge of the " grand rebellion in Virginia !" The rebels under his command, both in the field and as a leading burgess in the Assembly, having compelled the un- willing Berkley to concede many important demands for amelioration, and this grateful feature of the legislation of the Assembly having been ratified, " that better legislation " was completed, according to the new style of computation, on the fourth day of July, 1676, just one hundred years to a day, before the Congress of the United States adopting the declaration which had been framed by a statesman of Virginia, who, like Bacon, was " popularly inclined," began a new era in the history of man. The eighteenth century in Virginia was the child of the seventeenth ; and Bacon's rebellion, with the corresponding scenes in Maryland, Carolina, and New England, was the early harbinger of American independence and American nationality. " Pretty good," says Sam, " for my Southern vagabonds !" 4 PART II. CHAPTER VI. A new mystery The rise of Luther and Protestant wars Alvent of the mystery of Jesuitism. THOUGH Sam was in himself a mystery of the New "World, yet was he not the only clouded Force to which these por- tentous times gave birth, and which was to become alike his foe and the terror of the old world as well as the New. A mysterious Force! yes, a terrible mystery! the mys- tery of spiritual annihilation ! the mystery of " walking corpses " of humanity demonized to the greater glory of God! Momentous years were those (1537 and 1620) which gave hirth to the order of Jesuits and to Sam. Memorable forever will they be in the record of human struggle. Strange that out of the mighty travail of the Protestant Revolution of the sixteenth century in Europe should have sprung these two births, the one so eventful to tho death, the other to the life of hope for humanity ! that to the smiting of the powerful wands of Luther and Calvin, upon the shadowy turmoil these giant foes stepped forth, the one be- neath the sun of day, the other beneath the umbrage of deep night. But as we have looked upon the birth of Sam, seen some- thing of the stormy contrasts and opposing traits which con- stituted the majestic elements of the formative period of his career ; have, in a word, regarded his prodigious infancy at * Perinde ac cadaver The last words of the founder of the order of Jesuits. 38 .REVOLUTIONARY. INCIDENTS. 39 the North and at the South, in the early Puritan and Cav- alier, we may now turn our eyes on the same period in the coming of his arch and most deadly enemy. The sixteenth century was, indeed, a period of ferment in the world's history ! Absolutism had attained the climax of prerogative throughout the Christian world. Europe was divided between three masters, Henry VIII, of England, Francis I, of France, and Charles V, of Spain, who held it in as many fields, and were fighting a triangular battle for the possession of the whole, with the aid of mercenary armies ; for the feudal system, trampled in the dust, was no longer rampant to the setting up and pulling down of kings. The gold of the newly-discovered Western World of Sam had now become a puissant arbitrator in these kingly quarrels, and soon the old time chimera of the " balance of power" seemed likely to come home to roost beneath the roof-tree of Charles V, of Spain. Henry VIII, who, between the divorcing and beheading his wives, plundering the monasteries and keeping in check beneath his heel the dying throes of the "king-making" turbulence the "Warwick" blood of his nobility found suf- ficient employment at home, after the issue of the electoral Congress of Frankfort, to retire upon from this contest and leave France and Spain to fight it out. Their wars con- tinued to redden the fields of Europe with but little avail. Meanwhile, as a compensation for these evils, the human mind, casting off the prejudices and ignorance of the middle ages, marches to regeneration. Italy becomes for the second time the center from whence the light of genius and learn- ing shines forth over Europe. Leonardo da Vinci, Tiziano, Michael Angelo, are the sublime, the most divine interpreters of art. Pulci, Ariosto Poliziano, give a new and creative impulse to literature, and are the worthy descendants of Dante. Scholasticism, with its subtle argumentations, vague reasonings, and illogical deductions, is superseded by the practical philosophy of Lorenzo and Machiavelli, and by the irresistible and eloquent logic of the virtuous but unfortunate Savonarola. Men who, for the last three centuries, had been satisfied with w r hat had been taught and said by Aristotle and his followers who, as the last and incontrovertible argument, had been accustomed to exclaim, ipse dixit, now 40 HISTORICAL AND begin to think for themselves, and dare to doubt and discuss what had hitherto been considered sacred and unassailable truths. The newly-awakened human intellect eagerly enters upon the new path, and becomes argumentative and inquir- ing, to the great dismay of those who deprecated diversity of faith ; and the Court of Home, depending on the blind obedience of the credulous, anathematizing every disputer of the Papal infallibility, views with especial concern this rising spirit of inquiry, and has to tremble for its usurped power. Luther, the dogged monk, with the yearnings of an en- slaved and trampled world, writhing like vexed serpents in his brawny breast, having been treated with contumely in his first humble appeal to his spiritual father, the Pope, for the solution of the conscientious doubts which had overtaken him in his too earnest study of the " Holy Book/ 7 threw himself suddenly upon his own obdurate arid self-reliant will, and hurling his defiance back against his late master, in answer to the Bull of Excommunication with which he had been favored, stood cap-a-pie, in the breach which he had already made, to battle to the death for his doctrines. The art of printing came opportunely to his aid, and wielding its magic, marvelous to tell, this burly champion proved meet to encounter, visor up and single hand, the ser- ried chivalry of Europe and the wrong. The German princes, partly persuaded of the truth of Luthers' doctrines, partly desirous to escape the exacting tyranny of Rome which drained their subjects' pockets, sup- ported the Reformer. They protested at Spires, and at Smalkaden made preparations to maintain their protest by arms. In a few years, without armed violence, but simply by the persuasive force of truth, the greater part of Germany became converted to the Reformed faith. The honest in- dignation of Zuinglius in Switzerland, and, conspiring with the diffusion of the truth, the unbridled passions of Henry VIII in England, alike rescued a considerable portion of their respective countries from the Romish yoke. In France and in Navarre the new doctrines found many warm adherents ; while in Italy itself, at Brescia, Pisa, Florence, nay even at Rome and at Faenza, there were many who more or less openly embraced the principles of the Reformation. Thus, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 41 in a short time, the Roman religion, founded in ancient and deep-rooted prejudices, supported by the two greatest powers in the world, the Pope and the Emperor, defended by all the bishops and priests who lived luxuriously by it, was overturned throughout a great part of Europe. Now was the time, when gloom had settled upon the cupola, of St. Peter's, when the thunders of the Vatican were tamed, and the debauched and hoary despotism of Rome tottered on a throne of straw now was the time which was to add terror to terror, crime to crime, which, in a new birth of darkness, was to people earth with incarnate ghosts more drear and powerful of evil than the creatures of a supernal hell. The period had come when, in the dulcet language of the Fathers of the Church, it was declared " that, as from time to time new heresies have inflicted the Church of God, so He has raised up holy men to combat them ; and as he had raised up St. Dominic against the Albigenses and Vaudois, so He sent Loyola and hi disciples against the Lutherans and Calvinists." It is of this new mystery, according to such authority, "raised up by God," to resist those elements out of which the birth of Sam came, that we would now proceed to nar- rate. Helyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, Religieux et Militaires, tome vii, p. 452. When we have modern authors we quote from Sacchinus Or- landinus, etc., we shall quote them, as books are easily to be had. 4* CHAPTER VII. Life of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Order Spiritual exercises The Weeks The Contemplations Loyola a Pilgrim to the Holy Places His persecutions His first disciples, Xavier, Le Fevre Lainez and Rodri- gues vow to go to the Holy Land and convert Infidels Vow of perpetual chastity and poverty The vow of unquestioning obedience Refusal of the Holy See to recognize the Order Cunning vow of obedience to the Pope Obtains his recognition Bull of recognition. INIGO, or, as commonly called, Ignatius Loyola, the young- est of eleven children, of a noble and ancient family, was born in the year 1491, in his father's castle of Loyola at Guipuscoa in Spain. He was of middle stature and rather dark complexion ; had deep-set, piercing eyes, and a hand- some and noble countenance. While yet young he had be- come bald, which gave him an expression of dignity, that was not impaired by a lameness arising from a severe wound. His father, a worldly man, as his biographer says, instead of sending him to some holy community to be instructed in religion and piety, placed him as a page at the court of Fer- dinand V. But Ignatius, naturally of a bold and aspiring disposition, soon found that no glory was to be reaped in the antechambers of the Catholic King ; and delighting in mili- tary exercises, he became a soldier and a brave one he proved. His historians, to make his subsequent conversion appear more wonderful and miraculous, have represented him as a perfect monster of iniquity ; but, in truth, he was merely a gay soldier, fond of pleasure, no doubt, yet not more de- bauched than the generality of his brother officers. His profligacy, whatever it was, did not prevent him from being a man of strict honor, never backward in time of danger. At the defense of Pampeluna against the French, in 1521, Ignatius, while bravely performing his duty on the walls, was struck down by a ball, which disabled both his legs. 42 REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 43 With him fell the courage of the besieged. They yielded , and the victors entering the town, found the wounded officer, and kindly sent him to his father's castle, which was not far distant. Here he endured all the agonies which generally attend gunshot wounds, and an inflammatory fever which supervened, brought him to the verge of the grave when, "O! miracle!" exclaims his biographer, "it being the eve of the feast of the glorious saints Peter and Paul, the prince of the apostles appeared to him in a vision, and touched him, whereby he was, if not immediately restored to health, at least put in a fair way of recovery." Now the fact is, that the patient uttered not a syllable regarding his vision at the time; nevertheless, we are gravely assured that the miracle was not the less a fact. Be this, however, as it may, Igna- tius undoubtedly recovered, though slowly. During his long convalescence, he sought to beguile the tedious hours of irksome inactivity passed in the sick cham- ber by reading all the books of knight-errantry which could be procured. The chivalrous exploits of the Rolands and Amadises made a deep impression upon his imagination, which, rendered morbidly sensitive by a long illness, may well be supposed to have been by no means improved by such a course of study. When these books were exhausted, some pious friend brought him the Lives of the Saints. This work, however, not suiting his taste, Ignatius at first flung it aside in disgust, but afterward, from sheer lack of better amusement, he began to read it. It presented to him a new phase of the romantic and marvelous, in which he so much delighted. He soon became deeply interested, and read it over and over again. The strange adventures of these saints the praise, the adoration, the glorious renown which they acquired, so fired his mind, that he almost forgot his favorite Paladins. His ardent ambition saw here a new career opened up to it. He longed to become a saint. Yet the military life had not lost its attractions for him. It did not require the painful preparations necessary to earn a saintly reputation, and was, moreover, more in accordance with his education and tastes. He long hesitated which course to adopt whether he should win the laurels of a hero, or earn the crown of a saint. Had he perfectly recovered from the effects of his wound, there is little doubt but that he 44 HlSTOEICAL AND would have chosen the laurels. But this was not to be. Although he was restored to health, his leg remained hope- lessly deformed he was a cripple for life. It appeared that his restorer, St. Peter, although upon the whole a tolerably good, physician, was by no means an expert surgeon. The broken bone of his leg had not been properly set ; part of it protruded through the skin below the knee, and the limb was short. Sorely, but vainly, did Ignatius strive to remove these impediments to a military career, which his unskillful though saintly surgeon had permitted to remain. He had the projecting piece of bone sawn off, and his shortened leg painfully extended by mechanical appliances, in the hope of restoring it to its original fine proportions. The attempt failed ; so he found himself, at the age of thir- ty-two, with a shrunken limb, with little or no renown, and by his incurable lameness, rendered but slightly capable of acquiring military glory. Nothing then remained for him but to become a saint. Saintship being thus, as it were, forced upon him, he at once set about the task of achieving it, with all that ardor which he brought to bear upon every pursuit. He became daily absorbed in the most profound meditations, and made a full confession of all his past sins, which was so often inter- rupted by his passionate outbursts of penitent weeping, that it lasted three days. To stimulate his devotion, he lacerated his flesh with the scourge, and abjuring his past life, he hung up his sword beside the altar in the church of the convent of Montserrat. Meeting a beggar on the public road, he exchanged clothes with him, and thus habited in the loathsome rags of the mendicant, he retired to a cave near Menreze, where he nearly starved himself. When he next reappeared in public, he found his hopes almost realized. His fame had spread far and wide ; the people flocked from all quarters to see him visited his cave with feelings of reverend curiosity and nothing was thought of but the holy man and his severe penances. But now the Evil Spirit began to assail him. The tender con- science of Ignatius began to torment him with the fear that all this public notice had made him proud ; that, while he had Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Mon., Bel. et Mil., tome vii, page 456. ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 45 almost begun to consider himsell a saint, lie was, in reality, by reason of that belief itself, the most heinous of sinners. So imbittered did his life become in consequence of these thoughts, that he went well nigh distracted. But God supported him ; and the Tempter, baffled in his attempts, fled. Ignatius fasted for seven days, neither eat- ing nor drinking ; went again to the confessional, and, re- ceiving absolution, was not only delivered from the stings of his own conscience, but obtained the gift of healing the troubled consciences of others?* This miraculous gift Ignatius is be- lieved to have transmitted to his successors, and it is in a great measure to this belief, that the enormous influence of the Company of Jesus is to be attributed, as we shall see hereafter. Now that Ignatius could endure his saintship, without be- ing overwhelmed by a feeling of sinfulness, he pursued his course with renewed alacrity. Yet it was in itself by no means an attractive one. In order to be a perfect Cath- olic saint, a man must become a sort of misanthrope cast aside wholesome and cleanly apparel, go about clothed in filthy rags, wearing haircloth next his skin, and, renouncing the world and its inhabitants, must retire to some noisome den, there to live in solitary meditation, with wild roots and water for food, daily applying the scourge to expiate his sins of which, according to one of the disheartening doc- trines of the Catholic Church, even the just commit at least seven a day. The saint must enter into open rebellion against the laws and instincts of human nature, and consequently, against the will of the Creator. And although it can not be denied that some of the founders of monastic orders conscien- tiously believed that their rules were conducive to holiness and eternal beatitude, nevertheless, we may with justice, charge them with overlooking the fact that, as the transgres- sion of the laws of nature invariably brings along with it its own punishment a certain evidence of the Divine displea- sure true holiness can not consist in disregarding and op- posing them. Ignatius, however, continued his life of penance, made to the Virgin Mary a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Mon., Rel. et Mil., tome vii, page 456. 46 HISTORICAL AND begged for bread, often scourged himself, and spent many hours a day in prayer and meditation. What he meditated upon, God only knows. After a few months of this ascetic life, he published a little book, which much increased his fame for sanctity. It is a small octavo volume, and bears the title of Spiritual Exercises* As this work, the only one he has left, is the acknowledged standard of the Jesuits' re- ligious practice, and is by them extolled to the skies, we must say some few words about it. First of all we shall relate the supernatural origin assigned to it by the disciples and panegyrists of its author. He (Ignatius) had already done much for God's sake, and God now rendered it back to him with usury. A courtier, a man of pleasure, and a soldier, he had neither the time nor the will to gather knowledge from books. But the knowl- edge of man, the most difficult of all, was divinely revealed to him. The master who was to form so many masters, was himself formed by divine illumination. He composed the Spiritual Exercises, a work which had a most important place in his life, and is powerfully reflected in the history of his disciples. This quotation is from Cretineau Joly, (vol. i, p. 18,) an author who professes not to belong to the society but whose book was published under the patronage of the Jesuits, who, he says, opened to him all the. depositories of unpublished letters and manuscripts in their principal convent, the Gesu at Eome ; he wrote also a virulent pamphlet against the great Pontiff Clement XIV, the suppressor of the Jesuits. Hence we consider ourselves fairly entitled to rank the few quotations we shall make from him as among those emanat- ing from the writers that belong to the Order ; and we are confident that no Jesuit would ever think of repudiating Cretineau Joly. This author proceeds to state that in the manuscript in which Father Jouvency narrates in elegant By the term Spiritual Exercises, Catholics understand that course of solitary prayer and religious meditation, generally extended over many days, which candidates for holy orders have to perform in the seclusion of a convent, previous to being consecrated. Again, when a priest incurs the displeasure of his Superior, he is sent as a sort of prisoner to some convent, there to perform certain prescribed spiritual exercises, which, in this case, may last from one to three weeks. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 47 Latin those strange events, it is said this light shed by the divine will upon Ignatius showed him openly and without vail the mystery of the adorable T'rinty and other arcana of re- ligion. He remained for eight days as if deprived of life. What he witnessed during this ecstatic trance, as well as in many other visions which he had during life, no one knows. He had indeed committed these celestial visions to paper, but shortly before his death he burned the book containing them, lest it should fall into unworthy hands. A few pages, how- ever, escaped his precautions, and from them one can easily conjecture that he must have been from day to clay loaded with still greater favors. Chiefly was he sweetly ravished in contemplating the dignity of Christ the Lord, and his in- conceivable charity toward the human race. As the mind of Ignatius was filled with military ideas, he figured to himself Christ as a general fighting for the divine glory, and calling on all men to gather under his standard. Hence sprang his desire to form an army of which Jesus should be the chief and commander, the standard inscribed "Ad major em Dei Gloriam" With deference to M. Joly, we think that a more mundane origin may be found for the " Exercises/' in the feverish dreams of a heated imagination. Be this as it may, however, we shall proceed to lay before our readers a short analysis of it, extracted from Cardinal Wiseman's preface to the last edition. He says : " This is a practical, not a theoretical work. It is not a treatise on sin or on virtue ; it is not a method of Christian perfection, but it contains the entire practice of perfection, by making us at once conquer sin and acquire the highest virtue. The person who , goes through the Exercises is not instructed, but is made to act; and this took will not be intelligible apart from this view." The reader will observe that it is divided into four weeks; and each of these has a specific object, to advance the exer- citant an additional step toward perfect virtue. If the work of each week be thoroughly done, this is actually accomplished* "The first week has for its aim the cleansing of the con- science from past sin, and of the affections from their future dangers. For this purpose, the soul is made to convince The italics here are our own. 48 HISTORICAL AND itself deeply of the true end of its being to serve God and be saved, and of the real inutility of all else. This considera- tion has been justly called by St. Ignatius, the principle or foundation of the entire system." The Cardinal assures us that the certain result of this first week's exercises is, that "sin is abandoned, hated, loathed." " In the second, the life of Christ is made our model; by a series of contemplations of it, we become familiar with its virtues, enamored of his perfections ; we learn, by copying him, to be obedient to God and man ; meek, humble, affec- tionate ; zealous, charitable, and forgiving; men of only one wish and one thought that of doing ever God's holy will alone ; discreet, devout, observant of every law, scrupulous performers of every duty. Every meditation on these sub- jects shows us how to do all this ; in fact, makes us really do it. The third week brings us to this. Having desired and tried to be like Christ in action, we are brought to wish and to endeavor to be like unto him in suffering. Eor this purpose his sacred passion becomes the engrossing subject of the Exercises. But she (the soul) must be convinced and feel, that if she suffers, she also shall be glorified with him ; and hence the fourth and concluding week raises the soul to the consideration of those glories which crowned the humilia- tions and suffering of our Lord." Then after a highly fig- urative eulogium upon the efficacy of the Exercises " duly performed," the reverend prelate proceeds to show that the one "essential element of a spiritual retreat," (for so the Exercises reduced to action are properly called,) " is direction" In the Catholic church no one is ever allowed to trust him- self in spiritual matters. The sovereign pontiff is obliged to submit himself to the direction of another in whatever con- cerns his own soul. The life of a good retreat is a good director of it. This director modifies, (according to certain written rules,) the order of the Exercises, to adapt them to the peculiar character of the exercitant ; regulates the time employed in them, watches their effects, and like a physician prescribing for a patient, varies the treatment according to the symptoms exhibited, encouraging those which seem favorable, and suppressing those which are detrimental to the Stephens. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 49 desired result. " Let no one," says the Cardinal, " think of undertaking these holy Exercises without the guidance of a prudent and experienced director." It will be seen that the weeks of the Exercises do not mean necessarily a period of seven days. The original period of their performance was certainly a month; but even so, more or less time was allotted to each week's work according to the discretion of the director. Now, except in very par- ticular circumstances, the entire period is abridged to ten days ; sometimes it is still further reduced, It will be observed from the above extracts that the Car- dinal, ignoring the fact that the sinner's conversion must be effected entirely by the operation of the Holy Spirit, seems to regard the unregenerate human soul merely as a piece of raw material, which the " director " may, as it were, manu- facture into a saint, simply by subjecting it to the process prescribed in the Exercises. In regard to the merits of the book, I cannot agree either with Wiseman or a very brilliant Protestant writer, who, speaking of the approbation bestowed on it by Pope Paul III, says " Yet on this subject the chair of Knox, if now filled by himself, would not be very widely at variance with the throne of St. Peter." The book certainly does not deserve this high eulogium. However, it cannot be denied that, amidst many recommendations of many absurd and super- stitious practices proper to the Popish religion, the little volume does contain some very good maxims and precepts. For instance, here are two passages to which I am sure that not even the most anti-Catholic Protestant could reasonably object. At page 16 it is said : " Man was created for this end, that he might praise and reverence the Lord his God, and, serving him, at length be saved, f But the other things which are placed on the earth were created for man's sake, that they might assist him in pursuing the end of creation, whence it follows, that they are to be used or abstained from in proportion as they benefit or hinder him in pursuing that end. Wherefore we ought to be indifferent toward all created things (in so far as they are subject to the liberty of our will, and not prohibited), so ff Stephens. fSee the Shorter Catechism, Qu. 1. 60 HISTORICAL AND that (to the best of our power) we seek not health more than sickness, nor prefer riches to poverty, honor to contempt, a long life to a short one. But it is fitting, out of all, to choose and desire those things only which lead to the end." And again, at page 33, "the third (article for meditation) is, to consider myself; who or what kind I am, adding comparisons which may bring me to a greater contempt of myself ; as if I reflect how little I am when compared with all men, then what the whole multitude of mortals is, as compared with the angels and all the blessed : after these things I must consider what, in fact, all the creation is in comparison with God, the Creator, himself; what now can I, one mere human being, be ! Lastly, let me look at the corruption of my whole self, the wickedness of my soul, and the pollution of my body, and account myself to be a kind of ulcer or boil, from which so great and foul a flood of sins, so great a pestilence of vices has flown down. " The fourth is to consider what God is, whom I have thus offended, collecting the perfections which are God's peculiar attributes and comparing them with my opposite vices and defects ; comparing, that is to say, his supreme power, wis- dom, goodness, and justice, with my extreme weakness, ignorance, wickedness, and iniquity." But then the above Exercises are followed by certain Ad- ditions, which are recommended as conducing to their better performance. Some of these are very strange ; for instance, the fourth is, " to set about the Contemplation itself, now kneel- ing on the ground, now lying on my face or on my back, now sitting or standing, and composing myself, in the way in which I may hope the more easily to attain what I desire. In which matter, these two things must be attended to ; the first that if, on my knees or in any other posture, I obtain what I wish, I seek nothing further. The second, that on the point in which I shall have attained the devotion I seek, I ought to rest, without being anxious about pressing on until I shall have satisfied myself. The sixth, that I avoid those thoughts which bring joy, as that of the glorious resurrection of Christ ; since any such thought hinders the tears and grief for my sins, which must then be sought by calling in mind rather death or judgment. The seventh, that, for the same reason, I deprive myself of all the brightness of the light, KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 51 shutting the doors and windows so long as I remain there fin my chamber), except while I have to read, or take my food." At page 55 we find, in the second Week : " The Fifth Con- templation is the application of the senses to those (contem- plations) mentioned above. After the preparatory prayer, with the three already mentioned preludes, it is eminently useful to exercise the five imaginary senses concerning the first and second contemplations in the following way, accord- ing as the subject shall bear : ' The first point will be, to see in imagination all the per- sons, and, noting the circumstances which shall occur con- cerning them, to draw out what may be profitable to ourselves. * The second, by hearing as it were, what they are saying, or what it may be natural for them to say, to turn all to our own advantage. ' The third, to perceive, by a certain inward taste and smell, how great is the sweetness and delightfulness of the soul imbued with divine gifts and virtues, according to the nature of the person we are considering, adapting to our- selves those things which may bring us some fruit. 1 The fourth, by an inward touch, to handle and kiss the garments, places, footsteps, and other things connected with such persons ; whence we may derive a greater increase of devotion, or of any spiritual good. * This contemplation will be terminated, like the former ones, by adding in like manner, Pater noster.' 7: At page 52, among other things " to be noted," is: " The second, that the first exercise concerning the Incarna- tion of Christ is performed at midnight ; the next at dawn ; the third about the hour of mass ; the f jurth about the time of vespers ; the fifth a little before supper, and on each of them will be spent the space of one hour ; which same thing has to be observed henceforward, everywhere." CHAPTER VIII. The deadly war of the Jesuits against Protestantism continued in the New World Cant of Bancroft the Historian Illustrations Martyrdom? Facts and Motives of Jesuit Missions League of the Iroquois Intrigues of the Jesuits First Intercolonial War Predominance of Jesuit Insti gation. BUT the Jesuit Wolf was not the only arch instigator of the Border Wars and their attendant massacres and burnings belonging to his Order. These indefatigable and bloody foes of Protestantism in all its shades and forms not content with the slaughter of the Albigenses and Waldenses the St. Bar- tholomew days the reeking battlefields, the plundered provinces and sacked cities, with which their ferocious coun- cils and insidious intrigues had devastated the old world no sooner learn that some jfeeble remnants of their purposed victims have fled for refuge to the savage wilderness of the New World than, in pursuance of that deadly vow of exter- mination which was the basis of Jesuit organization, they follow them hither, and at once renew the fatal strife. With the crafty humility which has ever characterized their initial proceedings, they came at first the single, lowly enthusiast of the cross, and then in little squads of twos and threes, with scrip and staff the mock heralds of the Prince of Peace the mild and patient bearers of " glad tidings " to the benighted red-man. But it is impossible for the feeble pen of the historian of " Sam " to do justice to the immaculate virtues of this heroic and self-denying Order. Hear, rather, the words of one whose lips have evidently been touched with " Holy fire," and flame forth in words meet to celebrate such transfigurations of the Divine in the human, as these Jesuit missionaries appear to him even the Nestor of Yankee historians, George Bancroft ! He alone may speak fittingly of such a theme, with that poetical effulgence of diction which, in its resonant raptures, has fairly cowed tho 52 KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 53 sober seeming of the grave historic muse with the stately- turn turn of Homeric measures wherever he touches this topic. Behold, then, the Jesuits Brebeuf and Daniel, soon to be followed by the gentler Lallemand, and many others of their order, bowing meekly in obedience to their vows, and joining a party of barefoot Hurons, who were returning from Quebec to their country. The journey, by way of the Ottawa and the rivers that interlock with it, was one of more than three hundred leagues, through a region horrible with forests. All day long, the missionaries must wade, or handle the oar. At night, there is no food for them but a scanty measure of Indian corn mixed with water ; their couch is the earth or the rocks. At five and thirty waterfalls, the canoe is to be carried on the shoulders for leagues through thickest woods, or over roughest regions ; fifty times it was dragged by hand through shallows and rapids, over sharpest stones ; and thus, swimming, wading, paddling, or bearing the canoe across the portages, with garments torn, with feet mangled, yet with the breviary safely hung round the neck, and vows, as they ad- vanced, to meet death twenty times over, if it were possible, for the honor of St. Joseph, the consecrated envoys made their way, by rivers, lakes and forests, from Quebec to the heart of the Huron wilderness. There, to the north-west of Lake Toronto, near the shore of Lake Iroquois, which is but a bay of Lake Huron, they raised the first humble house of the Society of Jesus among the Hurons the cradle, it was said, of his church who dwelt at Bethlehem in a cottage. (1634.) The little chapel, built by the aid of the ax, and consecrated to St. Joseph, where, in the gaze of thronging crowds, ves- pers and matins began to be chanted, and the sacred bread was consecrated by solemn mass, amazed the hereditary guardians of the council-fires of the Huron tribes. Beautiful testimony to the equality of the human race ! the sacred wafer, emblem of the divinity in man, all that the church offered to the princes and nobles of the European world, was shared with the humblest of the savage neophytes. The hunter, as he returned from his wide roamings, was taught to hope for eternal rest ; the braves, as they came from war, were warned of the wrath which kindles against sinners a never-dying fire, fiercer far than the fires of the Mohawks ; the idlers of the Indian villages were told the exciting tale 5* 64: HISTORICAL AND of the Savior's death for their redemption. Two new Christian villages, St. Louis and St. Ignatius, bloomed among the Huron forests. The dormant sentiment of pious veneration was awakened in many breasts, and there came to be even earnest and ascetic devotees uttering prayers and vows in the Huron tongue while tawny skeptics inquired, if there were indeed, in the center of the earth, eternal flames for the unbelieving. The missionaries themselves possessed the weaknesses and the virtues of their Order. For fifteen years enduring the infinite labors and perils of the Huron mission, and exhibiting, as it was said, " an absolute pattern of every religious virtue," Jean de Brebeuf, respecting even the nod of his distant Superiors, bowed his mind and his judgment to obedience. Beside the assiduous fatigues of his office, each day, and sometimes twice in the day, he applied to himself the lash ; beneath a bristling hair shirt he wore an iron girdle, armed on all sides with projecting points ; his fasts were frequent; almost always his pious vigils continued deep into the night. In vain did Asmodeus assume for him the forms of earthly beauty ; his eye rested benignantly on visions of divine things. Once, imparadised in a trance, he beheld the Mother of Him whose cross he bore, surrounded by a crowd of vir- gins, in the beatitudes of heaven. (1640.) Once, as he himself has recorded, while engaged in penance, he saw Christ unfold his arms to embrace him with the utmost love, promising oblivion of his sins. Once, late at night, while praying in the silence, he had a vision of an infinite number of crosses, and, with mighty heart, he strove, again and again, to grasp them all. Often he saw the shapes of foul fiends, now appearing as madmen, now as raging beasts ; and often he beheld the image of death, a bloodless form, by the side of the stake, struggling with bonds, and, at last, falling, as a harmless specter, at his feet. Having vowed to seek out suffering for the greater glory of God, he renewed that vow every day, at the moment of tasting the sacred wafer ; and, as his cupidity for martyrdom grew into a passion, he ex- claimed, " What shall I render to thee, Jesus, my Lord, for all thy benefits ? I will accept thy cup, and invoke thy name ;" and, in sight of the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit, of the most holy Mother of Christ, and St. Joseph, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 55 before angels, apostles, and martyrs, before St. Ignatius and Francis Xavier, he made a vow never to decline the opportu- nity of martyrdom, and never to receive the death-blow but with joy. (1638.) The life of a missionary on Lake Huron was simple and uniform. The earliest hours, from four to eight were ab- sorbed in private prayer ; the day was given to schools, visits, instruction in the catechism, and a service for proselytes. Sometimes, after the manner of St. Francis Xavier, Brebeuf would walk through the village and its environs, ringing a little bell, and inviting the Huron braves and counselors to a conference. There, under the shady forest, the most solemn mysteries of the Catholic faith were subjected to discussion. It was by such means that the sentiment of piety was un- folded in the breast of the great warrior Ahasistari. Nature had planted in his mind the seeds of religious faith : " Be- fore you came to this country," he would say, " when I have incurred the greatest perils, and have alone escaped, I have said to myself, * Some powerful spirit has the guardianship of my days ;' " and he professed his belief in Jesus, as the good genius and protector, whom he had before unconsciously adored. After trials of his sincerity, he was baptized ; and, enlisting a troop of converts, savages like himself, "Let us strive," he exclaimed, "to make the whole world embrace the faith in Jesus." But this is too good to be all. Our quondam historian who, as may be seen from his account of Jean de Brebeuf, has studied the ecstaticism of Jesuit narrative with an ear- nestness strongly savoring of a conviction in faith, gives us another precious morceau from the same reliable source, which exhibits his huge relish for such spicy viands. The Jesuits are determined to push a Mission into the country of the unwilling Mohawk. "Each sedentary Mission was a special point of attraction to the invader, and each, therefore, was liable to the horrors of an Indian massacre. Such was the fate of the village of St. Joseph. On the morning of July 4, 1648, when the braves were absent on the chase, and none but women, child- ren, and old men, remained at home, Father Anthony Dan- iel hears the cry of danger and confusion. He flies to the scene to behold his converts, in the apathy of terror, falling 66 HISTORICAL AND victims to the fury of Mohawks. No age, however tender, excites mercy; no feebleness of sex wins compassion. A group of women and children fly to him to escape the toma- hawk as if his lips, uttering messages of love, could pro- nounce a spell that would curb the madness of destruction. Those who had formerly scoft'ed his mission, implore the ben- efit of baptism. He bids them ask forgiveness of God, and, dipping his handkerchief in water, baptizes the crowd of suppliants by aspersion. Just then, the palisades are forced. Should he fly ? He first ran to the wigwams to baptize the sick ; he next pronounced a general absolution on all who sought it, and then prepared to resign his life as a sacrifice to his vows. (1648.) The wigwams are set on fire; the Mohawks approach the chapel, and the consecrated envoy serenely advances to meet them. Astonishment seized the barbarians. At length, drawing near, they discharge at him a flight of arrows. All gashed and rent by wounds, he still continued to speak with surprising energy now inspiring fear of the divine anger, and again, in gentle tones, yet of more piercing power than the whoops of the savages, breath- ing the affectionate messages of mercy and grace. Such were his actions till he received a death-blow from a halbert. The victim to the heroism of charity died, the name of Jesus on his lips ; the wilderness gave him a grave ; the Huron nation were his mourners. By his religious associates it was believed that he appeared twice after his death, youthfully radiant in the sweetest form of celestial glory ; that, as the reward for his torments, a crowd of souls, redeemed from purgatory, were his honoring escort into heaven." One more glimpse of these poetic pictures, and we shall turn to common sense. The prevalence of peace now favored the advance of the French, or rather Jesuit, dominion. " For the succeeding years, the illustrious triumvirate, Alloiiez, Dablon, and Marquette, were employed in confirming the influence of France in the vast regions that extend from Green Bay to the head of Lake Superior mingling happi- ness with suffering, and winning enduring glory by their fear- less perseverance. For to what inclemencies, from nature and from man, was each missionary among the barbarians exposed ! He defies the severity of climate, wading through water or through snows, without the comfort of fire ; having no bread KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 57 but pounded maize, and often no food but the unwholesome moss from the rocks ; laboring incessantly ; exposed to live, as it were, without nourishment, to sleep without a resting-place, to travel far, and always incurring perils to carry his life in his hand, or rather daily, and oftener than every day, to hold it up as a target, expecting captivity, death from the tomahawk, tortures, fire. And yet the simplicity and the freedom of life in the wilderness had their charms. The heart of the missionary would swell with delight, as, under a serene sky, and with a mild temperature, and breathing a pure air, he moved over waters as transparent as the most limpid fountain. Every encampment offered his attendants the pleasures of the chase. Like a patriarch, he dwelt be- neath a tent ; and of the land through which he walked, he was its master, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, profiting by its productions, without the embarrassment of ownership. How often was the pillow of stones like that where Jacob felt the presence of God ! How often did the ancient oak, of which the centuries were untold, seem like the tree of Mamre, beneath which Abraham broke bread with angels ! Each day gave the pilgrim a new site for his dwelling, which the industry of a few moments would erect, and for which nature provided a floor of green, inlaid with flowers. On every side clustered beauties, which art had not spoiled, and could not imitate." Now, apart from all this sky-rocketing of words, the plain historical truth concerning these so much vaunted missionary movements of the Jesuits, is clearly about this. Their sleuth-hound vengeance crossed the sea upon the track of that Protestantism which they had, as an Order, sworn to exterminate. Next to this vow, the aggrandizement of the Order, "to the greater glory of" Loyola, was the next most vital consideration, and, in America, they only pursued the same policy in reference to this particular end which had characterized their operations in India, China, Japan, Para- guay, California, and elsewhere ; their object being, clearly, in the formation of Missions, to create so many fiefs of the Order, the revenues of which would enure to the swelling its treasury. In North America, beside the tithes, which being paid in 58 HlSTOKICAL AND the rich furs of the country, were by no means inconsider- able, the Missions established would answer the double purpose of revenue and revenge ; since uniformly cul- tivating in the hearts of their converts the most implac- able enmity againt Protestantism, the Order were enabled at any time, to harass and devastate the hated settlements. And, again, having as an Order been several times banished from France, as well as from every other government of Europe as enemies to internal peace, they felt it necessary to purchase toleration by the splendor of their discoveries in pushing exploration so far ahead of settlement. Nor did all these combined, constitute the yet most important considera- tion to the ambitious Jesuit. They early perceived, with that sure intelligence of fore- sight which has uniformly marked their operations, the future glory and grandeur of this New World, and they determined to establish for themselves here, a Theocratic empire, which would be to the Order amidst the convulsions which their intrigues continued to cause in Europe as a House of Refuge to which they might, as a last resort, fly for safety, and hold as a point d 'appui, from which they might renew the contest. See how clearly they have apprehended the importance of the New Hemisphere in this light. Paraguay,, indeed the whole of South America, and Mexico on the south, Cali- fornia on the west, New France, or Canada on the north, all occupied by the proposed Theocracy thus hemming in the beleaguered Protestants on three sides. What South Amer- ica, Mexico and California have been and the two first yet remaining so virtual Theocracies that is, governments in which the priesthood standing as the representatives of God, are alone accountable to Him for both the spiritual and tem- poral of their subject or in other words, constitute the supreme governing power in the State no one will at this day pretend to deny. That New France or Canada, was also ruled into a strict Theocracy by the tjpsuits, is clearly sus- ceptible of proof, throughout the entire cotemporary history of that period. La Hontan, an intelligent traveler, natu- ralist and cosmopolite twenty years after New France had been established a bishopric through the enterprise of the EEVOLUTIOXARY INCIDENTS. 59 Jesuits complains grievously of this priestly despotism, and after the remark, " that at Montreal it was a perpetual Lent," continues : We have here a misanthropical bigot of a cure*, under whose spiritual despotism, play and visiting the ladies are reckoned among the mortal sins. If you have the misfor- tune to be on his black list, he launches at you publicly, from the pulpit, a bloody censure. As Messieurs, the priests of St. Sulpice, are our temporal lords, they take the greater liberty to tyrannize over us. To keep well with them, it is neces- sary to communicate once a month. These Arguses have their eyes constantly on the conduct of the women and the 'girls. Fathers and husbands may sleep in all assurance, unless they have some suspicions as to these vigilant sentinels themselves. Of all the vexation of these disturbers, I found none so intolerable as their war upon books. None are to be found here but books of devotion. All others are prohibited and condemned to the flames. Our author winds up with a ludicrous account how his Petronius, left by accident on his table, was mutilated by a devout priest, who to^k it upon himself to tear out all the best leaves, i nder pretense that they were scandalous. " No one dare to be absent from great masses and sermons without special excuse. These are the times, however, at which the women take a little liberty, being sure that their husbands and mothers are at church." Such is the concurrent testimony of all cotemporary writers amply sustained as it is by the invariable usage and determination of Catholic but more especially Jesuit institutions. But were such cotemporary evidence wanting at a time when the learning of the world was principally in the keeping of the catholic priesthood, there yet remains the broad and well-established historical fact, that the inter- colonial wars between the English and other Protestant col- onies on the north, and the Indians and Canadian French, were instigated personally by these saintly Jesuit missionaries themselves, and that the murderous forays of the Indians upon these settlements, were even led by these meek mis- sionaries of poace. Indeed, all that saved these northern colonies from absolute extermination, was the success of that sagacious policy of the early Dutch governors of New Amsterdam, in securing the friendship and allegiance of the 60 HlSTOKICAL AND powerful and warlike Iroquois or Five Nations, established in the north of New York. This alliance also, politically courted and nourished by the New England colonies, was for a long period successfully maintained; opposing this formidable Indian confederacy as a barrier between their weak but grow- ing settlements and the exterminating hate of the Jesuits. It was during the desperate efforts of these priests to gain a foothold among the Iroquois for their Missions, with a view to breaking up this for them unlucky league, by their intrigues, that all those bloody scenes occurred, which we have seen so elaborately celebrated in the Elegiac prose of the sympathizing historian, Bancroft. A choice subject for the lugubrious monodies of an American historian surely ! Had the Jesuits, whose fate is thus deplored, succeeded earlier as they did finally to some extent in their scheme of dis- rupturing this alliance, and turned loose upon the weak set- tlements of the Protestant colonies, the fierce warrior hordes of the Five Nations, in addition to those formidable tribes which already yielded to their supremacy, no doubt our ten- der-hearted historian would have had ample inspiration for the change of his Elegiacs into Idyls, or found full employ- ment in sounding the Te Deum to Loyola ! Terribly as the colonies suffered as it was with the Iroquois sometimes allies but most frequently neutral there can be no question of the entire subjugation, if not annihilation of the Protestant colonies of the north, had such an event as this disruption taken place. Hildreth says : Whatever the success of the French missionaries among the more northern and western tribes, they encountered in the Iroquois, or Five Nations, firm and formidable opponents. That celebrated confederacy, beside subject tribes, included five allied communities : the Senecas, the Cayugas, the Onon- dagas, the Oneidas, and the Mohawks ; which last, as being nearest to their settlements, often gave, among the English, a name to the whole. Each of these five nations was divided into three clans, distinguished as the Bear, the Tortoise, and the Wolf. Their castles, rude forts, places of protection for the women, children, and old men, surrounded by fields of corn, beans, and squashes, the head-quarters of the several tribes, were situated on those waters of central New York, of which the names serve as memorials, and now almost the ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 61 only ones, of their ancient possessors. Some slender rem- nants of this once-powerful confederacy still linger, however, on small reservations of their ancient territory. It was in courage, ferocity, and warlike enterprise, far more than in social institutions or the arts of peace, that the Iroquois sur- passed the tribes of Algonquin descent on their eastern, southern, and western borders. It was not against those tribes as Algonquin, that the Five Nations carried on war, for their hostility was directed with even greater fury against the Hurons and Wyandots, who dwelt along the St. Law- rence and north of Lake Ontario, and who spoke dialects of the same language with themselves. The early alliance of French with those tribes, had rendered the French colonists objects of implacable hate to the Five Nations. In vain, during a short interval of peace, strenuous efforts were made to establish a spiritual influence over these fierce warriors. Father Jogues, whose captivity had made him acquainted with the chiefs, having returned again to Canada, was sent among them as embassador and mission- ary a dangerous service, in which he met the death he had formerly escaped. Supplied with fire-arms by the Dutch, and rendered thus more formidable than ever, the Iroquois renewed a war by which the missionaries and their converts were equally en- dangered. Daniel, the venerable father of the Huron mis- sion , perished in the midst of his flock, surprised and massacred by a Mohawk war-party. Brebeuf and Lallemand, taken pris- oners, were burned at the stake ; Gardier perished by the hatchets of the Iroquois ; Chabanel was lost in the woods. The Huron missions, by these renewed onslaughts, were completely broken up. The Hurons, Wyandots, and Ottawas, greatly reduced in numbers, were driven from their country, which became a hunting-ground for the Iroquois. Subse- quently the Hurons and Ottawas established themselves in the neighborhood of Mackinaw. Mohawk war-parties harass- ed the banks of the St. Lawrence. The unhappy colonists lived in daily dread of massacre. Quebec itself was not safe. This emergency caused a message to ask aid of New Eng- land, as mentioned in a former chapter, or, at least, a free passage for war-parties of the Eastern tribes under French influence in their inarch against the Mohawks a message 6 62 HISTORICAL AND borne by John G-odefroy, one of the council of New France, and Dreuillettes, former explorer of the passage from Que- bec to the eastern coast, described in his commission as 'preacher of the Gospel to savage nations. 7 But the Com- missioners for the United Colonies of New England listened with but a cold ear to the story of the martyrdom of the French missionaries and the sufferings of their Indian con- verts. No aid could be obtained in that quarter ; but, after two or three years of perpet-ual alarm, the Iroquois consented at last to a peace. From the earliest foothold obtained by the Jesuits among the French colonies on the north, they had been known as the instigators and fermenters of jealousies between their converts and the Puritan settlements of New England and New York. With the exception of their unvarying system of ' Reductions' as they are best termed in all countries, and meaning nothing more than absolute slavery, spiritually and financially, by which the rich proceeds of the free-trade were, in this case, to be monopolized into the treasury of the Order there were no purposes in which these missionaries proved themselves so indefatigably consistent, as this of mortal enmity to the Prot- estants wherever they appeared. Not only was this per- petual cause of irritation felt in the savage carnage of the earlier partisan or guerrilla struggles of the weak colonies with the more northern Indian tribes, and recognized as the incessant source of mortal peril beside their hard-earned fire- sides although their own agency had been denied by the Jesuits yet when the first intercolonial war (known as King William's war,) broke out, the colonists were at no loss to know who had been, and would continue to be, their most arch and deadly foes. They not only knew these crafty mis- sionaries to be such enemies, but struck at them now as such, in spite of the pretended sanctities of their calling and garb ; and that too, with the merciless and exterminating violence of a spirit of retribution fired by the memory of the thousand sneaking and incendiary wrongs which had been accumulating to their account, through- so many years. Hildreth's straight- forward account of the progress of this war, best illustrates the development so far. So soon as the declaration of war between France and England became known in America, the Baron Castin easily ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 63 excited the Eastern Indians to renew their depredations. In these hostilities the tribes of New Hampshire were induced also to join. Those tribes had neither forgotten nor forgiven the treachery of Waldron, at the conclusion of Philip's war, thirteen years before. Two Indian women, apparently friend- ly, sought and obtained a night's lodging at Waldron's gar- rison or fortified house at Dover. They rose at midnight, opened the doors, and admitted a party lying in wait for the purpose. Waldron, an old man of eighty, after a stout resistance, was made prisoner. Placed by his captors in an elbow-chair at the head of a table in the hall, he was taunted with the exclamation, 'Judge Indians now!' after which he was put to death with tortures. Twenty others were killed. Twenty-nine were carried off as prisoners. The village was burned. The fort at Pemaquid, the extreme eastern frontier, was soon after attacked by a party of Penobscots, resident in the neighborhood, instigated by the Jesuit Thury, who lived among them as a missionary. The garrison, obliged to sur- render, was dismissed by the Indians, but the fort, which Andros had built, was destroyed. An attack upon Casco was repulsed by Churth, the famous partisan of Philip's war, sent from Massachusetts with two hundred and fifty men. But all the settlements further east were ravaged and broken up. In hopes to engage the formidable Mohawks as auxiliaries against these eastern tribes, commissioners from Boston pro- ceeded to Albany, then held by the members of the New York council opposed to Leisler. In a conference had there with some chiefs of the Five Nations, they expressed their determination to continue the war against Canada, but they could not be prevailed upon to lift the hatchet against their Indian brethren of the East. Eeduced to extreme distress by the late successful inroads of the Iroquois, Canada had just received relief by the arrival from France of Count Frontenac, re-commissioned as governor, and bringing with him such of the Indian prisoners sent to France as had survived the galleys, troops, supplies, and a scheme for the conquest and occupation of New York. As a part of this scheme, the Chevalier de la Coffiniere, who had accompa- nied Frontenac to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, proceeded to cruise off the coast of New England, making many prizes, and designing to attack New York by sea, while Frontenac 64 HlSTOKICAL AND assailed it on the land side. Frontenac, though sixty-eight years of age, had all the buoyancy and vigor of youth. He was a man of great energy and determination, and his former administration of the colony made him aware of the measures which the exigency demanded. The Iroquois had already retired from Montreal, and preparations were imme- diately made for relieving Fort Frontenac. These prepara- tions, however, were too late, for the garrison had already set fire to the fort, and retired down the river. Means were still found, however, to keep up the communication with Macki- naw. Not able to prosecute this scheme of conquest, Fron- tenac presently detached three war-parties, to visit on the English frontier those same miseries which Canada had so recently experienced at the hands of the Five Nations. In the course of the last twenty years, a number of con- verted Mohawks, induced to retire from among their heathen brethren, had established themselves at the rapids of St. Louis, in a village known also as Cagnawaga, on the south bank of the St Lawrence, nearly opposite Montreal. It was chiefly these converted Mohawks, well acquainted with the settle- ments about Albany, who composed, with a number of Frenchmen, the first of Frontenac's war parties, amounting in the whole to a hundred and ten persons. Guided by the watercourses, whose frozen surface furnished them a path, they traversed a wooded wilderness covered with deep snows. (Jan. 1690,) Pressing stealthily forward in a single file, the foremost wore snow-shoes, and so beat a track for the rest. At night the snow was thrown up toward the side whence the wind came, and in the hollow thus scooped out the party slept on branches of pine, round a fire in the midst. A little parched corn served them for provisions, eked out by such game as they killed. After a twenty-two days' inarch, intent on their bloody purpose, they approached Schenectady, the object of their toil. This was a Dutch village on the Mo- hawk, then the outpost of the settlements about Albany. The cluster of some forty houses was protected by a palisade, but the gates were open and unguarded, and at midnight the inhabitants slept profoundly. The assailants entered in silence, divided themselves into several parties, and, giving the signal by the terrible war-whoop, commenced the attack. Shrieks of women and children answered. Doors were broken KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 65 open ; houses set on fire ; blood flowed. Sixty were slain on the spot ; twenty-seven were taken prisoners ; the rest fled, half naked, along the road to Albany through a driving- snow-storm, a deep snow, and cold so bitter that many lost their limbs by frost. The assailants set off for Canada with their prisoners and their plunder, and effected their escape, though not without serious loss inflicted by some Mohawk warriors, who hastened to pursue them. The terror inspired by this attack was so great, that, for the sake of aid and support, the malcontents who held Albany, submitted to the hated Leisler. But nothing could prevail on that rash and passionate chief to use his authority with moderation. He confiscated the property of his principal opponents. Bayard and Nichols were held in confinement; and for the arrest of Livingston, warrants were sent to Boston and Hartford, whither he had fled for safety. Frontenac's second war party, composed of only fifty-two persons, departing from Three Rivers, a village half Avay from Montreal to Quebec, ascended the St. Francis, entered the valley of the Upper Connecticut, and thence made their way across the mountains and forests of New Hampshire. Presently they descended on Salmon Falls, a frontier village on the chief branch of the Piscataqua. (March 27, 1690.) They attacked it by surprise, killed most of the male in- habitants, plundered and burned the houses, and carried off fifty-four prisoners, chiefly women and children, whom they drove before them, laden with the spoils. While thus re- turning, they fell in 'with the third war-party from Quebec, and, joining forces, proceeded to attack Casco. A part of the garrison was lured into an ambuscade and destroyed. The rest, seeing their palisades about to be set on fire, surrendered on terms as prisoners of war. (May.) Such was the new and frightful sort of warfare to which the English colonists were exposed. The savage ferocity of the Indians, guided by the sagacity and civilized skill and enterprise of French officers, became ten times more terrible. The influence which the French missionaries had acquired by persevering self-sacrifice and the highest efforts of Christian devotedness was now availed of, as too often happens, by mere worldly policy, to stimulate their converts to hostile inroads and midnight murders. Eeligious zeal sharpened the edge fi6 HISTORICAL AND of savage hate. The English were held up to the Indians not merely as enemies, but as heretics, upon whom it was a Christian duty- to make war. If the chaplet of victory were missed, at least the crown of martyrdom was sure. These cruel Indian inroads seemed to the sufferers abun- dant confirmation of the tales of the Huguenots scattered through the colonies as the bloody and implacable spirit of the Catholic faith. These religious refugees were so numer- ous in Boston and New York, as to have in each of those towns a church of their own. Hatred of popery received a new impetus. It is hardly to be wondered at that the few Catholics of Maryland, though their fathers had been the founders of that colony, were disfranchised, and subjected to all the disabilities by which, in Britain and Ireland, the suppression of Catholicism was vainly attempted. Probably also to this period we may refer the act of Rhode Island, of unknown date, which excluded Catholics from becoming free- men of that colony. CHAPTER IX. The Queen Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial War " between " Sam " and the Order of Jesuits The Order not quite ready for formidable operations in the South Retrospective glance at acts and influences of the Catholic Priesthood in Mexico from the Conquest Evidence of Clavigero the Catholic Historian of Mexico The monstrous destruction of the archives of Historical Pictures in Yucatan by an "Ecclesiastic" Destruction of the most precious Arts, which was common throughout Mexico. THE last chapter may be well considered as settling the question of the participation and predominating influence of the Jesuit missionaries in the first intercolonial war, and as against the sorely beleaguered Protestant colonies of the north. As yet, their schemes of southern acquisition and supremacy in the South had not been consummated their cordon of " -Seductions " not sufficiently completed to make their active demonstrations in that quarter so formidable, as to render more detail on our own part necessary. The pur- pose of this history being rather to render clear the histori- cal relations of ; ' Sam" to his internal foes, than to enter systematically into more than the outline of others, which illustrate rather the minuter phases of his own huge devel- >pment, and his relations to avowed and outward enemies. It now becomes necessary that we should look somewhat to those Jesuit antecedents which led immediately to the next even more extended and exterminating war the Queen Ann's, or " Second Intercolonial war" between " Sam" and his desperate foe the Order of Jesus ! The moment the Jesuits found themselves comparatively secure of their foothold in Acadia, which might form for 67 68 HISTORICAL AND them a rallying point upon the continent, then, with that skillful mixture of military law and spiritual despotism which has always constituted the phenomenon of their ascendency in the Christian world, they pushed forward their corpse-like trainbands of helpless devotees, in eager emulation for more extended explorations and " Keductions," upon the wilderness fastnesses of the north-west, in search of the sources of cer- tain great traditionary outlets of the then boundless limits of the New World, which they meant to claim and assert as their own, since the old seemed passing so rapidly from their grasp. Gold as well as souls seemed always to have been most discreetly mingled with their aspirations for con- quest in America ; and the earliest delusions of gold in Aca- dia, which so rapidly gave way before the sterner facts of a bleak and inhospitable reality, had been kept alive by vague rumors of a mighty empire, drained by endless rivers flowing through sands of gold, which held their sources far in a mys- terious interior, and had fired anew immaculate ecstaticisms which look to their final realization in a " golden city," which, either in heaven or on earth was to constitute their reward. The prodigious results of the conquests of Cortez and the Pizarros had not wanted of circulation through the right hands but then, although the holy Order of Jesus had not been organized, its founders had not failed to participate in, and comprehend the benefits of, such acquisitions indeed, it had been during the immediate ferment of European mind, caused by the introduction of this new and mighty element, that the crafty and sagacious intellect of Loyola projected this late and most fatal organization on this the sole predomi- nating idea of Jesuitism though the enmity to Protestant- ism was the next of course, as he saw in it the mortal antagonism of spiritual despotism ! That these apparently unselfish enterprises of the early Jes- uits should have proceeded from such causes, why need we stop to argue ? But it may be well that we should give a few pre- liminary facts as illustrating, here and there, the condition in which the early catholic conquest left Old and New Mexico. First, as showing in how much the Catholic Church proper has conserved to the preservation of the ancient literature and arts of all countries which have been conquered by Catholic KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 69 arms. This event we now quote, occurred during the reign of Charles V, of Spain, when as the dominant power of Europe, he could afford to wage single-handed war against the rest of the world when Cortez was sending him the ravished treasures of the New World, and completing the conquest of the whole Mexican empire when his steel-clad cohorts were led by tonsiled priests hearing the holy cross and every new scene of rapine and massacre was only consecrated by the Catholic Priests. One of their own number, Clavigero, in a formal history of the early Mexican Empire and con- quest by his own friends, is compelled to relate as follows, in his zeal as an antiquarian, concerning one incident of the con- quest of Yucatan : Though games, dances, and music, conduced less to utility than pleasure, this was not the case with History and Paint- ing ; two arts which ought not to be separated in the history of Mexico, as they had no other historians than their paint- ers, nor any other writings than their paintings to commemo- rate the events of the nation. The Toltecas were the first people of the New World who employed the art of painting for the ends of history ; at least we know of no other nation which did so before them. The same practice prevailed, from time immemorial, among the Acolhuas, the seven Aztecan tribes, and among all the pol- ished nations of Anahuac. The Chechemecas and the Otomies were taught it by the Acolhuas and the Toltecas, when they deserted their savage life. Among the paintings of the Mexicans, and all those nations, there were many which were mere portraits or images of their gods, their kings, their heroes, their animals, and their plants. With these the royal palaces of Mexico and Tezcuco both abounded. Others were historical, containing an account of particular events, such as are the first thirteen paintings of the collection of Mendoza, and that of the jour- ney of the Aztecas, which appears in the work of the trav- eler Gemelli. Others were mythological, containing the mysteries of their religion. Of this kind is the volume which is preserved in the great library of the Order of Bologna. Others were codes, in which were compiled their laws, their rites, their customs, their taxes, or tributes ; and such are all those of the above mentioned collection of Mendoza, from the 70 HISTORICAL AND fourteenth to the sixty-third. Others were chronological, astronomical, or astrological, in which was represented their calendar, the position of the stars, the changes of the moon, eclipses, and prognostications of the variations of the weather. This kind .of painting was called by them Tonalamatl. Si- guenza makes mention of a painting representing such like prognostications which he inserted in his Ciclographia Mexi- cana. Acosta relates ' that in the province of Yucatan, there were certain volumes, bound up according to their manner, in which the wise Indians had marked the distribution of their seasons, the knowledge of the planets, of animals, and other natural productions, and also their antiquity ; things all highly curious and minutely described ; ? which, as the same author says, were lost by the indiscreet zeal of an ecclesiastic, who, imagining them to be full of superstitious meanings, burned them, to the great grief of the Indians, and the utmost regret of the curious among the Spaniards. Other paintings were topographical, or chorographical, which served not only to show the extent and boundaries of possessions, but likewise the situation of places, the direction of the coasts, and the course of rivers. Cortez says, in his first letter to Charles Y, that having made inquiries to know if there was any secure harbor for vessels in the Mexican gulf, Monte- zuma presented him a painting of the whole coast, from the port of Chalchiuhcuecan, where at present Vera Cruz lies, to the river Coatzacualco. Bernal Diaz relates that Cortez also, in a long and difficult voyage which he made to the Bay of Honduras, made use of a chart which was presented to him by the lords of Coatzacualco, in which all the places and rivers were marked from the coast of Coatzacualco to Hueja- callan. The Mexican empire abounded with all those kinds of paintings ; for their painters were innumerable, and there was hardly anything left unpainted. If those had been pre- served, there would have been nothing wanting to the history of Mexico ; but the first preachers of the gospel, suspicious that superstition was mixed with all their paintings, made a furious destruction of them. Of all those which were to be found in Tezcuco, where the chief school of painting was, they In his work entitled, Libra Astronomica, printed in Mexico. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 71 collected such a mass, in the square of the market, it appeared like a little mountain ; to this they set fire and buried in the ashes the memory of many most interesting and curious events. The loss of those monuments of antiquity was inex- pressibly afflicting to the Indians, and regretted sufficiently afterward by the authors of it, when they became sensible of their error ; for they were compelled to endeavor to remedy the evil, in the first place, by obtaining information from the mouths of the Indians ; secondly, by collecting all the paint- ings which had escaped their fury, to illustrate the history of the nation ; but although they recovered many, these were not sufficient ; for from that time forward, the possessors of paintings became so jealous of their preservation and conceal- ment from the Spaniards, it has proved difficult, if not im- possible to make them part with one of them. The History of Mexico ; Collected from Spanish and Mexican Historians, from Manuscripts and ancient Paintings of the Indians, together with the Conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards; Illustrated by Engravings, with Critical Dissertations on the Land, Animals, and Inhabitants of Mexico. By Abbe D. Francesco Saverio Clavigero. Translated from the original Italian, by Charles Cullen, Esq. In three volumes. Vol. ii. CHAPTER X. Vandalism of the Catholic Priesthood continued in New Mexico Anti- quarian researches concerning the first Missions to New Mexico Con- quest of California Various efforts to penetrate the mysterious gold region by the Catholic governors of California Extermination of the Catholic Spaniards of the Conquestador-Occupation Hidden ruins and strange Traditions Ruins of magnificent Catholic Cities Marvelous treasures won by Cortez from Montezuma. CLAVIGERO'S account of the destructive proclivities of the Catholic priests who accompanied the Conquestadors under Cortez, to the dismemberment and annihilation of the nation- alities of the Mexican empire, does not cover the whole ground of complaint with which universal history teems against these rare conservators of the literature and science of the world. Nor was it to Old Mexico proper, that these vandalish ravages of savage intolerance were confined. We shall turn to New Mexico, which is nearer home, for the examples of exterminating bigotry, which surpass in enor- mity the wrongs of even the old empire. The gold-craving white man seems to have been destined, according to the ancient faith of the natives of Mexico, to be its scourge and conqueror. Cortez found Mexico half conquered for him by an old tradition. It was taught in their temples, and believed by the whole Indian population, that a race of white men was to come from the east to rule the natives of the land. The apparition of a band of fair-complexioned men clothed in arrow-proof garments of steel, and armed with the death- dealing firebolts of heaven, sealed the truth of this imme- morial prediction to the awe-struck Mexicans, and they bowed in the helpless submission of their superstitious fears, to the wonderful strangers. However this belief originated, it is See Appendix, for curious note. 72 [REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 73 singular that it should have preceded the approach of the white man on every part of America, and that its active effect should to this day, fortify the unexplored gold region against his advance within its limits. ~ Perhaps this land, in which are, unquestionahly, existent edifices of Aztec construction, and which still hears the name of Montezuma pronounced with reverence, may have been the cradle of the proud conquerors who swept the Mexican plateau, and planted there the golden empire which Cortez overthrew. If so, in this, their last unsubdued stronghold, the light and liberality of American enterprise may yet discover the final dwelling-place of their history and religion, and that will be of more worth than their glittering ores. There is a curious Indian superstition, familiar to most of the early Texan borderers, often told in connection with the sad prophecy of the extinction of the red race under the breath of white civilization. The Indians affirm that the honey-bee always goes before the white settler to warn the red-man to retire and yield up his hunting-grounds to the dominion of the ax and plow. In 1820, the Indians say, the first bees made their appearance on the Brazos and Colorado rivers, in Texas, and five years after, Austin's settlement arose on their banks and rendered the Indians thenceforth, aliens and intruders on their native soil. Before the invasion of Mexico by the Spaniards, there was no mining science in the country, and the gold, which greatly outbalanced the silver in quantity, was simply gathered from or near the surface of the ground, and mostly brought by porters from great distances in the interior of the country. The preponderance of gold before, and of silver since the Conquest, is readily explained by the introduction of a more elaborate and thorough mining system. Silver is rarely found in a pure, unmixed state on the surface, and could only be produced, in large quantities, by the cruel and scien- tific despotism of Spain. The skill, implements, and experi- ence of European art, and the human force of thousands upon thousands of the native population, were turned into the mines, and then the ore was pursued into the bowels of the earth by the conquerors ; and numberless silver-mines, that' lay untouched and useless under the simple Aztec rule, became immensely productive under the Spaniards. Gold 7 74 HISTORICAL AND mines were seldom worked when found ; and those distant ones, from which the native princes gathered a ready harvest, independent of science, and without penetrating the earth, are now lost in obscurity. In the reckless annihilation of the native priesthood, and the sweeping destruction of their records, the Catholics buried much valuable lore. As if their murdered faith had, in its last death-agony, pressed the signet of forgetfulness on the lips of its desolate and aban- doned children, the most beautiful of their arts, and the most coveted of their gifts passed away from the native Mex- icans in a single generation. It seemed to be with them a religious and patriotic duty to extinguish every light that could serve their hard taskmasters. Art has lost their exquisite colors for painting, their gorgeous feather-work, their adamantine-tempered copper ; and science misses their historic records and their astronomical calculations, while avarice mourns the lost secret of their mines of emeralds, amethysts, and rich beds of gold. For the first two centuries after the conquest by Cortez, the Indian population maintained a stern and desperate silence on the subject of gold. It was rare that either bribes or tortures could induce an Indian to admit that he knew where any could be found, and thus those mines in the more remote provinces fell into immediate oblivion. The vague and traditionary evidences of their existence, were not incen- tives enough to warrant the toil and danger of exploration and conquest, while those at home, in the midst of a subdued serf-population, gave such prompt and liberal returns. Some may suppose that the chaos and oppression of the Spanish Conquest could not so utterly extinguish the knowl- edge of excessively rich mines, as to prevent their avaricious conquerors from bringing them to use, however remote their situation ; but to this may be opposed the undeniable fact, that the locality of the emerald mines is absolutely lost, though their existence somewhere is as positively a matter of record as any event of the Conquest. The same destroy- ing power that swept away the temples, the religion, the social customs, the national records, and even the language and history of the conquered race in one overwhelming wave, annihilated, also, much knowledge that would have been acceptable from its own interest. REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 75 Light enough, and temptation enough, remained however, to urge the Spaniards to attempt the subjugation of the Cali- fornia basin ; but all that we know certainly of their expedition is, their unsatisfactory results, and the shadowy reports brought back by the survivors, of well-built cities in the interior, and treasures of gold in the encircling mountains of the uncon- querable country. On the San Saba, as well as on the Pecos, there is unquestionably, vast mineral wealth, formerly not unknown to the Mexicans, but which nothing but the firm, stable protection of our government, and the enterprising audacity of our citizens, can hope to wrest from the supersti- tious control of the Indians. The wide expanse of country above the Kio Gila, and be- tween that river and the Bio Colorado-, as also the territory next beyond the mountains to the eastward, embracing the valley of the Rio Grande, and that of the Pecos, early at- tracted the attention of the Spaniards. No sooner had they subdued the Aztecs and their dependencies, than they turned their armed enterprises northward, toward the regions just indicated, and concerning the mineral riches of which, they had received, from their first landing in Mexico, many vague but glowing accounts. The history and results of their en- terprises may be thus rapidly summed up. No sooner had the general subjugation of Mexico and its immediate dependencies been completed, and its provinces partitioned among the Spanish leaders, than the attention of the latter was directed to the unknown region beyond them, and of the relics and magnificence of which they often received the most exaggerated accounts. Nuno de Guzman, to whom had been assigned the governorship of New Gallicia, comprising the northern division of Mexico, heard many of their accounts, relating to the countries northward of his jurisdiction, which excited his curiosity and influenced his avarice. He had in his service a Tejos (Taos ?) Indian, who told him of a vast northern country, abounding in gold and silver. Confiding in his accounts, Guzman collected an army, and in 1530, in less than ten years after Cortez entered the valley of Anahuac, started for this unknown region. Diffi- culties intervened, and the death of his Indian guide induced him to abandon his enterprise, although entertaining implicit faith in the reports that had reached him. 76 HISTORICAL AND The accounts of Cabeca de Vaca, who penetrated from the coast of Florida to the Pacific, and who, six years after the abandonment of Guzman's expedition, succeeded in reaching the city of Mexico, revived the waning excitement in respect to the rich mineral region of the north. Although he could convey no personal information on the subject, he had satis- fied himself of the existence of a semi-civilized people in that direction, and had received from the Indians accounts of its riches, coinciding with those of the Taos Indian already named. Vasquez Coronado, who had succeeded Guzman in the governorship of New Gallicia, immediately took measures to ascertain the truth of these reports. He dispatched north- ward, with instructions to penetrate to these regions, a monk named Niza, who penetrated as far as the Gila, when, fright- ened by the prospect before him, he returned to Goronado, bringing him a long account of his adventures, partly true, but for the most part, as was afterward discovered, fabulous. He professed to have discovered, northward of the Gila, large and populous cities, surpassing Mexico in size, splendor and wealth. He represented the people to be possessed of great abundance of gold, and that their commonest vessels, and the walls of their temples were covered with that precious metal. Upon the authority of " a man born in the principal city of Cibola" the name given to the northern El Dorado " the houses were built of lime and stone, the gates and small pillars of turquoises, and all the vessels and ornaments of the houses were made of gold." Other equally extravagant statements were obtained from other sources, as we perceive in the subjoined extracts, from a letter written by Coronado to the viceroy, Mendoza, bearing date March 8, 1539. " In the province of Topira there are no great cities, but the houses are built of stone, and are very good; and within them the people have great stores of gold, which is, as it were, lost, because they know not what use to put it to. They wear emeralds and other precious jewels upon their breasts, are valiant, and have very strong armor made of silver, fashioned after the shapes of beasts. Beyond Topira there is still another country, the people whereof wear on their bodies gold, emeralds, and other precious stones, and are commonly served in gold and silver, wherewith they cover REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 77 their houses ; and the chief men wear great chains of gold, well wrought, about their necks, and are appareled with painted garments, and have a great store of wild kine." At this time a sea expedition on the Pacific was undertaken by Ulloa, uii(br the direction of Cortez, which had for its object not less the discovery of the golden region of the north, than the exploration of the coast. We have no room to trace its progress. Suffice to say, it returned with no tangible evidence of the wealth which it was expected to discover. Cortez, who fancied he saw another Mexico in the golden country of the north, which was now the subject of conversa- tion on every tongue, was eager to add its conquest to his already high renown. And when, in 1540, it was resolved to send northward a land expedition to explore the country, the right of command was contested between Cortez, as Cap- tain-General of New Spain, and Memloza, "as Viceroy of Mexico. The latter was successful, and Cortez, disappointed and disgusted, returned to Spain. The command of the expedition was given to Coronado, who set out, with a large party of armed followers, early in the year 1540. After a protracted journey he reached the Rio Gila, then called the Nexpa, and boldly ventured upon the rugged and broken country beyond it, toward the north. After many days' travel, in which he encountered innumer- able obstacles and incredible hardships, he reached the valley of a stream flowing westward, and which recent discoveries have shown probably to have been the Rio Salinas, the princi- pal northern tributary of the Gila. Here he found the cities of Cibola. The delusion was then dispelled. Instead of cities glittering with gold, he found a people living in con- siderable towns, cultivating the soil, and furnishing striking contrasts, in their simplicity, to the splendor which the con- querors had encountered in Mexico and Peru. They were not, however, ignorant of the precious metals ; on the con- trary, Coronado, whose ardor was already effectually cooled, expressly states that he "here found some quantity of gold and silver, which those skilled in minerals esteem to be very good. To this hour," he adds, with evident regret, " I can not learn of this people where they obtain it, and I see they refuse to tell me the truth, imagining that in a short time 78 HISTORICAL AND I will depart hence. I hope in God" concludes the devout commander, " they shall no longer excuse themselves !" The natives, nevertheless, succeeded in excusing themselves, and upon their representations Coronado was induced to cross the mountains to the eastward, into the valley of the Kio Grande, where he was further amused with accounts of a mysterious city called Quivera. Here, it was said, ruled " a king whose name was Tatratax, with a long heard, hoary-headed, and rich, who worshiped a cross of gold, and the image of a woman, which was the queen of heaven." "This news," says Gomara, " did greatly rejoice and cheer up the army, although some thought it false, and the report of the friars." The golden Quivera, however, retreated like a phantom be- fore the disappointed and impatient Spaniards. The natives, anxious only to rid themselves of the hated presence of the invaders, responded to every inquiry by pointing to the north- eastward, in which direction Coronado moved with his army. Instead of the long-sought Quivera, he found only the high, broad and desert plains of the great buffalo range, traversed by the roving Arapahoes and hostile Pawnees, and after wandering long in this inhospitable region, he returned completely dispirited to the Eio Grande, and speedily retraced his steps to Mexico. It is worthy of mention that, while at Tucayan, a short distance to the northward of Cibola, the towns of which still exist, about one hundred and fifty miles to the westward of Santa Fd, on some of the northern tributaries of the Gila, he obtained an account of a great river to the north-west (undoubtedly the Colorado,) beyond which were mines of gold and great treasure. Thither he dispatched an officer,' Lopez de Cardenas, with twelve men, who penetrated to the Color- ado, but finding the country barren and uninviting, and the weather cold, he returned to Cibola without making any dis- coveries of interest. The unfortunate results of Coronado's expedition had the effect to discourage all similar enterprises in the same quar- ter. Nevertheless, forty years thereafter, in 1586, Antonio de Espejo, animated by the accounts of a Franciscan monk named Euiz, set out from the mines of San Barbara in This fabulous city is not the " Gran Quivera " of the valley of the Pecos REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 79 Mexico, for the rich regions which he was assured existed far to the north-west. He went through the valley of the Rio Grande, where he found numerous traces of mineral wealth, and finally reached the towns of the Cibola. He here heard repeated the stories that had been told to Coronada, which, however, he relates in more distinct terms. He was told by the natives that "sixty days' journey to the north-west was a very mighty lake, upon the banks of which stood many great and goad towns, and that the inhabitants of the same had plenty of gold," etc. He determined to proceed thither, but after going thirty leagues, he came to the towns of the Moqui, when, deserted by his followers, he was obliged to relinquish his design. He, nevertheless, " learned much of the great lake aforesaid," the reports agreeing fully with what he had before heard of the great abundance of gold in the vicinity of the lake. It is eminently worthy of remark, that before returning, he visited "certain very rich mines'' in -the vicinity of the Moqui, (say two hundred and fifty miles west of Santa Fe) from which he assures us he took with his own hands, "exceedingly rich metals holding great quantities of silver." These metals, he adds further, are found in broad and accessible veins. It seems certain, both from the accounts of Coronado and Espejo, who alone have ever penetrated this northern country, that the natives had gold in their possession. It can not be supposed that it was obtained from so remote a deposit as that on the Sacramento; and the inference that it was found in their own vicinity, near the shores of the golden-sanded lake, to which their accounts refer, is sustained by the direct state- ments of Espejo, quoted above. In this connection it may be mentioned, that immediately southward from the country of the Cabela, described by Coro- nado, and near the point where he probably crossed the Gila, the little river Prierte comes down from between the high mountains of the north. Concerning this stream, Col. Emory says, in his recent report of the march of the army of the west through the valley of the Gila " As the story goes, the Prierte flows down from the mountains burnished with gold. Its sands are said to be full of the precious metal. A few ad- venturers, who ascended the river, hunting beaver, washed the sands at night, where they halted, and were richly rewarded 80 HISTORICAL AND for their trouble. Tempted by their success, they made a second trip, but were attacked and most of them killed by the Indians. My authority for this statement is Londeau, who, though illiterate, is truthful." It is well known that there are gold mines about one hundred and fifty miles to the east- ward of this point, which have been, and still are, worked with considerable success. The mention made by Espejo and other early writers, of mines and mineral wealth in the upper half of the valley of the Rio Grande, and probably in the valley of the Pecos river, has been confirmed by later authorities, whose accounts have superseded those of an earlier date. A number of mines are now worked in the valley, and from what is now known of the mineral productiveness of the Pacific slope, it is reasonable to conclude that the intervening country is equally rich in the precious metals. Indeed, from the geological features of the country, it can hardly be otherwise. The rapid sketches we have so far furnished, cover much of the earlier historical aspects of this period, drawn from strictly antiquarian researches ; we will now proceed to give from more modern authorities, later views of our subject. Gregg, the intelligent and agreeable Santa Fd and New Mexican traveler, devotes an interesting chapter to this sub- ject in his book " Commerce of America." He says : " Tradition speaks of numerous and productive mines hav- ing been in operation in New Mexico before the expulsion of the Spaniards in 1680 ; but that the Indians, seeing that the cupidity of the conquerors had been the cause of their former cruel oppressions, determined to conceal all the mines by fill- ing them up, and obliterating as much as possible every trace of them. This was done so effectually, as is told, that after the second conquest, (the Spaniards in the meantime not hav- ing turned their attention to mining pursuits for a series of years,) succeeding generations were never able to discover them again. Indeed, it is now generally credited by the Spanish population, that the Pueblo Indians, up to the pres- ent day, are acquainted with the locales of a great number of these wonderful mines, of which they most sedulously preserve The Author of Sam is indebted for much of the above narrative, to the researches of E. G. Squire, the antiquarian. EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 81 the secret. Bumor further asserts that the old men and sages of the Pueblos periodically lecture the youths on this subject, warning them against discovering the mines to the Spaniards, lest the cruelties of the original conquest be re- newed toward them, and they be forced to toil and suffer in those mines as in days of yore. To the more effectual pres- ervation of secrecy, it is also stated that they have called in the aid of superstition, by promulgating the belief that the Indian who reveals the location of these hidden treasures will surely perish by the wrath of their gods. Playing upon the credulity of the people, it sometimes happens that a roguish Indian will amuse himself at the expense of his reputed superiors in intelligence, by proffering to disclose some of these concealed treasures. I once knew a waggish savage of this kind to propose to show a valley where virgin gold could be "scraped up by the basket-full." On a bright Sunday morning, the time appointed for the expedi- tion, the chuckling Indian sot out with a train of Mexicans at his heels, provided with mules and horses, and a large quantity of meal-bags to carry in the golden stores ; but as the shades of evening were closing around the party, he dis- covered that he couldn't find the place. It is not at all probable, however, that the aborigines possess a tenth part of the knowledge of these ancient foun- tains of wealth, that is generally attributed to them ; but that many valuable mines were once wrought in this province, not only tradition but authenticated records and existing relics sufficiently prove. In every quarter of the territory there are still to be seen vestiges of ancient excavations, and in some places, ruins of considerable towns evidently reared for mining purposes. Among these ancient ruins the most remarkable are those of La Gran Quivira, about one hundred miles southward of Santa Fd. This appears to have been a considerable city, larger and richer by far than the present capital of New Mexico has ever been. Many walls, particularly those of churches, still stand erect amid the desolation that surrounds them, as if their sacredness had been a shield against which Time dealt his blows in vain. The style of architecture is altogether superior to anything at present to be found north of Chihuahua being of hewn stone, a building material 82 HISTORICAL AND wholly unused in New Mexico. What is more extraordinary still, is, that there is no water within less than some ten miles of the ruins ; yet we find several stone cisterns, and remains of aqueducts eight or ten miles in length, leading from the neighboring mountains, from whence water was no doubt con- veyed. And, as there seem to be no indications whatever of the inhabitants ever having been engaged in agricultural pursuits, what could have induced the rearing of a city in such an arid, woodless plain as this, except the proximity of some valuable mine, it is difficult to imagine. From the peculiar character of the place and the remains of the cisterns still existing, the object of pursuit in this case would seem to have been a placer, a name applied to mines of gold-dust inter- mixed with the earth. However, other mines have no doubt been worked in the adjacent mountains, as many spacious pits are found, such as are usually dug in pursuit of ores of silver, etc.; and it is stated that in several places heaps of scoria, are still to be seen. By some persons these ruins have been supposed to be the remains of an ancient Pueblo or aboriginal city. That is not probable, however ; for though the relics of aboriginal temples might possibly be mistaken for those of Catholic churches, yet it is not to be presumed that the Spanish coat-of-arms would be found sculptured and painted upon their facades, as is the case in more than one instance. The most rational accounts represent this to have been a wealthy Spanish city before the general massacre of 1680, in which calamity the inhabitants perished all except one, as the story goes ; and that their immense treasures were buried in the ruins. Some credu- lous adventurers have lately visited the spot in search of these long-lost coffers, but as yet none have been found. The mines of Cerrillos, twenty miles southward of Santa F^, although of undoubted antiquity, have, to all appearance, been worked to some extent within the present century; indeed, they have been reopened within the recollection of the present generation ; but the enterprise having been attended witli little success, it was again abandoned. Among numerous pits still to be seen at this place, there is one of immense In the same vicinity there are some other ruins of a similar character, though less extensive ; the principal of which are those of Abo, Tagique, Chilili. The last of these is now being resettled by the Mexicans. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 88 depth cut through solid rock, which, it is believed, could not have cost less than $100,000. In the mountains of Sandia, Abiquiu, and mope particularly in those of Picuris and Em- budo, there are also numerous excavations of considerable depth. A few years ago, an enterprising American under- took to reopen one of those near Picuris ; but after having penetrated to the depth of more than a hundred feet, without reaching the bottom of the original excavation, (which had probably been filling up for the last hundred and fifty years,) he gave it up for want of means. Other attempts have since been made, but with as little success. Whether these fail- ures have been caused by want of capital and energy, or whether the veins of ore were exhausted by the original miners, remains for future enterprise to determine. I should premise, before further reference to authorities, that the ruins of the three cities, so evidently built by the Indians, under the direction of the Spaniards, or rather of Spanish priests, are all met with in the valley of the Pecos, at no very great distance apart. They are Abio, Quarra, and Quivira. It is the ruins of Quarra which Major Abert, of the United States Commission Survey, was, at the time of this report we proceed to quote, now visiting. He says : I now bade adieu to my generous entertainers, and with thousands of extravagant compliments from the kind people, I set out to overtake the party. After traveling southeast for six miles, I reached the ancient village of 'Quarra.' Here there is yet standing the walls of a time-worn cathe- dral ; it is composed entirely of stone red sandstone ; the pieces are not more than two inches thick. The walls are two feet wide, and the outer face dressed oft' to a perfectly plain surface. The ground-plan presents the form of a cross, with rectangular projections in each of the angles. The short arm of the cross is thirty- three feet two inches wide ; the long arm is eighteen feet nine inches wide ; their axes are, respect- ively, fifty feet and one hundred and twelve feet long, and their intersection is thirty feet from the head of the cross. The rect- angular projections, that partly fill the angles formed by the arms, are six feet square. At the foot of the cross are rectan- gular projections, that measure ten feet in the direction of the axis, and six feet in the other direction. 84 HISTORICAL Around the church are the less conspicuous remains of numerous houses that had been "built of the same material, and the surfaces of the walls finished with tools ; but these houses are almost level with the earth, while the walls of the ancient church rise to a hight of sixty feet. While making my measurements, assisted by one of the men who had remained with me, a Mexican came up to me and said, in the most mysterious way, ' I know something of great moment, and want to speak to you to you alone ; no one must be near ; come with me to my house/ I went ; but when we arrived there, we found an old ruin fitted up with such modern additions as was necessary to render it habitable. Here were several women. I sat some time, talking of in- different matters, waiting anxiously the important secret ; but my friend did not like the presence of the women, and would not tell me then ; so I got ready to re-commence my journey, while he endeavored, in a thousand ways to detain me. I asked him some questions about the geography of the country, and about the famous place called ' Gran Quivera.' He told me that it was exactly like the buildings of Quarra, thus confirming exactly what I had learned at Manzano. I now signified my determination to proceed, when this man seemed extremely anxious about my going, and at last told me that he would meet me in a cedar grove, some dis- tance in my route. In a little while I re ached- the grove, and saw him there. He then told me that he had discovered the greatest mine in the country, where there was an abun- dance of gold and silver. I asked him why he did not go and get it? * O/ said he, 'you can not have been long in this country not to know that we poor people can keep nothing ; the Eicos would seize all, but with your protection I would be secure in my labors. 7 Then he added, ' I '11 give you my name, write it down, it is Jos Lucero, of Quarra ; you can inquire in the villages through which you pass, they will tell you that I am honest/ I took down Jose' Lucero's name, and proceeded on in my journey, so that if any one wishes, they can go and seek the gold of Quarra. It is the impression of all intelligent explorers, who have seen any one of the ruins mentioned, that from the geologi- cal character of the country surrounding them, their existence KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 85 can only "be accounted for, upon the supposition that they were built for mining purposes, and thart since the entire extermi- nation of their Spanish tyrants and taskmasters by the In- dians in the first great rising of 1680 they have kept the secret of these mines concealed for the reasons given by Gregg, and frequently repeated by myself. The significant question : " Why these long aqueducts, bringing water from great distances to cities in the midst of arid plains, when but a short distance south-east, or west, would have given the city-builders, pleasant, beautiful, and well-watered sites ? "-^ has no other reasonable answer that I can perceive. The ignorant frontiers-men and savages of Texas had never heard the names of Quarra or Quivira. yet they clearly pointed them out, in connection with this very neighborhood of rich mines. Dr. Wislizenus, in his report, says : Not far from these sa- linas the ruins of an old city are found, the fabulous ' la Gran Quivira.' The common report in relation to this place is, that a very large and wealthy city was once here situated, with very rich mines, the produce of which was once or twice a year sent to Spain. At one season, when they were making extraordinary preparations for the transporting the precious metals, the Indians attacked them, whereupon the miners buried their treasures, worth fifty millions, and left the city together; but they were all killed except two, who went to Mexico, giving the particulars of the affair and soliciting aid to return. But the distance being so great and the Indians so numerous, nobody would advance, and the thing was drop- ped. One of the two went to New Orleans, then under the dominion of Spain, raised five hundred men, and started by way of the Sabine, but was never heard of afterward. So far the report. Within the last few years, several Americans and Frenchmen have visited the place ; and, although they have not found the treasure, they certify at least to the ex- istence of an aqueduct, about ten miles in length, to the still standing walls of several churches, the sculptures of the Spanish coat of arms, and to many spacious pits, supposed to be silver-mines. It was, no doubt, a Spanish mining town, and it is not unlikely that it was destroyed in 168.0, in the general successful insurrection of the Indians in New Mexico against the Spaniards. Dr. Samuel Gr. Morton, in a late 86 HlSTOKICAL AND pamphlet, suggests the probability that it was originally an old Indian city, into which- the Spaniards, as in several other instances, had intruded themselves, and subsequently aban- doned it. Further investigation, it is to be hoped, will clear up this point. Here are decidedly too many coincidences to be purely acci- dental and meaningless ! Prescott mentions the fact that the quantities of gold found in the possession of the Mexicans by Cortez, are by no means accounted for, in the probable or even possible productiveness of any of the known mines of Mexico at the present day. How, then, is this great wealth to be accounted for ? We think we have shown. It came, mostly, from New Mexico and the mysterious regions of the Gila and Colorado ; and since this massacre of the Spaniards by the first, and the utter baffling of their search by the latter, these mines have been as a sealed book. But it will no longer continue to be sealed, when American enterprise shall have passed over these buried treasures. But hear what is said by yet other historians, of the seem- ingly incalculable quantities of gold obtained by the Spanish conquest of Old and New Mexico, and no reader can be at a loss to account for the European prosperity and predominat- ing insolence of the Catholic Church of this period, any more than he will find the insatiable cravings of the earlier Jesuit missionaries on the north, a difficult riddle to solve. We shall merely quote a single passage from Prescott, the historian of the Conquest, in confirmation of the above, and conclude this branch of our subject. ** In a few weeks most of them returned, bringing back large quantities of gold and silver plate, rich stuffs, and the various commodities in which the taxes were usually paid. To this store Montezuma added, on his own account, the treasure of Axayacatl, previously noticed, some parts of which had been already given to the Spaniards. It was the fruit of long and careful hoarding of extortion, it may be by a prince who little dreamed of its final destination. When brought into the quarters, the gold alone was sufficient to make three heaps. It consisted partly of native grains ; part had been melted into bars ; but the greatest portion was in utensils, and various kinds of ornaments and curious toys, together with imitations of birds, insects, or flowers, executed KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 87 with uncommon truth and delicacy. There were, also, quan- tities of collars, bracelets, wands, fans, and other trinkets, in which the gold and feather-work were richly powdered with pearls and precious stones. Many of the articles were even more admirable for the workmanship than for the value of the materials ; such, indeed if we may take the report of Cortez to one who would himself have soon an opportunity to judge of its veracity, and whom it would not be safe to trifle with as no monarch in Europe could boast in his dominions ! " Magnificent as it was, Montezuma expressed his regret that the treasure was no larger. But he had diminished it, he said, by his former gifts to the white men. * Take it/ he added, ' Malinche, and let it be recorded in your annals, that Montezuma sent this present to your master. 7 " CHAPTER XI. Alas Poor Mexico ! Marquette and Joliet La Salle His pretended retire- ment from the Order of Jesus His Fur Monopoly He Descends the Mississippi to its mouth His Death Remarks Commencement of the Second Intercolonial War. POOR Mexico! delivered over to the tender mercies of Catholic " Missionary effort," how hast thou thriven? how grown apace in godliness and gold in temporal and spiritual prosperity? Whither fled the god-horn line of Moteuczoma, the far descended from the imperial loins of the Child of the Sun Acamapitzin (he who has reeds in his fist), the first king of the rush-floated colony who had founded the empire of Mex- ico ? Whither vanished the splendors of that haughty line ? where those floating gardens, concerning the boundless mag- nificence and extent of which Cortez writes to Charles V, his master, that not all the royal gardens of Europe can afford a comparison of their grandeur ? Where the huge temples to the God of Fire, with their myriad simple votaries to a strange but bloody creed? their splendid festivals of flowers, and dance, and feast, which made the round of the abundant year? Where the innumerable cities, hewn from huge blocks of stone, or piled as solidly from the imperishable sun-burnt bricks? Where the prodigious aqueducts and endless cause- ways which far surpassed the glories of old Rome ? Where the mighty treasures of gold and silver of priceless gems and arts as priceless? Where the pictured histories which, preserving the ancient story of a New World in graphic forms, was the rightful property of mankind? "Where are these archives?" thunders "Sam." "Where are these treasures? Where these precious gems and more precious arts ? Where the mighty " Ways" these fast-built 88 REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 89 cities these simple and happy millions, making merry amid peaceful abundance? Where the lost architecture? Where the ghosts of my majestic brothers, the Moteuczoma?" " Sent to Purgatory, because they have not paid for masses enough yet to buy their way out," echoes a sepulchral answer from the tumbled ruins of fallen, desolate and rav- ished empire ! Mexico is no more ; she is but a myth, a fragment of the past ; she has been " conserved " and con- verted by the Catholic Church ! What more can be said ? Amen. But to return to our proposed survey of the move- ments of the French Jesuits toward the South, of which La Salle is the principal hero. The Jesuit Marque tte had previously explored, in company with Joliet, a French trader, through the Wisconsin river, the upper waters of the Mississippi, as far as the mouth of the Arkansas, but were turned back from that point by the reports of dangerous and hostile tribes belovv. The discov- eries of Marque tte amounted to little more than convicting the heretofore entertained theory that the Mississippi dis- charged itself into the Chesapeake Bay instead of the Gulf of Mexico. Among other adventurers who had passed over to New France since its transfer to the French West India Com- pany, was the young La Salle, a native of Rouen, educated as a Jesuit, but who went to Canada to seek his fortune by discovering an over-land passage to China and Japan. After giving proofs of sagacious activity by explorations in Lakes Ontario and Erie, he had returned to France, and had ob- tained there from the king, to whom Canada had reverted since the recent dissolution of the West India Company, the grant of Fort Frontenac, a post at the outlet of Ontario, on the spot where Kingston now stands, built three years before by the Count de Frontenac, who had succeeded at that time to the office of Governor-General. On condition of keeping up that post, La Salle received the grant of a wide circuit of the neighboring country, and an exclusive right of trade with the Iroquois, as a check upon whom the fort had been built. But his ardent and restless disposition was not thus to be satisfied. Fired by reports of the recently discovered great river of the West, while Virginia was distracted by Bacon's insurrection, and New England yet smarting under 8* 90 HISTORICAL AND the effects of Philip's war, La Salle left his fur trade, his fields, his cattle, his vessels and his Indian dependents at Fort Frontenac, and, repairing to France a second time, obtained a royal commission for perfecting the discovery of the Mississippi, and, at the same time, a monopoly of the trade in .buffalo skins, which seemed likely to prove the chief staple of that region. Thus successful in his mission, La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac with men and stores to prosecute his enterprise, accompanied by the Chevalier Tonti, an Italian soldier, who acted as his lieutenant. Before winter, he ascended Lake Ontario, entered the Niagara, and passing round the falls, selected a spot at the foot of La^e Erie, not far from the present site of Buffalo, where he commenced building the " Griffin/ 7 a bark of sixty tons. This bark, in the course of the next summer, was equipped with sails and cordage brought from Fort Frontenac, and in the autumn, first of civilized vessels, she plowed her way up Lake Erie, bearing La Salle, Tonti, the Fleming Hennepin, and several other friars of the Recollect order. Sixty sailors, boatmen, hunt- ers and soldiers made up the company. Having entered Detroit, " the strait " or river at the head of Lake Erie, they passed through it into that limpid sheet of water, to which La Salle gave the characteristic name of St. Glair. Hence they ascended by a second strait into Lake Huron, and through the length of that great lake, by the Straits of Mackinaw, into Lake Michigan, whence they passed into Green Bay, and, after a voyage of twenty days, cast anchor at its head, thus first tracing a passage now fast becoming one of the great highways of commerce. The Griffin was sent back with a rich lading of furs, under orders to return with provisions and supplies, to be conveyed to the head of Lake Michigan ; but, unfortunately, she was shipwrecked on her homeward passage. La Salle and his company proceeded, meanwhile, in birch-bark canoes, up Lake Michigan, to the mouth of the St. Joseph's, where already there was a Jesuit mission. Here they built a fort called the Post of the Miamis, the name by which the river was then known. La Salle, with most of his people, pres- ently crossed to a branch of the Illinois, down which they descended into the main stream, on whose banks, below BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 91 Peoria, they built a second fort, called Orevecoeur (Heart- break), to signify their disappointment at the non-arrival of the Griffin, of which nothing had yet been heard. To hasten or replace the necessary supplies, the ardent and determined La Salle set off on foot, with only three attendants, and, following the dividing ridge which separates the tributaries of the lakes from those of the Ohio, he made his way back again to Fort Frontenac, where he found his affairs in the greatest confusion, himself reported dead, and his property seized by his creditors. But, by the Governor's aid, he made arrangements which enabled him to continue the prosecution of his enterprise. During La Salle's absence, in -obedience to orders previ- ously given, Dacan and Hennepin descended the Illinois to the Mississippi, and, turning northward, explored that river as high up as the Falls of St. Anthony. On their way back they entered the Wisconsin, and, by the Fox river, passed to Green Bay; whence Hennepin returned to Quebec and to France, where he wrote and published an account of his travels. Tonti, meanwhile, attacked by the Iroquois, who had made a sudden onslaught on the Illinois villages, fled also to Green Bay ; and, when La Salle returned the next autumn with recruits and supplies, he found Forts Miami and Crevecceur deserted. Having built a new fort in the country of the Illinois, which he called St. Louis, with indefatigable energy he returned again to Frontenac, encountering Tonti on his way ; and, having collected a new company, came back the same year to the Illinois, and during the winter built and rigged a small barge, in which, at length, he descended to the gulf. Formal possession of the mouth of the river was cere- moniously taken for the King of France. The country on the banks of the Mississippi received the name of LOUISIANA, in honor of Louis XIV, then at the hight of his power and reputation ; but the attempt to fix upon the river itself the name of Colbert did not succeed. Having made his way back to Quebec, leaving Tonti in command at Fort St. Louis, La Salle returned a third time to France, whither the news of his discovery had preceded him, and had excited great expectations. In spite of repre- sentations from Canada by his enemies, of whom his harsh 92 HISTORICAL AND and overbearing temper made him many, he was presently furnished with a frigate and three other ships, on board of which embarked five priests, twelve gentlemen, fifty soldiers, a number of hired mechanics, and a small body of volunteer agricultural emigrants, well furnished with tools and pro- visions ; in all two hundred and eighty persons, designed to plant a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. Informed of this intended enterprise, Tonti, with twenty Canadians and thirty Indians, descended from Fort St. Louis to meet his old commander. But La Salle's vessels missed the entrance to the Mississippi, passed to the westward, and after a vain search for the river's mouth, landed their feeble and dispirited company at some undetermined spot on the coast of Texas. A fort was built and named St. Louis. La Salle, with characteristic activity, in the vain hope of finding the Mississippi, penetrated and explored the surrounding country. No succors came from France ; the only vessel left with the colonists was wrecked ; victims to the climate, to home-sickness, and despair, they were presently reduced to thirty-six persons. In this extremity, La Salle set off with sixteen men, determined to reach Canada by land ; but, after three months' wanderings, he was murdered by two mutin- ous companions. The murderers were themselves murdered ; some of the men joined the Indians ; finally, five of them reached a point at the mouth of the Arkansas, where Tonti, returning disappointed from the gulf, had established a little post. With the Indians nearest the mouth of the Mississippi Tonti left a letter to La Salle, which they faithfully pre- served for fourteen years, and delivered to the first French- men who made their appearance. The twenty men left by La Salle at Fort St. Louis obscurely perished, and even the site of the fort passed into oblivion. Yet France in after times claimed the region thus transiently occupied as a part of Louisiana. The same claim was revived more than a century afterward on behalf of the United States, to which Louisiana had been transferred by purchase. This is- Hildreth's account of La Salle and his career. But it may be as well to specify, in commenting upon this narrative, that Bancroft takes good care to mention that " La Salle being of a good family, he had renounced his inherit- KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 93 ance by entering the seminary of the Jesuits. After profit- ing by the discipline of their schools, and obtaining theit praise for purity and diligence, he had taken his discharge from the fraternity ; and, with no companions but poverty and a boundless spirit of enterprise, about the year 1667, when the attention of all France was directed toward Canada, the young adventurer embarked for fame and fortune in New France." Now any one, who has carefully read our exposition of the principles of the organization of Loyola's Order, will understand how much this " taken his discharge " amounts to in reality. It means nothing more than that La Salle, at the urgency of his own adventurous spirit and probable request, had been transferred to some one of the many secret grades of the Order, which included not only women and Knights, but men of all ranks and occupations ; he be- came, in a word, one of the " silent members," who, released from all ecclesiastical functions, outwardly constituted the most formidable agents of the Order. No better evidence of this could be offered than that his first effort was to obtain, in his own name, the coveted monopoly of the Fur Trade, which the missionaries proper have yet been unable wholly to absorb. But who can doubt that La Salle was virtually as good a Jesuit still with that irrevocable vow of poverty upon his soul as the saintly Marquette, or any avowed dig- nitary of the Order ? La Salle still loved adventure much but, as in duty bound the Order more. It must be remem* bered that this vow of poverty, once taken, was retrospective, and as well forever, prospective, so that little good must his Fur Trade monopoly have ever done the poor adventurer so soon as substantiated, it must have gone into the hands of the Order, whose agent in trust he was. But thus it has ever been with those historical oracles whose brains and sympathies are so magnificently capacious that, to be merely Protestant, and tell a straight-forward truth plainly about a Body so revered for learning as this of the Jesuits, seems simply plebeian ! Faugh ! the contrast of the cool manner in which Hildreth disposes of this question may be remembered in the quotation given above. But this ex- ploration of La Salle, though not immediately successful, constituted the future basis of French Imperial claims and Jesuit encroachments on the South ; and we shall see too, 94 HISTORICAL AND even so early as during the progress of the third intercolo- nial war, they began to make themselves felt through their savage allies in that quarter. Hildreth thus relates the opening of this new war between the bloody partisans of Jesuitism and the Protestant colonies : At the close of the late war, there had remained in the whole of Maine and Sagadahoc only four inhabited towns. Others had been reoccupied, and industry was resuming its course, when the breaking out of the new war with France excited new apprehensions. Earnest efforts were made to keep the Eastern Indians quiet. Dudley undertook a pro- gress as far east as Pemaquid to renew the treaties. But a band of unprincipled colonists presently attacked and plun- dered the half-breed son of the Baron Castin, who dwelt on the Penobscot, and had succeeded there to some share of his father's influence. In consequence of this outrage, before long hostilities were renewed. (1703.) The broken remnants of those Eastern tribes, whose vicinity to the English had exposed them most, were collected by the French, and established in two villages, Becancour and St. Francis, on two rivers of the same names, flowing from the south into the St. Lawrence. Here they had chapels and priests. Keligious zeal and the remembrance of exile inflamed their natural aptitude for war. They were always ready for expeditions against the frontiers of New England, against which, in consequence of the truce with the Five Nations, the whole force of Canada was now directed. (1704.) With two hundred Canadians and a hundred and fifty In- dians, Hertelle de Eouville, descending along the Connecticut, approached Deerfield, then the northwestern frontier town of New England. Like the other frontier villages, it was inclosed by a palisade ; but the sentinels slept, and high snow-drifts piled against the inclosure made entrance easy. Why repeat a story of monotonous horrors ? The village was burned ; forty-seven of the inhabitants were slain ; the minister and his family, with upward of a hundred others, were carried into captivity. Dread and terror seized the in- habitants of Massachusetts. The whole of their extended northern frontier was liable to similar attacks. They were exposed alone to the whole brunt of the war. A reward of $66 was offered for Indian prisoners under ten years of age, ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 95 and twice as much for older prisoners, or for scalps premi- ums afterward variously modified and considerably increased. Thus stimulated, the colonial rangers were soon able to rival, and presently to surpass, the Indians in the endurance of cold and fatigue, and to follow up a trail with equal sagacity, ret so shy and scattered were these lurking enemies, and so skilled in all the arts of that skulking warfare which they practiced, that each Indian scalp taken during this war was estimated to have cost the colony upward of 1000, $3333. The barbarizing influence of such a struggle was even more to be deprecated than its cost and its miseries. Some of the Connecticut Indians were employed as auxiliaries, but they seemed to have lost their warlike spirit. The veteran Church, so soon as he heard of the burning of Deerfield, mounted his horse and rode seventy miles to offer his services to Governor Dudley. Next year the Indian ravages became more alarming than ever. The very neighborhood of Boston was threatened. Hertelle de Rouville, again descended from Canada, this time by the valley of the Merrimac, attacked Haverhill, the fron- tier town on that river, scarcely yet recovered from the rav- ages of the former war. Having piously prayed together, De Rouville and his Indians rushed ito the town about an hour before sunrise. The houses were plundered and set on fire ; forty or fifty of the inhabitants were slain, some of them per- ishing in the flames of the houses; as many more, taken prisoners, were carried off to Canada. Hotly pursued from the neighboring towns, the assailants were obliged to fight shortly after leaving Haverhill, yet, with the loss of some of their prisoners, they succeeded in making good their retreat. Alarmed at this new specimen of French and Indian enter- prise, the General Court of Massachusetts called the queen's attention to the "consuming war" in which they had been engaged, now little short of twenty years. They begged her commands to the Mohawks to fall upon the French, and her assistance to conquer Canada and Acadie. Vetch, a Boston merchant, one of the late commissioners to Quebec to treat for the exchange of prisoners, who had taken that opportunity to make soundings of the channel of the St. Lawrence, was sent to England to press this request. He came back with the promise of a fleet and army, news which, 96 HISTORICAL AND iu spite of the opposition of the traders of Albany, who car- ried on a gainful commerce with Canada, excited in New York as well as New England, the greatest enthusiasm. Ingolsby, lieutenant-governor of New York, took care to keep the Assembly in good humor "by resigning into their hands the appointment of officers, and the regulation, by a committee, of the commissary department. Five hundred men were raised ; provisions were promised for the troops of the other colonies expected to co-operate ; and hills of credit, for the first time in New York, were issued to pay the expense. To pro- vide means for equipping their quotas, Connecticut and New Jersey, equally zealous, now also issued their first paper money. This enthusiasm did not extend to Pennsylvania. Called upon by Governor G-ookin to contribute a hundred and fifty soldiers, the Quaker Legislature protested, " with all humili- ty/' that "they could not, in conscience, provide money to hire men to kill each other." Out of their dutiful attach- ment to the queen, in spite of their scruples, they tendered her a present of 500 ; but this pittance Gookin refused to accept. The plan of campaign devised twenty years before by Leisler and Phipps was now again revived. The four eastern clans of the Iroquois had been persuaded to raise the hatchet. The quotas of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, with four independent companies of a hundred men each, the regular garrison of New York, amounting in the whole to one thousand five hundred men, were assembled at Wood Creek, near the head of Lake Champlain, for an attack &n Montreal. The command of these troops was given by the contributing Assemblies to Nicholson, bred an army officer, an old official, a man of very active disposition, whom we have seen successively governor of New York, of Maryland, and of Virginia, and whose former zeal in urging a grant by Vir ginia for the defense of New York was now gratefully re- membered. Another army of twelve hundred men, the quotas of Mas- sachusetts, New Hampshire, and Ehode Island, destined to operate against Quebec, anxiously awaited at Boston the arrival of the promised British fleet. But new disasters in Spain again diverted this expected aid ; and all these expen- ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 97 give preparations, by far the greatest yet made in the British colonies, fell fruitless to the ground. The governors of the colonies concerned in this enterprise, met at B )ston, and Nicholson and Vetch carried to England their solicitations and complaints. Schuyler, of Albany, who exercised a great influence over the Mohawks, imitated the p licy of the governor of Canada, by taking with him to Eng- land five Mohawk warriors. Tricked out in scarlet cloaks, borrowed from the wardrobe of a London theater, these sav- ages attracted a large share of public attention. The "Tatler" and " Spectator," then in the course of publication, make several allusions to them. Nicholson and Vetch returned the next summer with two ships of war and five hundred marines. Connecticut and New Hampshire each raised a regiment ; two regiments were contributed by Massachusetts ; and Nicholson and Vetch, with twenty New England transports, sailed to attack Port Royal. The French garrison, feeble and mutinous, surrendered as soon as the siege was formed. By the terms of the capitula- tion, the inhabitants within a circuit of three miles, upon taking an oath of allegiance to England, were to be protected for two years, and were to have that period to dispose of their property. The miserable inhabitants of the other districts in vain solicited the same terms. They were treated as pris- oners at discretion; their property was plundered; it was even proposed to drive them from their homes, " unless they would turn Protestants." A message was sent to the gov- ernor of Canada, that if he did not put a stop to the Indian parties against the frontiers of New England, any cruelties which they might inflict, should be retorted on the unhappy Acadian s. Such conduct was little calculated to secure quiet possession of the province ; and Vetch, left at Port Royal with four hundred men, soon found himself invested by the Aca- dians and the Indians. Aid from England having been solicited by the colonies in this war, that which the Whigs consistently refused, had been, to the sudden surprise of the petitioners, granted by the new Tory administration. A large fleet and army was dispatched against Canada, under the command of General Hill and Sir Hovenden Walker. Hildreth says: 98 HISTORICAL AND Within a fortnight after Nicholson had given the first notice of what was intended, a fleet of fifteen ships of war, with forty transports, bringing five veteran regiments of Marlborough's army, arrived at Boston. Here they were detained upward of a month, waiting for provisions and the colonial auxiliaries. The want of notice caused some inevi- table delay; but the northern colonies exerted themselves with remarkable promptitude and vigor. The credit of the English treasury, broken down by a long and expensive war, was so low at Boston, that nobody would purchase bills upon it without an indorsement, which Massachusetts fur- nished in the shape of bills of credit to the amount of .40,000, advanced to the merchants who supplied provisions to the fleet. After a delay, of which the officers loudly com- plained, the ships sailed at last with seven thousand men on board, half regulars and half provincials. New York issued .10,000 in bills of credit to pay the expense of her share of the enterprise, taking care, however, to deposit the money in the hands of special commissioners. Pennsylvania, under the name of a present to the queen, contributed ,2,000, but none of the colonies further south seemed to have taken any interest in the matter. Some fifteen hundred troops, the quotas of Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, again placed under the command of Nichol- son, assembled at Albany, for an attack on Montreal simul- taneously with that on Quebec, and Nicholson's camp was presently joined by eight hundred warriors of the Five Na- tions. But the advance was cut short by news of the failure of the expedition by sea. As the fleet was proceeding up the St. Lawrence during a dark and stormy night, through the obstinacy and negli- gence of Admiral Walker, eight transports were wrecked, and near a thousand men perished. Discouraged at this disaster, the Admiral turned about, and, sending home the colonial transports, sailed direct for England, not even stop- ping by the way, as his instructions had indicated, to attack the French posts in Newfoundland. The British officers con- cerned in the expedition, attempted to shift off on the. col- onists the blame of this failure. They alleged * the interest- edness, the ill-nature, and sourness of these people, whose hypocrisy and canting are insupportable.' The indignant KEVOLUTIOXAKY INCIDENTS. 99 colonists, suspicious of the Tory ministry, believed that the whole enterprise was a scheme meant to fail, and specially designed for their disgrace and impoverishment. Harley, having quarreled with his colleagues, denounced it to the House of Commons as a job intended to put 20,000 into the pockets of St. John and Harcourt. Nowhere was the failure of this enterprise more felt than in New York. A war with the Five Nations was even apprehended. That confederacy showed a strong disposition to go over to the French." That "the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the faith " worked well now. The Jesuits had at last obtained a hold upon the nations composing the League of the Iroquois, which had, as yet, proved the sole protectors of the early colonists on the lakes. There was an incidental war with the Tuscaroras in the meantime, against the German emi- grants of North Carolina principally. Hear Hildreth's account : The expedition against Norridgewock, which the Gover- nor had delayed, but afterward, on the remonstrance of the court, had sent forward, was not successful in seizing Rasles ; but his papers, which fell into the hands of the assailants, who pillaged the church and the missionary's house, strength- ened suspicions that the Indians were encouraged by Cana- dian support. The Indians retorted the attack on Norridge- wock by burning Brunswick, a new village recently established on the Androscoggin. The tribes of Nova Scotia, also, joined in the war. At the Gut of Canso they seized seventeen fish- ing vessels belonging to Massachusetts, several of which, however, were presently recovered, with severe loss to the Indian captors. When the General Court came together, new disputes arose between the governor and the House as to the conduct of the war, of which the representatives sought to engross the entire management. Disgusted by the opposition of an Assembly " more fit," as he thought, " for the affairs of farm- ing than for the duty of legislators/ 7 Shute had secretly obtained leave to return home; and, without giving any intimation of his purposes, he suddenly left the province. The administration, by his departure, passed into the hands 100 HISTORICAL AND of Dumraer, the lieutenant-governor, who remained at the head of affairs for the next six years. The General Court soon accommodated with Duminer the quarrel which Sliute had left on his hands. He yielded to some of their demands, and they ahandoned others. The Indian war proved expensive and annoying, and large issues of paper money became necessary to carry it on. Connecticut, applied to for aid against the Indians, pro- fessed scruples as to the justice of the war, and begged Massachusetts to take care lest innocent blood were shed. These scruples were presently quieted, and Connecticut fur- nished the quota asked for. Attempts repeatedly made to engage the assistance of the Mohawks were less successful. They not only refused to take up the hatchet, but, what was still more unpalatable, they advised Massachusetts, as a sure means of peace, to restore the Indian lands and prisoners. The attacks of the Indians extended along the whole northern frontier as far west as Connecticut river. To cover the towns in that valley, Fort Dummer was presently erected, on the site of what is now BrattleborougJi, the oldest English settlement within the limits of the present State of Vermont. Having seized an armed schooner in one of the eastern harbors, a party of Indians cruised along the coast, and captured no less than seven vessels. It was deemed neces- sary to strike some decisive blow. Norridgewcck was sur- prised by a second expedition ; Easles was slain, with some thirty of his Indian disciples ; the sacred vessels and " the adorable body of Jesus Christ " were scoffingly profaned ; the chapel was pillaged and burned, and the village broken up. The premium on scalps was raised to ^100, payable, how- ever, in the depreciated currency. Love we 11, a noted partisan, surprised, near the head of Salmon Falls river, ten Indians asleep round a fire. He killed them all, and marched in triumph to Dover, with their scalps hooped and elevated on poles. In a second expedition he was less successful. Neai the head of the Saco, on the margin of a pond, he fell into an Indian ambush, and was slain at the first fire, with eight of his men. The rest defended themselves bravely through a whole day's fight, repulsed the Indians, and made good their retreat. REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 101 Embassadors, meanwhile, were sent to Canada to remon- strate against the countenance given there to the hostile In- dians ; and an application was made to the king, to compel the neighboring colonies and the Mohawks to join in the war. The Board of Trade inclined to favor this request ; but, already, the Penobscots had proposed a peace, which the colonists were very glad to accept ; and the Norridgewocks presently came into it. Judicious measures were taken to protect the Indians against the extortion and villainy of private traders, by the establishment of public trading-houses to supply them with goods at cost. By this means, peace was preserved for many years, and the settlements in Maine and New Hamp- shire extended without interruption. The complicated designs of the French Jesuits assume an aspect of mystery and entanglement, which it does not com- port with our present purpose to unravel. We will let the plain historic character of the period tell for itself in the language of Hildreth. He says : Though the progress of New France, as compared with that of the British colonies, was but slow and inconsiderable, the French still entertained the grand project of appropriating the whole of that vast western valley from the great lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The Iroquois were no longer hostile ; and, if the missionary spirit was dying out, it had been suc- ceeded by a mercantile spirit hardly less energetic and deter- mined. The French fur traders ranged the whole west ; the Foxes, the only hostile tribe on the upper lakes, had been chastised and driven from Green Bay. By the treaty of Utrecht, the traffic with the western Indians was equally open to the English traders ; but it still remained, for the most part, in the hands of the French, constituting, indeed, almost the sole resource of Canada. The lands along the banks of the St. Lawrence had been granted in seigniories, much like the patroonships of New Netherland. The ten- ants who cultivated them, known as habitans, produced little more than was necessary for the local consumption. They were often, however, better off than the seigneurs, or feudal lords, whose rents and feudal rights amounted to little. They looked chiefly to public offices or commissions in the army and navy as a means of support, and to them, there- fore, peace was always distasteful. By an edict of Louis XIV, 9* 102 HISTORICAL AND the nobles of Canada had been authorized to engage in com- merce without any prejudice to their nobility. The fur trade, however, was principally in the hands of the bourgeoisie of Quebec and Montreal. The attempts to establish fisheries on the shores of the St. Lawrence had failed. Of the vessels that took cargoes to New France, some carried coal from Cape Breton to Martinique, to be used in boiling sugar ; others bought fish in Newfoundland ; but many returned in ballast. Notwithstanding objections in France, leave had been granted to establish linen manufactures in Canada, and coarse linens were now produced sufficient for the local demand. (1728.) The administration of Canadian affairs was vested in the governor-general, the intendant, and a supreme council. The bishop named all the curates. The custom of Paris, the law of New France, under the conservative hands of the English, has preserved, like the Roman-Dutch code in British Guiana, authority in America long after having lost it in Europe. The population of Canada numbered at this time about thirty thousand. Quebec was a city of five thousand inhabitants. Many of the principal officers of the government were es- tablished there, and it could boast, in consequence, a more agreeable society than any other American town. The " Creoles of Canada," natives, that is, of European descent, are described by Charlevoix as " well made, large, strong, robust, vigorous, enterprising, brave and indefatigable, but unpolished, presumptuous, self-reliant, esteeming them- selves above all the nations of the earth, and somewhat lack- ing in filial veneration " a portrait, not of the Canadian Creoles merely, but of the whole Creole-American race. The Canadians, true to their French origin, though inferior in industry, and much less wealthy, understood better than the Anglo-Americans the art of making themselves happy. In Louisiana the French had secured the friendship of the Choctaws, a numerous confederacy inhabiting the region from the Lower Mississippi eastward to the Alabama, where they bordered on the Creeks. (1728.) Surrounded by the Choc- taws, and dwelling mostly in a single village in the close vicinity of Fort Rosalie, where the Natchez, limited in num- bers and extent of territory, but remarkable for a peculiar language and their singular religious and social institutions, which resembled, in several points, those of the Peruvians of KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 103 South America. Like the Peruvians, they worshiped the sun, from whom, also, their great chief claimed to be de- scended. In the great wigwam dedicated to their god, an undying fire was kept burning. Beside their principal chief, the " Great Sun," object of their highest reverence, there was a race of inferior chiefs or " suns," quite distinct from the common people. The hierarchical system was complete ; but the small number of the Natchez did not allow of any of those striking results of combined labor, extorted by re- ligious reverence, so remarkable among the Mexicans and Peruvians. The Natchez hardly differed- in externals from the other tribes about them. Alarmed at ths encroachments of the French at Fort Ros- alie, by whom their very village was demanded as a site for plantations, the Natchez presently began to grow hostile a feeling stimulated by the Chickasaws, who dwelt northwardly up the east bank of the Mississippi, toward the mouth of tha Ohio, and whose country extended eastward to the lands of the Cherokees. Thus encouraged, the Natchez fell unexpectedly on the French settlement at Fort Rosalie, massacred the men to the number of two hundred, and made the women and children prisoners. (Nov. 1729.) The negro slaves were not harmed, and they presently joined the Indians. The settlers in the vicinity of New Orleans amounted, by this time, to near six thousand. But a third of that number were slaves, and dread of insurrection added to the terrors of Indian war. While the people of New Orleans mustered their forces and fortified the city, Le Sueur, with a body of seven hundred Choctaw warriors, surprised the Natchez feasting over their victory, and liberated a part of the prisoners. Forces which presently arrived from New Orleans completed the success. Some of the discomfited Natchez fled to the Chickasaws, others crossed the Mississippi. But they were pursued, and only a few made good their escape. The great chief and four hundred others, prisoners in the hands of the French, were sent to St. Domingo and s >ld as slaves. (Jan. Feb. 1730.) The English government, anxious to confirm their influ- ence over the Cherokees, sent Sir Alexander Gumming to Carolina, specially authorized to renew the treaties with that 104 HISTORICAL AND powerful confederacy. Gumming held several councils in the Cherokee country ; and seven of the principal chiefs vrere persuaded to accompany him to England on a visit to their " great father," the king. These chiefs signed a treaty with the Board of Trade, by which they promised the return of all runaway slaves, and were made to acknowledge them- selves the subjects of Great Britain. Hence, in the subse- quent controversy with the French, a pretense on the part of Great Britain, as in the case of the Six Nations, to sove- reignty all over the Cherokee territory. While these events transpired at the south, the Canadian authorities excited apprehensions, by sending a party from Montreal up Lake Champlain, to occupy Crown Point, within a hundred miles of Albany. The Assembly of New York resolved that " this encroachment, if not prevented," would prove of " we most pernicious consequence to this and other colonies ;" and they sent notice to Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and applied to England for aid. Massa- chusetts entered warmly into their feelings. The Board of Trade supported their complaints ; but the judicious policy of Walpole was peace. The experience of the last two wars, which had saddled England, to so little purpose, with a debt of two hundred and fifty millions of dollars, was not yet for- gotten, and in spite of the remonstrances of New York and New England, the French were allowed quietly to occupy the shores of a lake, which, more than a century previous, they had been the first to explore. Only at this single point, did the French yet approach the settlements of the English. There was a short and easy communication from Lake Erie with the upper waters of the Ohio ; but no attempt was made by the French to occupy those waters, of which, indeed, they seem as yet to have known but little. The communication between Canada and Louisiana was carried on by the distant routes of Green Bay and the Wisconsin, Lake Michigan and the Illinois, and, presently, by the Maumee and the Wabash, which latter river was regarded by the French as the main stream, to which the Ohio was but a tributary. Low down the Wabash the post of St. Vincent's was presently established. The Blue .Ridge bounded as yet the back settlements of Pennsyl- vania and Virginia. Unknown mountains and unthreaded KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 105 forests separated, for a few years longer, the rival claimants of a continent. Yet already the communication between Canada arid Lou- isiana was exposed to obstructions. English traders from Carolina, penetrating through the country of the Cherokees, reached the distant Chickasaws, by whom, as enemies of the French, they were kindly received. These traders, in their turn, stimulated the hostility of the Chickasaws, whose canoes, filled with warriors, attacked the French boats navi- gating backward and forward from the Illinois to New Orleans. The Chickasaws even attempted, in conjunction with the English traders, to detach the tribes of the north- west from the French interest. Puritan courage and enterprise seem to have been every- where sufficient for the heading and counterbalancing all that corpse-like submission and fanaticism of the Jesuit could achieve. Protestantism had managed to make good friends in advance, as we have seen, of the Cherokees and Chickasaws, and opposed this alliance as a barrier upon the south nearly equal, in efficiency, to that of the Iroquois on the north. But hear further the narrative of the historian, upon whose careful labors the biographer of " Sam " has found that no one at this day can so far improve upon. He continues: The Mississippi Company, utterly disappointed in its expectations of profit, and alarmed at the expense of the war with the Natchez, resigned Louisiana to the crown, and the Canadian Bienville, who had shared the fatigues and anxieties of the first settlement, was again commissioned as royal Governor ; but the system of administration remained in most respects as before. The hostility of the Chickasaws seeming to threaten, in the south-west, an obstacle to the French dominion similar to that which the Iroquois had for- merly presented to the north, it was resolved to attempt the conquest of that haughty nation, by a simultaneous attack from opposite directions. Proceeding from New Orleans to Mobile with a fleet of sixty boats and canoes, Bienville ascended the Tombigbee to a fort or trading-house, lately established, two hundred and fifty miles up that river. There he was joined by twelve hundred Choctaws. The combined force having paddled up 106 HlSTOKICAL AND the Tombigbee to the head of navigation, marched from the landing now known as Cotton Gin Port against a stronghold of the Chickasaws, situated about twenty miles west of it. Aware, however, of the approach of their enemies, and en- couraged by some English traders, the Chickasaws repulsed the attack, and compelled the French and their allies to an nglorious retreat. D'Artaguette, who simultaneously descended from the Illinois with fifty Frenchmen and a thousand Indians, had been still more unlucky. Not hearing anything of the other expedition, he too had ventured a separate attack on a more northerly fort of the Chickasaws, in which he fell, severely wounded. His forces were repulsed and hotly pur- sued. Himself and several others, taken prisoners, were burned at the stake. In consequence, no doubt, of the expense of this war, the "card money" system which pre- vailed in Canada was introduced in Louisiana also. Three years after, the whole strength of New France was again exerted for the conquest of the Chickasaws. At a post established within their country, at that bluff on the Mississippi now the site of the city of Memphis, twelve hundred French soldiers were assembled, with twice as many Indians and negroes. But the ranks were soon thinned by sickness, and the French were glad to purchase peace by withdrawing their forces, leaving the Chickasaws still inde- pendent and indomitable. The process for vacating the charter of Carolina had been delayed by the privilege of peerage, enjoyed by several of the proprietaries. To bring this to a conclusion, it was pro- posed to buy the province, and the bargain for that purpose was presently confirmed by act of Parliament. Seven of the eight proprietaries relinquished to the crown all their interest for the sum of <17,500, to which were added <5000 more for arrears of quit-rents, claimed to the amount of <9000. Lord Carteret, the eighth proprietor, surrendered his rights of jurisdiction, but chose to retain his interest in the soil, his share of which, in the territory north of the Savannah, was specially set off to him next to the Virginia line, which had been lately run, and marked as far westward as the Blue Kidge. REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 107 Louisburg, on which the French had spent much money, was by far the strongest fort north of the Gulf of Mexico. But the prisoners of Canso, carried thither, and afterward dismissed on parole, reported the garrison to be weak, and the works out of repair. So long as the French held this fortress, it was sure to be a source of annoyance to New Eng- land, but to wait for British aid to capture it would, be tedious and uncertain, public attention in Great Britain being much engrossed by a threatened invasion. Under these circum- stances, Shirley proposed to the General Court of Massachu- setts the bold enterprise of a colonial expedition, of which Louisburg should be the object. After six days' deliberation and two additional messages from the governor, this proposal was adopted by a majority of one vote. A circular letter, asking aid and co-operation, was sent to all the colonies as far south as Pennsylvania. In answer to this application, urged by a special messenger from Massachusetts, the Pennsylva- nia Assembly, still engaged in a warm controversy with Governor Thomas, voted 4:000 of their currency to purchase provisions. The New Jersey Assembly, engaged, like that of Pennsylvania, in a violent quarrel with their governor, had refused to organize the militia or to vote supplies, unless Mor- ris would first consent to all their measures, including a new issue of paper money. They furnished, however, 2000 toward the Louisburg expedition, but declined to raise any men. The New York Assembly, after a long debate, voted 3000 of their currency ; but this seemed to Clinton a nig- gardly grant, and he sent, beside, a quantity of provisions .purchased by private subscription, and ten eighteen-pounders from the King's magazine. Connecticut voted five hundred men, led* by Roger Wolcott, afterward governor, and appoint- ed, by stipulation of the Connecticut Assembly, second in command of the expedition. Rhode Island and New Hamp- shire each raised a regiment of three hundred men; but the Rhode Island troops did not arrive till after Louisburg was taken. The chief burden of the enterprise, as was to be expected, fell on Massacbusetts. In seven weeks an army of three thousand two hundred and fifty men was enlisted, trans- ports were pressed, and bills of credit were profusely issued to pay the expense. Ten armed vessels were provided by Massachusetts, and one by each of the other New England 108 HlSTOEICAL AND colonies. The command in chief was given to William Fep- perill, a native of Maine, a wealthy merchant, who had inher- ited and augmented a large fortune acquired by his father in the fisheries; a popular, enterprising, sagacious man, noted for his universal good fortune, but unacquainted with military affairs, except as a militia officer. Whittield, then preaching on his third tour throughout the colonies, gave his influence in favor of the expedition by suggesting, as a motto for thi flag of the New Hampshire regiment, " Nil desperandum Christo duce" "Nothing is to be despaired of with Ciirist for a leader." The enterprise, under such auspices, assumed something of the character of an anti-Catholic crusade. One of the chaplains, a disciple of Whitfield, carried a hatchet, specially provided to hew down the images in the French churches. Eleven days after embarking at Boston, the Massachusetts armament assembled at Casco, to wait there the arrival of the Connecticut and Rhode Island quotas, and the melting of the ice by which Cape Breton was environed. The New Hampshire troops were already there ; those from Connecti- cut came a few days after. Notice having been sent to Eng- land and the West Indies of the intended expedition, Captain Warren presently arrived with four ships of war, and, cruising before Louisburg, captured several vessels bound thither with supplies. Already, before his arrival, the New England cruisers had prevented the entry of a French thirty-gun ship. As soon as the ice permitted, the troops landed and com- menced the siege, but not with much skill, for they had no engineers. The artillery was commanded by Gridley, who served thirty years after in the same capacity in the first Massachusetts revolutionary army. Cannon and provisions had to be drawn on sledges, by human strength, over morasses and rocky hills. Five unsuccessful attacks were made, one after another, upon an island battery which protected the harbor. In that cold, foggy climate, the troops, very imper- fectly provided with tents, suffered severely from sickness, and more than a third were unfit for duty. But the French garrison was feeble and mutinous, and when the commander found that his supplies had been captured, he relieved the embarrassment of the besiegers by offering to capitulate. The capitulation included six hundred and fifty regular KEVOLUTTONARY INCIDENTS. 109 soldiers, and near thirteen hundred effective inhabitants of the town, all of whom were to be shipped to France. The Island of St. John's presently submitted on the same terms. The loss during the siege was less than a hundred and fifty, but among those reluctantly detained to garrison the con- quered fortress ten times as many perished afterward by sickness. In the expedition of Vernon and this against Louisburo;, perished a large number of the remaining Indians of New England, persuaded to enlist as soldiers in the colo- nial regiments. Some dispute arose as to the relative merits of the land and the naval forces, which had been joined during the siege by additional ships from England. Pepperell, however, was made a baronet, and both he and Shirley were commissioned as colonels in the British army. Warren was promoted to the rank of rear admiral. The capture of this strong fortress, effected in the face of many strong obstacles, shed, indeed, a momentary luster over one of the most unsuccessful wars in which Britain was ever engaged. It attracted, also, special attention to the growing strength and enterprise of the people of New England, represented by Warren, in his communica- tions to the ministry, as having "the highest notions of the rights and liberties of Englishmen; and, indeed, as almost Levelers." The French, on their side, were not idle. The garrison of Crown Point sent out a detachment, which took the Massachu- setts fort at Hoosick, now Williams town, and presently sur- prised and ravaged the settlement recently established at Saratoga. Even the counties of Ulster and Orange, on the lower Hudson, struck with panic, expected the speedy arrival of Canadian and Indian invaders. The easy conquest of Louisburg revived the often disap- pointed hope of the conquest of Canada. Shirley submitted to Newcastle a plan for a colonial army to undertake this enterprise. But the Duke of Bedford, then at the head of the British marine, took alarm at the idea of "the independence it might create in those provinces, when they shall see within themselves so great an army, possessed of so great a country by right of conquest." The old plan was therefore preferred, of sending a fleet and army from England to capture Quebec, to be joined at Louisburg by the New England levies, while 10 110 HlSTOKICAL AND the forces of other colonies operated in the rear, against Montreal. Orders were accordingly sent to the colonies to raise troops, which the king w r ould pay. Hardly were these orders across the Atlantic, wffen the ministers changed their mind ; but, before the countermand arrived, the colonial levies were already on foot. In spite of the mortality at Louisburg, Massachusetts raised three thousand five hundred men, Connecticut raised a thousand, New Hampshire five hundred, Ehode Island three hundred. The province of New York voted sixteen hundred men, New Jersey five hundred, Maryland three hundred, Virginia one hundred. Money was voted by the Pennsylvania Assembly for enlisting four hundred men. The troops from the southern colonies, and those also from Connecticut, assembled at Albany. The command, declined by Governor Gouch, of Virginia, was assumed by Clinton, of New York. Not only was Clinton involved in a violent controversy with the Assembly, but a majority of the Council, headed by Delancey, the Chief Justice, continued to sit at New York during the Governor's absence at Albany, and to dispute with him the administra- tion of the province. His military command was not less embarrassing. The corporation of Albany refused to pro- vide quarters for the soldiers ; the bills drawn by Clinton on the British treasury failed to purchase provisions ; impress- ment was resorted to, but it was not without difficulty that the troops were subsisted. The office of agent for the Five Nations, hitherto held by Major Shuyler's son, had been taken from him by Clinton and given to William Johnston, who led a party of Mohawks, destined to act in front of the main army. Of Scotch-Irish descent, Johnston had established himself some ten or twelve years previously on the Mohawk river, thirty miles west of Albany, at the head of a new frontier settlement, undertaken on behalf of his uncle, Admiral Warren, who had married in New York, and had thus been led to engage in colonial land speculations. A man of coarse but vigorous mind, and great bodily strength, Johnston carefully cultivated the good will of the Mohawks, with whom he carried on a lucrative traffic. He had an Indian wife, or mistress, sister of the afterward celebrated Brant; he acknowledged as his own, several KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. Ill naif-breed children ; and already had attained, by conformity to their customs and by natural aptitude, the same influence over the, Mohawks possessed in the previous generation by Major Schuyler. As the British fleet did not make its appearance, fifteen hundred of the Massachusetts troops were marched to Albany to join Clinton. But attention was soon drawn to matters nearer home. Instead of the expected English squadron, a French fleet of forty ships of war, with three thousand veteran troops on board, had sailed for the American coast, exciting a greater alarm throughout New England than had been felt since the threatened invasion of 1697. This alarm, the non-appearance of the British fleet, and the various dif- ficulties encountered on the march, put a stop to the advance on Montreal. A body of troops from Canada appeared at the head of the Bay of Fundy, and, being joined by the French inhabitants there, threatened an attack on Annapolis. Boston was thought to be the great object of the enemy. To defend it, some ten thousand militia were collected, and such addditions were made to the fort, on Castle Island, as to render it the strongest British fortress in America. The French fleet, shattered by storms and deci- mated by a pestilential fever, effected nothing beyond alarm. The admiral died, the vice-admiral committed suicide. The command then devolved on La Jonquiere, appointed Gov- ernor-General of New France as successor to Beauharnois, who had held that office for the last twenty years. A second storm dispersed the ships, which returned singly to France. After the capture of Jonquiere in a second attempt to reach Canada, the office of Governor-General devolved on La Galissionniere. Parliament subsequently reimbursed to the colonies the expenses of their futile preparations against Canada, amount- ing to X235,000, or upward of a million of dollars. Indian parties from Canada severely harassed the frontier of New England. Even the presence of a British squadron on the coast was not without embarrassments. Commodore Knowles, while lying in Boston harbor, finding himself short of men, sent a press-gang one morning, into the town, which seized and carried off several of the inhabitants. As soon as this violence became known, an infuriated mob assembled, 112 HISTORICAL AND and, finding several officers of the squadron on shore, seized them as hostages for their imprisoned fellow-townsmen. Sur- rounding the town-house, where the General Court was in session, they demanded redress. After a vain attempt to appease the tumult, Shirley called out the militia ; hut they were very slow to ohey. Doubtful of his own safety, he re- tired to the castle, whence he wrote to Knowles, representing the confusion he had caused, and urging the discharge of the persons he had impressed. Knowles offered a hody of marines to sustain the governor's authority, and threatened to bombard the town unless his officers were released. The mob, on the other hand, began to question whether the governor's retire- ment to the castle did not amount to an abdication. Matters assumed a very serious aspect ; and those influential persons who had countenanced the tumult, now thought it time to interfere for its suppression. The House of Representatives resolved to stand by the governor " with their lives and for- tunes." The council ordered the release of the officers. The inhabitants of Boston, at a town meeting, shifted off the credit of the riot upon " negroes and persons of vile condi- tion." The governor was escorted back by the militia; Knowles discharged the greater part of the impressed men, and presently departed with his squadron. No allusion was made, in the course of this affair, to the statute of Anne, prohibiting impressments in America. That act, indeed, ac- cording to the opinion of several English crown lawyers, had expired with Queen Anne's war. Shirley, in his letters to the Board of Trade, on the subject of this "rebellious insur- rection," ascribes " the mobbish turn of a town of twenty thousand persons" to its constitulion, which devolved the management of its affairs on " the populace, assembled in town meetings." Boston had already attained an amount of population at which it remained stationary for the next fifty years. (1747.) The towns of Suffield, Somers, Enfield, and Woodstock, originally settled under Massachusetts grants, and assigned to that province in 1713, by the boundary convention with Connecticut, finding the rate of taxation in Massachusetts enhanced by the late military expenses, applied to Connecti- cut to take them into her jurisdiction. They claimed to be within the Connecticut charter. They alleged that the KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 113 former agreement had never been ratified by the crown, and that Connecticut had received no equivalent for her surrender of jurisdiction. This application was listened to with favor. Some show, indeed, was made of asking the consent of Mas- sachusetts ; but, when that consent was refused, the towns were received by Connecticut without it, and to that province they have ever since belonged. Massachusetts threatened an appeal to the king in council, but hesitated to prosecute it, lest she might lose, as in her former controversy with New Hampshire, not only the towns in dispute, but other territory a 1 so. Some liberated prisoners from Martinique, a great resort for French cruisers, brought a report to Philadelphia that a fleet of privateers, knowing the unfortified state of that city, and trusting that the Quakers would not fight, intended to make a combined expedition up the Delaware. In conse- quence of this alarm, fortifications were erected and a mili- tary organization adopted in Pennsylvania. The Assembly still refused to do anything ; but an associated volunteer militia, ten thousand strong, was organized and equipped. Money was also raised by lottery to erect batteries for the defense of the Delaware, toward which the proprietaries con- tributed twelve pieces of cannon. " Plain Truth," a little pamphlet written by Franklin, greatly contributed to these movements. By twenty years of diligent labor as a printer, newspaper publisher and ecfttor, Franklin had acquired a handsome property; and, at the age of forty, he now began to take an active part in the political affairs of the province, being chosen a member of the Assembly, of which, for ten years previous, he had acted as clerk. A portion of the Quakers were inclined to justify defensive war. Chew, chief justice of Delaware, had been disowned by the yearly meeting for avowing that opinion, but it still continued to gain ground. The now venerable Logan, who, indeed, had never been much of a Quaker, entertained the same views ; but increased age and infirmities had withdrawn him, for some time, from active participation in affairs. The war so inconsiderately begun, through the resolution of the British merchants to force a trade with Spanish America, after spreading, first to Europe and then to India, and adding $144,000,000, (30,000,000,) to the British 11* 114 HISTORICAL AND national debt, was at last brought to a close by tbe peace of Aix la Chapelle. (Oct. 8, 1748.) Notwithstanding a for- mer emphatic declaration of the British government, that peace never should be made unless the right to navigate the Spanish-American seas free from search were conceded, that claim, the original pretense for the war, was not even alluded to in the treaty. The St. Mary's was fixed as the boundary of Florida. Much to the mortification of the peo- ple of New England, Cape Breton and the conquered fortress of Louisburg were restored to the French, who obtained, in addition, the little islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, on the south coast of Newfoundland, as stations for their fishermen. A new commission was also agreed to for the settlement of French and English boundaries in America a matter left unsettled since the treaty of Ryswick. CHAPTER XII. Commencement :>f the final struggle between the French and English for the country a the great Lakes and the Mississippi Fourth Intercolo- nial War. WE come now to the fourth intercolonial war, in which Washington, the first incarnation of Sam in moderate earthly mould, makes his appearance upon a stage, the drama of which is to fill the eye of the world a drama, of which, he is to he the central figure. We must again own our obligation to our admirable Ameri- can historian for the narrative of this war. Dr. Thomas Walker, of the council of Virginia, penetrating through the mountainous south-eastern regions of that pro- vince, had reached and crossed the ridge which separates the valley of the Tennessee from the head waters of the more northerly tributaries of the Ohio. To that ridge he gave the name of Cumberland Mountains, after the Duke of Cum- berland, of the English blood royal, just then very famous by his victory over the Pretender, a't Culloden. The name of Cumberland was also given to one of the rivers flowing down the western slope of that ridge. A more northerly stream, called by Walker the Louisa, still preserves its abori- ginal appellation of Kentucky, not, however, without con- formity to the English idiom in a retraction of the accent frun the last to the second syllable. The region entered by Walker, fu-ll of abrupt and barren mountains, attracted little attention. The country about the head of the Ohio seemed much more inviting. An association of London merchants and Virginia land speculators, known as the Ohio Company, obtained in England, 115 116 HISTORICAL AND shortly after the peace, a grant of six hundred thousand acres of land on the east bank of that river, with exclusive privileges of Indian traffic a grant esteemed an encroach- ment by the French, who claimed as theirs, by right of discovery and occupation, the whole region watered by the tributaries of the Mississippi. (1749.) A counter claim, indeed, was set up by the English, in the name of the Six Nations, recognized by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix la Chapelle as under British protection, whose empire, it was pretended, had formerly been carried by conquest over the whole eastern portion of the Mississippi Valley, and the basin, also, of the lower lakes. In maintenance of these pretensions, Colden's " History of the Five Nations" had recently been published. The French, in reply, pointed to their posts, many of them of considerable antiquity, more than sixty in number, along the great lakes and the waters of the Missis- sippi. The missions had declined, but the Indian trade con- tinued to flourish. At the principal posts were regular garrisons, relieved once in six years. Such of the disbanded soldiers as chose to remain, beside a grant of land, received a cow and a calf, a cock and five hens, an ax, a hoe, a gun, with powder and shot, grain for seed, and rations for three years. Wives were sent out to them from France, or they intermarried with the Indians. The boats from the Illinois country, descending annually to New Orleans, carried flour, Indian corn, bacon, both of hog and bear, beef and pork, buffalo robes, hides and tallow. The downward voyage was made in December; in February the boat returned with European goods for consumption and Indian traffic. The Indians north west of the Ohio, including the remains of the tribes whom the Iroquois had formerly driven from their homes on the Ottawa, the Hurons or Wyandots, the Miamies, the Illinois, all rejoiced in the alliance, or recognized the authority of the French. As respected the country on the upper lakes, the Mississipi, the Illinois, and the Wabash, the French title, according to European usage, was complete. The country immediately south of Lake Erie, covered with dense forests, and with few Indian inhabitants, had hitherto, in a great measure, been neglected. But the Count de la Galissonniere, shortly after assuming office as governor- general, had sent ])e Celeron, with three hundred men, to ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 117 traverse the country from Detroit east to the mountains, to bury, at the most important points, leaden plates with the arms of France engraved, to take possession with a formal process verbal, and to warn the English traders out of the country. To secure Nova Scotia, to guard the commerce and fisheries of New England, and to offset the restored fortress of Louis- burg, the British government hastened to establish at Che- bucto the military colony and fort of Halifax, so called after the president of the Board of Trade, who took a great in- terest in its establishment. During the next twenty-five years this fortress cost Great Britain not less than three millions of dollars a striking instance of the expenses of modern warlike preparations, equivalent, in fact, to a per- petual war. Admiral De la Jonquiere having entered upon the govern- ment of New France, his predecessor, De la Galissonniere, proceeded to Paris as one of the boundary commissioners under the late treaty. In two thick quarto volumes of pro- tocols, these commissioners vainly attempted to settle what had been meant in the treaty of Utrecht by the " ancient limits " of Acadie. The English claimed under that appella- tion both shores of the Bay of Fundy indeed, the whole region east of the Penobscot. The French, on the other hand, sought to restrict the cession of Acadie to the peninsula to which the name of Nova Scotia is at present confined, claiming the north shore of the Bay of Fundy as a part of Canada. Nor did they satisfy themselves with protocols only. Troops from Canada established the posts of Gas- pare au and Beau Sejour, at the narrowest part of the isth- mus, between the waters of the Bay of Fundy and those of the Gulf of St. Lawrence a vicinity in which was planted a considerable body of ancient French colonists still warmly attached to the French interest. Cornwallis, governor of Nova Scotia, wrote pressingly to Massachusetts for aid. Not strong enough to dislodge these intruders, he caused two opposing forts to be built at Beau Bassin and Minas. A third post was also established by the French near the mouth of the St. John. (1749.) Determined also to strengthen their hold on the disputed western region, the French enlarged and strengthened their 118 HISTORICAL AND post at Niagara. (1750.) They even obtained leave to build a fort and trading house on the borders of the Mohawk country. Alarmed for the fidelity of the Six Nations, who never had recognized the claim of English dominion, Clinton, governor of New York, proposed a new treaty, in which he invited all the colonies to participate. (1751.) Only Massa- chusetts, Connecticut, and South Carolina chose to incur the expense. The French built vessels of unusual force at Fort Frontenac. They entered into friendly relations with those bands of Dela wares and Shawanese whom the pressure of new settlements in Pennsylvania had lately driven from the Susquehanna toward the Ohio, and to whom the operations of the Ohio Company, in the establishment of a post and trad- ing house at Bedstone, now Brownsville, on the Monongahela, had given great offense. The Marquis Du Quesne, Jonquiere's successor as governor-general, followed up the same policy. A band of the Miamies, or Twigties, as the English called them, settled at Sandusky, having refused to remove to De- troit, and persisting in trade with the English, their village was burned. The English traders were seized, and their , merchandise confiscated. Early the next year, twelve hun- dred men from Montreal built a fort at Presque Isle, now Erie, on the southern shore of the lake of that name. Cross- ing thence to the waters flowing south, they established posts at La Bceuf and Venango, the one on French Creek, the other on the main stream of the Allegany, which meets the Mo- nongahela flowing north, and unites with it to form the Ohio. (1753.) The Board of Trade reported to the king that, " as the French had not the least pretense of right to the territory on the Ohio, an important river rising in Pennsylvania and running through Virginia, it was matter of wonder what such a strange expedition, in time of peace, could mean, un- less to complete the object so long in view, of conjoining the St. Lawrence with the Mississippi." Lord Holderness, suc- cessor to the Duke of Bedford, as Secretary of State, dispatched orders to the governors of Pennsylvania and Virginia, to repel force by force, " whenever the French were found with- in the undoubted limits of their provinces." (1749.) After remaining for three years in the hands of Thomas Lee and Lewis Burwell, successive presidents of the council, the KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 119 government of Virginia had passed to Robert Dinwiddie, as lieutenant-governor, a Scotsman of ability, surveyor-general of the colonial customs, and previously a counselor, but not pos- sessed of that suavity of manners for which Gouch, his pre- decessor, had been distinguished. Observing with anxiety and alarm the movements of the French, Dinwiddie held a treaty with the Indian bands on the Monongahela, from whom he purchased permission to build a fort at the junction of that river with the Alleghany. He resolved, also to send a mes- sage to the nearest French post, to demand explanations, and the release and indemnification of the captured traders. As bearer of this message he selected George Washington, a native of Westmoreland county, on the Potomac, where his ancestors had been planters for three generations. The pa- ternal inheritance, by the law of primogeniture, having passed to his eldest brother, the young Washington, a major in the militia, followed the lucrative but laborious profession of a land surveyor in the Northern Neck, now the property of Lord Fairfax. Though not yet twenty-two, already he gave evidence of that rarest of combinations, a sound judg- ment, with courage, enterprise, and capacity for action. After a dangerous winter's journey of four hundred miles, with only four or five attendants, the greater part of the way through uninhabited forests, Washington reached the French post at Venango, where he was received with charac- teristic politeness. Joncaire, the commander, promised to .transmit Dinwiddie's message to his superiors in Canada, under whose orders he acted ; but the French officers, over their cups, made no secret to Washington of the intention entertained by the French government permanently to occu- py all that country. (1753.) During Washington's absence, Dinwiddie applied to the Assembly for funds; but he found that Body in a very. bad humor. With the consent of the Board of Trade, a fee had recently been imposed on the issue of patents for lands a practice long established in other colonies, but hitherto un- known in Virginia. The House of Burgesses paid no atten- tion to Dinwiddie's complaint of French encroachments and call for money. Wholly engrossed by the affair of the ob- noxious fee, they resolved that whosoever paid it, ought to be regarded as betraying the rights of the people ; and they 120 HISTORICAL AND sent to England, as bearer of their complaints, Peyton Kan- dolpli, attorney-general of the province, twenty years after president of the Continental Congress, to whom they voted a salary of 2,000, out of the provincial funds in the hands of the speaker. Notwithstanding this disappointment, Dinwiddie enlisted a aptain's command, and sent them to build a fort at the junc- tion of the Alleghany and the Monongahela. The western boundary of Pennsylvania was not yet run. It was uncer- tain whether the head of the Ohio fell within that province ; if not, it was claimed as appertaining to Virginia. As soldiers could not be supported without money, Din- widdie called on the neighboring colonies for aid, and present- ly again summoned the Virginia Assembly. Washington had now returned. The designs of the French were obvi- ous, and the Assembly granted 10,000 toward the defense of the frontiers. A committee of the burgesses was ap- pointed to act in concert with the governor in the expenditure of this money an "encroachment on the prerogative," to which, from necessity, Dinwiddie reluctantly submitted. Urged by Governor Hamilton to take measures to with- stand the intrusions of the French, the Assembly of Penn- sylvania offered supplies in paper money. But to this, Hamilton, by his instructions, could not assent, at least not without a suspending clause of reference to England, to which the Assembly would not agree. (1754.) Again urged to co-operate with Virginia, the Assembly passed a new bill for paper money supplies, which the gover- nor again rejected. Some members of the Assembly and the same was presently the case in New York expressed doubts if the crown actually had any claim to the territory on which the French were said to be encroaching. Governor Glen, of South Carolina, doubted too. But any such doubts were regarded by the zealous Dinwiddie as little short of treason. In New York also, as well as in Virginia and Pennsylvania, internal disputes distracted attention from the designs of the French. Clinton had resigned, wearied out by ineffectual struggles against Delancey, who had been joined, also, by Golden, and whom the united influence of Alexander, Smith, and Johnson, lately raised to the council, was not sufficient to overmatch. His successor, Sir Danvers KEVOLUTIONARY- INCIDENTS. 121 Osborne, came from England charged to rebuke the Assem- bly, and to re-establish the executive authority. His friends had obtained for him this appointment, hoping that business and a change of scene might enable him to throw off a fit of melancholy under which he was laboring. But the hope- lessness of the task he had assumed so aggravated his dis- order, that, within five days after his arrival, he committed suicide. It fell to Delancey, as lieutenant-governor, to which dignity he had just been raised, to lay Osborne's instructions before the Assembly. An address to the king and a representation to the Board of Trade, indignantly denied the imputations of turbulence and disloyalty ; but all the arts of Delancey were exhausted in vain, to move the Assembly from their policy of annual votes. The most he could obtain was, that money once voted, should be drawn out of the treasury on the order of the governor and council, and a promise not to interfere with executive matters. The government of Maryland had recently been conferred on Horatio Sharpe, a military officer ; but a quarrel about supplies, similar to that in Pennsylvania, prevented the aid which Dinwiddie had asked. North Carolina alone, of all the colonies applied to, re- sponded promptly, by voting a regiment of four hundred and fifty men. The temporary administration of that province was held by Michael Rowan, as president of the council, who availed himself of this opportunity to consent to a new issue of paper mo^ey. But these North Carolina troops proved of little use. By the time they reached Winchester, in Vir- ginia, the greater part had disbanded on some doubts as to their pay, the appropriation for that purpose being already exhausted. A regiment of six hundred men had been enlisted in Vir- ginia, of which Frye was appointed Colonel, and Washington lieutenant-colonel. To encourage enlistment, Dinwiddie promised two hundred thousand acres of land to be divided among the officers and soldiers. Two independent companies from New York, and another from South Carolina were or- dered to Virginia to assist in the operations against the French.' 11 122 HlSTOEICAL AND The Virginia troops, on their march to the frontier, encountered abundance of difficulties. Very little disposition was shown to facilitate their progress. It was only by impressment that means could be obtained to transport the baggage and stores. By slow and toilsome steps, the troops made their way to Will's Creek, on the Potomac, where they were met by alarming intelligence. The French, under Contrecoeur, had descended in force from Venango, and, having sent off Dinwiddie's soldiers, who were building a fort at the head of the Ohio, they Jiad themselves seized that important spot and commenced a fort, which they called Du Quesne, after the Governor-General. A detachment under Washington hastily sent forward to reconnoiter, just before reaching Bedstone, at a place called the Great Meadows, encountered a French party, which Washington attacked by surprise, and whose commander, Jumonville, was killed the first blood shed in this war. By Frye's death, the chief command devolved on Washing- ton. He was soon joined by the rest of the troops, and, having erected a stockade at the Great Meadows, called Fort Necessity, pushed on toward Du Quesne. The approach of a much superior force under M. de Villier, brother of Jumon- ville, obliged him to fall back to Fort Necessity. His troops were fatigued, discouraged, and short of provisions ; and, after a day's fighting, he agreed to give up the fort, and to retire with his arms and baggage. Washington did not know French ; his interpreter, a Dutchman, was ignorant or treacherous, and the articles of capitulation were made to contain an express acknowledgment of the " assassination " of Jumonville. Having retired to Will's Creek, Washington's troops assisted in the erection of Fort Cumberland, which now became the westernmost English post. At the same time, with his orders to Virginia and Penn- sylvania, Holderness had addressed a circular letter to all the colonies, proposing a convention at Albany of committees from the several colonial Assemblies, to renew the treaty with the Six Nations, whose friendship at this crisis, was of great importance. Agreeably to his recommendation, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the four New England colonies, appointed committees. While Washington was operating toward the Monongahela, this convention met, REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 128 and after carefully settling the question of precedence, organized itself, with Delancey, of New York, as presiding officer. The ill feeling between the Governor and the Assembly of Virginia, prevented any representation from that colony. Having returned from his unavailing mission to Paris, Shirley had resumed the government of Massachusetts. But, what greatly damaged his popularity among a people so hostile to the French, and to all popish connections, he brought with him from Paris a young wife, a French woman and a Catholic. Perceiving a war to be approaching, he summoned the Eastern Indians to renew their treaties. But they eagerly availed themselves of this new opportunity to raise the hatchet. For the sixth time within eighty years, luckily destined to be the last, the frontiers of New England again suffered. The General Court readily voted money to repel these hostilities ; and, as an offset to a reported French fort near the head of the Chaudie're while Washington was fortifying at Will's Creek Shirley built Fort Halifax, high up the Kennebec. Hardly had the Governor returned from the eastward, when Hoosick and Stockbridge, on the western frontier, were assailed by an Indian war party. These assailants belonged to a tribe largely composed of descend- ants of refugees driven from Massachusetts in the time of Philip's war. As a protection to that frontier, the Stock- bridge tribe was taken into pay. Maryland and New York voted in aid of Virginia, the one 6000, the other 5000 ; 10,000 were also received from England, whence came a commission to Sharpe, governor of Maryland, as Commander-in-Chief of the forces to be em- ployed against the French. Warm disputes about rank and precedence had already arisen between the Virgina regi- mental officers and the captains of the independent com panies. To stop this dispute, Dinwiddie had dispensed with field officers, and broken the Virginia regiment into separate companies an arrangement which had driven Washington from the service. The pending territorial disputes led about this time to the publication of the maps of Evans and Mitchell, the first embracing the middle colonies, the other the whole of North America. The first edition of Mitchell's map had appeared 124 HISTORICAL AND in 1749 ; but a new edition was now published, with improve- ments. The British North American colonies stretched a thousand miles along the Atlantic, but their extent inland was very limited. According to a return made to the Board of Trade, the population amounted to Whites, 1,192,896 Blacks, 292,738 Total 1,485,634 New France, on the other hand, had scarcely a hundred thousand people, scattered over a vastly wider space, from Cape Breton to the mouth of the Mississippi, but mainly collected on the St. Lawrence, betweeen Quebec and Mon- treal. The remote situation of their settlements, separated from the English by uninhabited forests and unexplored mountains, the very dispersion of their force over so vast a space, gave the French a certain security, while the whole western frontier of the English, from Maine to Georgia, lay exposed to attack by the Indian tribes, disgusted by constant encroachments on their hunting-grounds, and ripe and ready for a troublesome and cruel warfare. There were kept in Canada, for the defense of the province, thirty-three com- panies of regular troops, of about fifty men each. The loud complaints of the English embassador at Paris were met by protestations esteemed unmeaning or insincere. A struggle was evidently impending in America, greater than had yet been known. In anticipation of approaching hostilities, a general order gave to all officers commissioned by the king or the commander-in-chief, precedence over such as had only colonial commissions an order which created great disgust and occasioned much trouble in America. New clauses introduced into the annnal Mutiny Act, subjected the colonial soldiers, when acting in conjunction with regular troops, to the rigid rules of the regular service, and required the colonial Assemblies to provide quarters and certain enu- merated supplies for the regular troops within their jurisdic- tion. General Braddock, appointed commander-in-chief, was dispatched to the Chesapeake with two British regiments. Two regiments of a thousand men each, to be paid by the crown, one Pepperell's, the other Shirley's, were ordered to bo raised and officered in New England. The colonies were KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 125 also to be called upon for their respective quotas of colonial levies. As the Quaker Legislature of Pennsylvania had scruples about raising troops, three thousand men were to be enlisted in that province by authority of the crown. At Alexandria, on the Potomac, Braddock met a conven- tion of colonial governors, with whom he settled the plan of the campaign. He undertook to march in person against Fort Du Quesne, and to expel the French from the Ohio. Shirley, lately promoted to the rank of major-general, was to march against Niagara. The capture of Crown Point, already planned by Shirley, and resolved upon by Massachu- setts, was intrusted to Johnson, whose ascendency over the Six Nations had lately procured for him a royal appointment as general superintendent of Indian affairs, with the sole power of making treaties. There was already on foot a fourth expedition, concerted by Shirley and Lawrence, gov- ernor of Nova Scotia, for the capture of the French posts near the head of the Bay of Fundy, and the expulsion of th? French from that province. In anticipation of Braddock's arrival, application for troops had already been made by the several governors. Massachu- setts responded with zeal, and a levy was ordered of three thousand two hundred men. The exportation of provisions, except to other British colonies, and any correspondence with the French were prohibited ; but it required a pretty watch- ful eye to put a stop to this commerce. The treasurer was authorized to borrow 50,000, ($166,666,) on the credit of taxes to produce that sum within two years. This method of providing funds proved successful, and was adhered to during the war. The Assembly of New York voted 45,000 in paper bills, for erecting fortifications and enlisting eight hundred men. They ordered barracks to be built ; and though they made no ^appropriation for supplying the other articles required by the Mutiny Act, their unexpected promptitude and liberality were highly applauded by the Board of Trade. The New Jersey Assembly, beside providing for the subsistence of the king's troops, as the Mutiny Act required, ordered five hun- dred men to be raised, and to pay the expense, they raised 70,000 of new paper. 11* 126 HISTORICAL AND If the zeal and energy of the six northern colonies sur- passed the expectations of the Board of Trade, the aid furnished by the more southern provinces was comparatively trifling. (1754.) The Assembly of Maryland voted toward Braddock's expe- dition 10,000 in paper, to be redeemed out of fines and forfeitures. But the fines and forfeitures were claimed as a part of the personal revenue of the proprietary ; the council non-concurred, and the appropriation thus fell to the ground. After a hearing in England, the Virginia dispute about fees for land patents had been compromised, and, " because the times required harmony and confidence/' Dinwiddie had been directed to restore Kandolph to his former office of attorney-general. But feeling on this subject did not imme- diately subside, a dispute being still kept up about Bandolph's payment as agent. The Assembly voted, however, 20,000 toward the support of the colonial levies ; and, in anticipation of the taxes imposed to meet it, authorized the issue of trea- sury notes the first paper money of Virginia. As further aid toward "repelling the encroachments of the French," North Carolina voted 8,000. The government of that province had recently been given to Arthur Dobbs ; and, thankful for the appointment of a ruler of "known abilities and good character " for so the Assembly described him they promised to "forget former contests.'' But the new governor, anxious to enhance his authority, soon became involved in disputes with the Assembly, whose speaker, Star- kie, he stigmatized "as a Kepublican of puritanic humility, but unbounded ambition." Starkie was treasurer as well as speaker. He could lend money to the delegates; and his influence far exceeded that of a governor " who had not the power of rewarding his friends." (1755.) A French squadron destined for America, was known to be fitting out at Brest, on board of which Dieskau presently em? barked with four thousand troops. To intercept this squadron, Boscawen was sent with a British fleet to cruise on the banks of Newfoundland. Suspecting some such scheme, most of the French ships entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence by the Straits of Belle Isle, whence they proceeded to Quebec. Others passing Boscawen in the fog, landed a thousand men at REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 127 Louisburg. Two only of the French transports, with eight companies on board, fell into the hands of the English. In consequence of this attack, the French embassador was recalled from London. The English ministry retorted by issuing letters of marque and reprisal, under which a great number of valuable merchant vessels and not less than seven thousand French seamen were seized. The French com- plained loudl} r as well of these aggressions as of Washington's attack on Jumonville. The English, in excuse, charged the French with invading Virginia and Nova Scotia. Hostilities were already flagrant, but neither party issued as yet a declaration of war. While Boscawen was still cruising off Newfoundland, watch- ing for the French fleet, three thousand men embarked at Boston for the Bay of Fundy. These troops, forming a regi- ment of two battalions, were led by John Winslow, a great grand-son of Edward Winslow, one of the patriarchs of Ply- mouth colony, and grandson of the commander of the New England forces at the great swamp fight in Philip's war ; him- self, during the previous war, a captain in Vernon's West India expedition. It was principally through his popularity and in- fluence that the enlistments had been procured. He was a major-general in the Massachusetts militia, but was persuaded on this occasion to accept a commission as lieutenant-colonel. Arrived at Chignecto, at the head of the bay, Winslow's forces were joined by Colonel Moncton, with three hundred British regulars, the garrison of 'the British posts in that neighbor- hood, to whom also, Shirley had given a Massachusetts commis- sion, with a rank higher than Winslow's. Under his command, they marched against the French forts recently established on the two shores of the isthmus at Beau Sejour and Gaspareau. Taken by' surprise, these forts made but a trifling resistance. The fort at the mouth of the St. John's, on the approach of an English detachment, was abandoned and burned. The ex- pulsion of the French troops from the Bay of Fundy had been accomplished without difficulty. But what was to be done with the French colonists, amounting now to some twelve or fifteen thousand, settled principally in three detached bodies about Beau Bassin, "the beautiful basin" of Chignecto, on the no less beautiful basin of Minas the two divisions into 128 HlSTOKICAL AND which the upper Bay of Fundy divides and on the fertile banks of the basin or river of Annapolis ? It was thirty years since Nova Scotia had become a British province ; but these settlers, who had more than doubled their number in the interval, continued still French, not in lan- guage, religion and manners only, but also in attachments, receiving their priests from Canada, and always ready to favor any movement that tended to restore them to their ancient allegiance. By the terms granted when the British authorities took possession of the province, they were excused from any obligation to bear arms against France, and were thence known as "French neutrals." But they did not act up even to that character. Three hundred of their young men had been taken in arms at the surrender of Beau Sejour, and one of their priests had been actively employed as a French agent. To curb these hostile people would require several expensive garrisons. If ordered to quit the country, and allowed to go where they pleased, they would retire to Canada and Cape Breton, and strengthen the enemy there. To devise some scheme adequate to this emergency, Law^ rence, lieutenant-governor of Nova Scotia, consulted with Boscawen and Mostyn, commanders of the British fleet, which had just arrived on the coast after its cruise to intercept Dieskau. These military men took counsel with Belcher, chief justice of the province, a son of the former governor of Massachusetts. The result was, notwithstanding an express provision in the capitulation of Beau Sejour that the neigh- boring inhabitants should not be disturbed, a plan for treach- erously kidnapping the Acadiens, and transporting them to the various British provinces. The capitulation of Beau Sejour did not apply to the settlements of Minas and Annap- olis ; but the people there strenuously denied any complicity with the French invaders, which seems, indeed, in their case, to have been rather suspected than proved. (1755.) The Acadiens had preserved all the gay simplicity of incient French rural manners. Never was there a people more attached to their homes, or who had more reasons for being so. They lived in rustic plenty, surrounded by herds of cattle and sheep, and drawing abundant crops from the rich levels, fine sediment deposited by the tides on the borders KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 129 of the basins, and which their industry had diked in from the sea. Knowing how much was to he dreaded from despair, the ruthless design against them was kept a profound secret. As- sembled under various false pretenses at their parish churches, they were surrounded with troops, made prisoners, and hur- ried on board the ships assigned for their transportation! Wives separated from their husbands in the confusion of embarking, and children from their parents, were carried off to distant colonies, never again to see each other ! Their lands, crops, cattle, everything except household furniture, which they could not carry away, and money, of which they had little or none, Avere declared forfeit to the crown ; and, to insure the starvation of such as fled to the woods, and so to compel their surrender, the growing crops were destroyed, and the barns and houses burned, with all their contents ! More than a thousand of these unfortunate exiles, carried to Massachusetts, long remained a burden on the public, too broken-hearted and disconsolate to do much for themselves. Their misery excited pity, in spite of the angry feeling created by protracted hostilities ; but such was still, in New England, the horror of Popery, that they were not allowed to console themselves by the celebration of the mass. To every British North American colony was sent a quota of these miserable people, a burden on the public charity, for which the Assemblies were called on to provide. It was an object to get rid of them as speedily as possible. Some made their way to France, others to Canada, St. Domingo, and Louisiana, the expenses of their transport being paid in many instances by the colonial Assemblies. To such of these fugi- tives as escaped to Louisiana, lands were assigned in that district, above New Orleans, still known as the Acadien coast. The four hundred sent to Georgia, built rude boats, and coasted northward, hoping to reach the Bay of Fundy. Few, however, were so lucky as to regain a French home and the ministrations of the Catholic faith. The greater part, spirit- less, careless, and helpless, died in exile, victims of disap- pointment and despair. Such was the result of that rivalry of a century and a half between the English of New Eng- land and the French of Acadie. Such is religious and national antipathy. May we not hope that hatreds so atrocious are fast dying out ? 130 HISTORICAL AND The authors of this cruel scheme had been confirmed in their purpose by a repulse which the English had, meanwhile, sustained in the attempt to drive the French from the Ohio. Braddock's regulars had been landed at Alexandria, a small town lately sprung up near the head of ship navigation on the Potomac. But great difficulties were encountered in obtaining provisions and means of transportation. The con- tractors perpetually failed in their engagements, and Brad- dock and his quarter-master, both men of violent tempers, gave vent, with very little reserve, to expressions of disgust and contempt for the colonists. With great difficulty the troops reached Cumberland, where they came to a full stop. Franklin, in his character of deputy postmaster, having vis- ited the camp to arrange a post communication with Phila- delphia, by assuming responsibilities on his own credit, which left him, in the end, a considerable loser, obtained wagons and horses among the Pennsylvania farmers, which enabled the army once more to move forward. The regulars had been joined by the detached companies of the Virginia levies, and the whole force now amounted to twenty-two hundred men. Washington had been invited by Braddock to attend him as an aid-de-camp. From Cumberland to Bedstone was a distance of fifty miles,, over several steep and rough ridges of the Alleghany Mountains. Only Indian paths yet traversed this difficult and uninhabited country, through which the troops had to cut a road for the wagons and artillery. Vexed at this delay, Braddock left Colonel Dunbar to bring up the heavy bag- fage, and pushed on in advance, at the head of thirteen undred picked men. He was warned of the danger to which the nature of the country and the character of the enemy exposed him, and was advised to place the provincials in his front, to scour the woods. But he held both the enemy and the provincials in too much contempt to give attention to this advice. He had gained forty miles on Dunbar, and was now within five miles of Fort Du Quesne, when, about noon, just after fording the Monongahela a second time, his van, while ascending the rising bank of the river, was fired upon by an invisible enemy. The assailants, some two hundred French and six hundred Indians, with only thirteen French officers, and none above the rank of captain, were posted in KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 131 an open wood, in some shallow undulations just deep enough to conceal them as they lay flat on the ground among the high grass. Braddock's main body hastened up with the artillery, but the unseen enemy continued to pour in a deadly fire ; and the British troops, seized with sudden panic, were thrown at once into hopeless confusion. In vain the general exerted himself to restore order. He had five horses shot under him, and soon fell mortally wounded. Not less than sixty officers, chosen marks for the enemy's bullets, were killed or disabled ; among the latter, Horatio Gates, captain of one of the independent companies, and twenty years after- ward a general in the revolutionary army. The provincials, acquainted with the Indian method of fighting, alone made any effectual resistance. Washington, still weak from the effects of a recent fever, put himself at their head. They were the last to leave the field, and partially covered the flight of the discomfited regulars. Delay was thus given for bringing off the wounded, but the baggage and artillery were abandoned to the enemy. The English lost, in killed and disabled, some seven hundred men, or more than half their force engaged. The loss of the French and Indians did not exceed sixty. The victors, intent on the spoils of the field, pursued only a few miles, but the flying troops did not rally till they reached the camp of Dunbar, who abandoned the expedition, and, having destroyed all the stores not needed for immediate use, retired first to Cumberland and then to Philadelphia. Shirley meanwhile, with his own and Pepperell's regiment, lately enlisted in New England, and some irrregulars and Indians drawn from New York, was on the march from Albany to Oswego, where he proposed to embark for Niag- ara. He had rivers to clear, boats to build, roads to cut, and provisions and munitions to transport through the wild- erness. The army reached Oswego at last, but seriously disabled by sickness, and discouraged by the news of Brad- dock's defeat, whose death raised Shirley to the command-in- chief, in which he was presently confirmed by an appointment from England. Two strong forts were built at Oswego. vessels were prepared, and great preparations were made for proceeding against Niagara. 132 HISTORICAL AND The Assembly of New York had already voted ,8000 toward the enlistment, in Connecticut, of two thousand addi- tional men, for the Niagara and Crown Point expeditions. After hearing of Braddock's defeat, they raised four hundred men of their own, in addition to the eight hundred already in the field. Delancey, though presently superceded in the government by Sir Charles Hardy, a Naval officer, still retained a principal influence in the administration. The troops destined for the Crown Point expedition, some six thousand men, drawn from New England, New Jersey, and New York, advancing under General Lyman, of Connec- ticut, to the head of boat navigation on the Hudson, built there Fort Lyman, called afterward Fort Edward. Johnson joined them with the stores and artillery, assumed the com- mand, and advanced to Lake George. Dieskau, meanwhile, had ascended Lake Champlain with two thousand men from Montreal, had landed at South Bay, the southern extremity of that lake, and had pushed on toward Fort Lyman. When quite near it, dreading its artillery, or for some other cause, he suddenly changed his plan, and marched to attack Johnson. Informed of his approach, Johnson sent forward Colonel Williams with a thousand Massachusetts troops, and a body of Mohawk Indians under Hendrick, a famous chief. In a narrow and rugged defile, about three miles from the camp, this detachment encountered the whole of Dieskau's army. Williams and Hendrick were slain, and their force driven back in confusion. Williams had secured himself a better monument than any victory could give. While passing through Albany he had made his will, leaving certain pro- perty to found a free school for Western Massachusetts, since grown into " Williams 7 College." Following up the defeated troops, Dieskau assaulted John- son's camp. It was protected on both sides by impassable swamps, and in front by a breastwork of fallen trees. Some cannon just brought up from Fort Edward, opened an unex- pected fire, and the assailants were presently driven back in confusion. Dieskau, mortally wounded, was taken prisoner. The remains of his army fled to Crown Point. The French loss was estimated at a thousand men, the English at three hundred. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 133 A party of New Hampshire troops on their way from Fort Lyman, encountered the baggage of Dieskau's army, which they captured after overpowering the guard. These three actions, fought the same day, and known as the battle of Lake George, were proclaimed through the colonies as a great victory, for which Johnson was rewarded with the honors of knighthood, and a parliamentary grant of <5,000. As John- son had been wounded early in the action, the Connecticut troops claimed the honor of the victory for General Lyman, second in command. One of the Massachusetts regiments distinguished in this action was commanded by Timothy Euggles, afterward pres- ident of the Stamp Act Congress. The personal history of Ruggles serves to illustrate the simple manner of those times. Son of a minister, he had been educated at Cam- bridge, had studied law, and commenced the practice of it in Plymouth and Barnstable, with good success. Marrying the widow of a rich inn-keeper, he added tavern-keeping to his business as a lawyer. When the war broke out, he entered into the military line, and being a man of energy and sense, he served with distinction for the next five years. Israel Putnam, afterward a revolutionary major-general, now a cap- tain in one of the Connecticut regiments, had already distin- guished himself as a partisan officer, in which capacity he served during the war. Though re-enforced from Massachusetts, which colony, on hearing of Braddock's defeat, had voted two thousand addi- tional troops, Johnson made no attempt on Crown Point. He even allowed the French to establish and fortify them- selves at Ticonderoga. Under the superintendence of Gridley, who acted as engineer, Fort William Henry was built, near the late field of battle, at the head of Lake George. The New Engianders accused Johnson of incapacity; but he alleged the want of provisions and means of transportation sufficient to justify active operations. After having made great preparations at Oswego, heavy rains delayed Shirley's embarkation ; and finally, owing to the approach of winter and the scanty supply of provisions, the enterprise against Niagara was given over for the season. Shirley left seven hundred men in garrison at Oswego ; but all the colonial levies, except six hundred men to garrison 12 134 HISTORICAL AND Fort William Henry, and such troops as Massachusetts kept up at the eastward for frontier defense, were marched home and disbanded. The frontiers of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia, uncovered by Dunbar's precipitate retreat, were exposed to war-parties of Indians in the French interest. The discon- tented Delawares on the northern borders of Pennsylvania, and the Shawanese in the interior, availed themselves of this crisis to commence hostilities. Governor Morris called loudly for men and money to defend the frontiers. The inhabitants of Philadelphia, in an address to the Assembly, urged a lib- eral grant. Dropping their favorite paper money project, the Assembly voted a tax of 50,000, to be levied on real and personal estates, " not excepting those of the proprieta- ries " a clause, as they well knew, as contrary as the paper money, to the governor's instructions. If that clause might be omitted, some gentlemen of Philadelphia, in the proprie- tary interest, offered to contribute 5,000, the estimated amount of the tax on the proprietary estates. But the As- sembly wishing to improve this emergency to establish a pre- cedent, dexterously evaded the offer ; the governor stood out, and the bill fell to the ground. Dunbar's regulars advancing from Philadelphia toward the frontier, afforded a temporary protection. To furnish funds for defending their frontiers, the Assem- bly of Virginia voted 40,000 in taxes, in anticipation of which a new batch of treasury notes was issued. To Wash- ington, for his gallant behavior at Braddock's defeat, 300 were voted, with lesser gratuities to several of the officers, and 5 to each of the surviving Virginia privates who re- mained in the service. Among the officers thus distinguished were Captain Adam Stephen, and Surgeon Hector Craig, the one afterward a major-general, the other at the head of the medical department of the revolutionary army. The Vir- ginia regiment was reorganized, and Washington again placed at its head, with Stephen for lieutenant-colonel, undertook the difficult task of repelling the Indians, whose ravages now extended as far as Winchester. The Assembly of Maryland granted 6,000 for the defense of the province, and an ad- ditional sum was raised by voluntary subscription. A body of militia presently took the field under Governor Sharpe, KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 135 A violent dispute arose between Sharpe and Dinwidie, as to the command of Fort Cumberland. The pretensions of Dag- worthy, in the Maryland service, who had formerly bcrne a royal commission, and who claimed precedence on that account over all officers with merely colonial commissions, was another source of trouble ; and Washington presently found himself obliged to make a winter's visit to Boston, to obtain from Shirley definite orders on that point. The Quakers were still a majority in the Pennsylvania Assembly, but they could no longer resist the loud cry to arms, raised in Philadelphia and re-echoed from the frontiers, occasioned by Indian inroads on the Juniata settlements. The proprietary party made every effort, and not without success, to stir up the public discontent. After a sharp strug- gle with the governor, in consideration of a voluntary con- tribution by the proprietaries of .5,000, the Assembly consented to levy a tax of ,55,000, from which the proprie- tary estates were exempted. The expenditure of this money was specially intrusted to a joint committee of seven, of whom a majority were members of Assembly, which committee be- came the chief managers of the war now formally declared against the Delaware* and Shawanese. Thus di'iven, for the first time, to open participation in war, some of the Quaker members resigned their seats in the Assembly. Others de- clined a re-election. The rule of the Quakers came to an end. But this change, contrary to the hopes and expecta- tions of the proprietaries, did not reconcile the quarrel between them and the Assembly. That body insisted as strenuously as ever on their right to tax the proprietary estates. Toward the close of the year, Shirley met a convention of provincial governors at New York, to arrange plans for the next campaign. Expeditions against Fort Du Quesne, Niagara, and Crown Point were agreed upon, for which twen- ty thousand men would be necessary. New York voted seventeen hundred men as her quota, and issued <40,000 in paper, to support them. But the New England colonies, ex- hausted by their late efforts, and disgusted by their ill-success, did not respond to the expectations of Shirley. Feebly sup- ported in his own province, the commandcr-in-chief was fiercely assailed by Johnson and Delancey, who ascribed to his 136 HISTORICAL AND alleged want of military experience, the ill success of the late expeditions against Niagara and Crown Point, and whose intrigues presently procured his recall. Acts were passed in Pennsylvania for enrolling a volunteer militia and for raising rangers by enlistment. Having heen very active in procuring these enactments, Franklin under- took the military command of the frontier, with the rank of colonel, and, under his directions, along the base of the Kit- taniny Mountains, from the Delaware to the Maryland line, a chain of forts and block-houses was erected, commanding the most important passes, and inclosing the greater part of the settlements. This volunteer militia, however, was far from satisfactory to the proprietary party, who sought by every means to obstruct it, and the act, at the request of the proprietaries, was presently set aside by a royal veto. On the other hand, some of the sturdier Quakers protested against a tax for war purposes, and advised a passive resist- ance to its collection. William Denny, a military officer, was sent out to supersede Morris, as deputy-governor. (1756.) The proprietary of Maryland having relinquished his claim to the fines and forfeitures, the Assembly granted 40,000 principally in paper money. A provision that papists shoulo pay double taxes toward the redemption of this paper, evinced the still existing force of sectarian hostility. The lands and manors of the proprietary were also included among the ar- ticles taxed. Fort Cumberland was too far in advance to be of any use, and a new fort, called Frederick, was built at that bend of the Potomac which approaches nearest the Pennsylvania line. Fifteen hundred volunteers and drafted militia, commanded by Washington, and scattered in forts, afforded but an imper- fect defense to the suffering inhabitants of the Virginia Val- ley, many of whom abandoned their farms. In apology for the small number of these forces, Dinwiddie wrote to the Board of Trade, "We dare not part with any of our white men to any distance, as we must have a watchful eye over our negro slaves. 7 ' Dumas, the conqueror of Braddock, in command at Fort Du Quesne, and De Celeron at Detroit, were constantly stimulating the Indians. Du Quesne having returned to the marine service, the Marquis.de Vaudreuil de KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 187 Cavagnal had been appointed to succeed him as governor of New France. The French had all along offered to treat ; but they de- manded, as a preliminary, the restoration of the merchant ships seized by the English an act which they complained of as piratical. When this was refused, they commissioned privateers, and threatened to invade England with a fleet and army collected at Brest. To guard against this threat- ened invasion, a body of Hessian and Hanoverian troops was received into England. To excite the colonists to fresh ef- forts, .115,000 were voted as a reimbursement to the prov- inces concerned in Dieskau's defeat. Provision was also made for enlisting a royal American regiment, to be composed of four battalions of a thousand men each. A clause, afterward somewhat modified, authorizing the appointment of seventy officers in this regiment, from among the foreign Protestants settled and naturalized in America, gave great offense in the colonies, as did another clause, for the enlistment of indented servants, upon a compensation to be paid to their masters out of the colony funds. All hopes of reconciliation being now over, England formally declared war against France, to which the French court presently responded. Vigorous measures were, meanwhile, in progress for the supply and re-enforcement of Oswego. Bradstreet, of New York, appointed commissary-general, employed in this service forty companies of boatmen, each of fifty men. Under him, Philip Schuyler took his first lessons in the art of war. William Alexander, another native of New York, known afterward in the revolutionary armies as Lord Sterling, acted as Shirley's military secretary. By promises of parliament- ary reimbursements, and the advance to Massachusetts of 30,000 out of the king's money, in his hands, Shirley as- sembled at Albany seven thousand provincials, chiefly of New England, under the command of General Winslow. The remains of Braddock's regiments, ordered on the same service, were presently joined by two new regiments from England, under General Abercrombie, who outranked and superseded Shirley. But the Earl of London, selected by the British war office as commander-in-chief, being daily expected, Abercrombie declined the responsibility of any forward move- ment. 138 HISTORICAL AND London gave an early specimen of his habitual procrastina- tion, by not arriving till late in the summer. (July 27, 1756.) It was then determined to proceed with the bulk of the army against Ticonderoga and Crown Point, while one of the regular regiments marched under General Webb, to re-enforce Oswego a movement made to late. While the English army lay idle at Albany, short of pro- visions, and suffering from the small-pox, Montcalm, Die- skau's successor, lately arrived from France with a re-enforce- ment of troops, had ascended the St. Lawrence, had crossed Lake Ontario, had landed near Oswego with a force of five thousand men, regulars, Canadian militia and Indians, and had laid siege to the forts. One of them was abandoned as untenable. Colonel Mercer, the commanding officer, was killed. The dispirited troops, after a short bombardment, surrendered as prisoners of war. Upward of a thousand men, a hundred and thirty-five pieces of artillery, a great quantity of stores and provisions, and a fleet of boats and small ves- sels, built the year before for the Niagara expedition, fell into the hands of Montcalm. To please the Six Nations, who had never been well satis- fied at the existence of this post in the center of their terri- tory, the French commander, with great policy, destroyed the forts, and by this concession induced the Indians to take a position of neutrality. The fall of Oswego occasioned almost as much alarm as the defeat of Braddock the year before. The British troops, on the march under Webb, fell back with terror and precipitation to Albany. Orders were sent to give over the march on Ticonderoga, and to devote the efforts of that army to strengthen Forts Edward and William Henry. As the season advanced and their term of service expired, the provincials were disbanded. The loss by sickness had been very severe, and many died after their return. The regulars, except small garrisons at Forts Edward and William Henry, went into winter quarters at New York and Albany not, however, till they had first been employed in keeping the peace between Massachusetts and New York. As the settlements approached each other, the boundary dispute be- tween those two provinces had reached the extremity of riot and bloodshed. London's demand at New York for gratui- tous quarters for his officers involved him in a violent KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 139 quarrel with the citizens, whom he frightened, at last, into obedience. More money being absolutely necessary for the defense of the frontiers, by a sort of compromise between the governor and the Assembly of Pennsylvania, 30,000 were voted, to be issued in paper, and redeemed by a ten years' continuance of the lately-expired excise, to be appropriated toward the support of twenty-five companies of rangers. Franklin having retired from the military service, John Armstrong afterward a general in the revolutionary army was commissioned as colonel, and soon distinguished himself by a successful ex- pedition against a hostile Indian town on the Alleghany. Charles Mercer, a Scotch physician afterward also a revolu- tionary general served in the same expedition as captain. The hostile Indians, thus attacked in their own villages, retired further to the west ; yet scalping parties occasionally penetrated within thirty miles of Philadelphia. Large pre- miums were offered by the Assembly for Indian prisoners and Indian scalps. The feeling on the frontier against the Indians was very bitter. The Moravian missionaries, some of whose Indian converts had been seduced to join the hostile parties, became objects of suspicion. There were those, how- ever, among the Quakers, still true to their pacific principles, who insisted, and not entirely without reason, that the Dela- wares, so long friendly to Pennsylvania, had not been driven into hostilities except by wrongs and intrusions that ought to be redressed. They formed an association, contributed money, and opened a communication with the Indians for the purpose of bringing about a peace. (1756.) Two conferences, not altogether un successful, were held with this intent at Easton. Sir William Johnson complained, indeed, that the Quakers had intruded upon his office of Indian agent and sole negotiator. Others alleged that by this interference claims were suggested which, otherwise, the Indians never would have thought of. It was considered a great innovation upon the usual course of Indian treaties when Tedyuscung, the Delaware chief, in the second conference at Easton, had for his secretary, Charles Thompson, master of the Quaker academy at Philadelphia, afterward secretary to the Contin- ental Congress. In spite of obloquy heaped upon them, in spite of accusations of partiality to the Indians and treachery 140 . HISTORICAL AND to the white race, the Quakers persevered ; and a third treaty, held the next year at Lancaster, at which delegates from the Six Nations were also present, afforded a partial relief to the frontier of Pennsylvania. The Carolinas, thus far, had escaped the ravages of war ; but serious apprehensions began to be felt lest the Cherokees might be seduced from their allegiance. Though very ill armed, they could muster three or four thousand warriors. In a treaty held with them early in the war, Governor Glen had obtained an extensive cession in the middle and upper part of South Carolina ; and presently, in accordance, as it is said, with long-repeated solicitations on the part of the Indians, he built Fort Prince George, on one of the head streams of the Savannah, within gunshot of Kee-o-wee, the principal village of the Lower Cherokees. Another fort, in the country of the Upper Cherokees, on the head waters of the Tennessee River, near the south-western boundary of Virginia, was erected by a party from that province, and named Fort London, after the commander-in-chief, who had also a commission as governor of Virginia. In consequence of a violent dispute with the Assembly, in which Glen and his council had involved themselves, no mili- tary supplies had hitherto been granted by South Carolina. This quarrel abated on the arrival of a new governor, Wil- liam H. Littleton, a cadet of the noble family of that name. He obtained a grant of .4000 toward enlisting two compa- nies, to which a third was presently added, as garrisons for the forts. But the slave population of South Carolina was still more preponderant than in Virginia. It was no easy matter to enlist men, and the ^province presently received as welcome guests half a battalion of the Royal Americans, with three hundred colonial levies from North Carolina, and others from Virginia. (1757.) The plan for the next campaign, proposed by London at the annual military council, held this year at Boston, was limited to the defense of the frontiers and an expedition against Louisburg. To serve as garrisons for Forts William Henry and Edward, London called on New England for four thousand, and on New York and New Jersey for two thou- sand men. Governor Hardy being appointed to a naval command, Lieutenant-governor Delancey reassumed the ad- KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 1-il ministration of New York. The Assembly of New Jersey took advantage of this occasion to put out a new issue of paper money. New Jersey, as well as Pennsylvania, suffered from the incursions of the Delawares, against whom it con- tinued necessary to guard. To aid in the defense of Pennsylvania, Colonel Stanwix was stationed in the interior, with five companies of the Royal Americans; but this was only granted on condition that two hundred recruits should be enlisted for that regi- ment, to serve in South Carolina. The Pennsylvania Assem- bly, again yielding, had voted a levy of <100,000, without insisting on their claim to tax the proprietary estates. But they protested that they did it through compulsion, and they sent Franklin as their agent to England to urge their com- plaints. The charter authorized the proprietaries, their deputies, and lieutenants, to make laws "according to their best discretion," by and with the advice and consent of the freemen. The Assembly took the ground that the proprie- tary instructions to the deputy governors, being a restraint upon their discretion, were therefore illegal and void. Washington, with the Virginia levies, continued to watch the frontiers of that province. But no scheme of defense could answer much purpose, so long as the French held Fort Du Quesne. The defense of the frontiers thus provided for, London sailed from New York with six thousand regulars, including late re-inforcements from England. At Halifax he was joined by the English fleet of eleven sail of the line, under Admiral Holborne, with six thousand additional sol- diers on board. But Louisburg was discovered to have a larger garrison than had been supposed ; and while London lingered with characteristic indecision, seventeen French ships of the line anchored in the harbor, and made attack wholly out of the question. London then re-embarked his forces and returned to New York. only had Shirley lost his military command ; the ma- chinations of his enemies had deprived him of his government also. It was given to Thomas Pownall, whose brother was secretary to the Board of Trade. Pownall had first come to America with the unfortunate Sir Danvers Osborne. Hold- ing a commission as lieutenant governor of New Jersey, he 142 HISTORICAL AND had been present at the Albany Congress, and afterward at the military convention at Alexandria. Though he had re- ceived some favors from Shirley, he joined the party against him, and, having gone to England, had obtained there the government of Massachusetts. Pownall had hardly reached the province, the administration of which for four months past had been in the hands of the council, by the death of Lieutenant-governor Phipps, when an express arrived from Fort Edward with alarming news of a French invasion. The British army drawn aside for the futile attack on Louisburg, Montcalm, with eight thousand men, including the garrisons of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, ascended Lake George, landed at its southern extremity, and laid siege to Fort William Henry. Colonel Monroe, the English officer in command, had a garrison of two thousand men. General Webb lay at Fort Edward, only fourteen miles distant, with four thousand troops. Montcalm pressed the attack with vigor. No movement was made from Fort Edward for Monroe's relief. His ammunition was exhaust- ed ; and, after a six days' siege, he found himself obliged to capitulate. The garrison were to march out with the honors of war, and were to be protected, with their baggage, as far as Fort Edward. Montcalm's Indian allies, dissatis- fied with these terms, and greedy for plunder, fell upon the retreating and disarmed troops. Monroe, with the greater part of the men, fell back to the French camp to demand protection. About six hundred fled into the woods, and the first who reached Fort Edward reported the massacre of the others. Some few were killed or never heard of; the rest came in one after another, many having lost their way and suffered extreme hardships. Frye, the commander of the Massachusetts forces, after wandering about some days, reached Fort Edward with no clothes but his shirt. The fall of Fort William Henry occasioned even greater alarm than the loss of Oswego the year before. Pownall appointed Sir William Pepperell lieutenant general of *Mas- sachusetts. Orders were issued for calling out the militia, and twenty thousand men were assembled in arms. Satisfied with having caused so much terror and expense, Montcalm, without attempting any thing r further, retired again to Canada. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 143 The arrival of Pownall made a considerable change in the politics of Massachusetts. By taking Otis, of Barnstable, speaker of the House, and other opponents of Shirley, into favor, according to Hutchinson, who was presently appointed lieutenant governor, he disgusted the old friends of govern- ment, and greatly weakened the government party. Otis was promised a seat on the bench of the Supreme Court ; his son, a young lawyer of shining abilities, was appointed advo- cate of the Admiralty. Though Pownall's habits were rather freer than suited the New England standard, these conces- sions to the opposition, his frank manners, and liberal political views, served to make him very popular. On the death of the aged Belcher, Pownall went to New Jersey to assume authority as lieutenant governor. But he found it impracticable to govern both provinces at the same time. The government of New Jersey, after remaining some months in the hands of the president and council, was transferred to Francis Bernard, a practitioner in the English ecclesiastical courts.- The Massachusetts General Court had provided barracks at the castle, for such British troops as might be sent to the province. But some officers on the recruiting service, finding the distance inconvenient, demanded to be quartered in the town. They insisted on the provisions of the Mutiny Act ; but the magistrates to whom they applied denied that act to be in force in the colonies. London warmly espoused the cause of his officers ; he declared " that in time of war the rules and customs of war must govern," and threatened to send troops to Boston to enforce the demand, if not granted within forty-eight hours. To avoid this extremity, the Gen- eral Court passed a law of their own, enacting some of the principal provisions of the Mutiny Act; and Loudon, through Pownall's persuasions, reluctantly consented to accept this partial concession. The General Court did not deny the power of Parliament to quarter troops in America. Their ground was, that the act, in its terms, did not extend to the colonies. A similar dispute occurred in South Carolina, where great difficulty was encountered in finding winter quarters for the Royal Americans. The first royal governor of Georgia, and his secretary, William Little, having involved themselves in a violent 144 HISTORICAL AND controversy with the Assembly, Eeynolds had been superseded by Henry Ellis, a protege of the Earl of Halifax, the head of an expedition, some nine years before, for the discovery of a northwest passage. The population of Georgia now amounted to six thousand. On the breaking out of the war, Reynolds had enlisted twenty rangers, but the quarrel with the Assembly prevented any provision for paying them. After Ellis's arrival, the Assembly voted money for erecting log forts at Savannah, Augusta, Ogeechee, Midway, and New Inverness. Ellis applied himself to the preservation of a good understanding with the neighboring Creeks and the Spanish governor of Florida. The rangers were taken into the king's pay, and Ellis obtained from Colonel Bouquet, commanding in South Carolina, a hundred provincial troops of Virginia, to be quartered in Savannah. A solemn council was presently held with the Creeks, and a new treaty of peace entered into with that powerful confederacy. A long dispute had been pending, in which the Creeks took a deep interest, growing out of the claims of Mary, the Indian inter- preter, of whose services Oglethorpe had availed himself on his first arrival in Savannah. After the death of her first husband, she had married a second white man, and upon his death, a third no less a person than Thomas Bosoniworth, who had first been Oglethorpe's agent for Indian affairs, but afterward had gone to England, had obtained holy orders, and returned to Georgia as the successor of the Wesleys and Whitfield. The Creeks had made a conveyance to Mary, of their reservation of the islands on the coast, and the tract just above Savannah. She also claimed a large amount as arrears of her salary, as colonial interpreter. After a twelve years' controversy, which at times had threatened an Indian war, the matter was finally settled by a compromise, securing to Mary and her husband the title to the island of St. Cath- arine's and the payment of 2000 arrears, out of the sales of the other reserved lands. Another thing accomplished by Ellis was the division of the colony into eight parishes, and the establishment of the Church of England by law, with a salary of <25 to each parish minister. (1658.) To the war in America, and the simultaneous contest between the English and French East India Companies on the other side of the globe, had been added a military struggle KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 145 the greatest the world had yet seen, carried on in the heart of Europe. France and Austria, forgetting their ancient rivalries, and supported by Kussia and most of the Germanic States, had united against Prussia and Hanover. The Hanoverian army had submitted to the disgraceful capit- ulation of Closter-Seven ; that principality had been occupied by the French ; and it required all the energy and military genius of Frederic of Prussia, to save him from a similar fate. In America, after three campaigns, and extraordinary efforts on the part of the English, the French still held pos- session of almost all the territory in dispute. They had been expelled, indeed, from the Bay of Fundy ; but Louis- burg, commanding the entrance of the St. Lawrence, Crown Point and Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, Frontenac and Niagara on Lake Ontario, Presque Isle on Lake Erie, and the chain of posts thence to the head of the Ohio, were still in their hands. They had expelled the English from their ancient post of Oswego, had driven them from Lake George, and had compelled the Six Nations to a treaty of neutrality. A devastating Indian war was raging along the whole north- western frontier of the British colonies. A line from the mouth of the Kennebec, across the Merrimac and Connecticut to Fort Edward on the Hudson, and thence across the Mohawk, the Delaware, and the Susquehanna, to Fort Frederic on the Potomac, marked the exterior limit of the settlements ; but Indian scalping parties penetrated into the very center of Massachusetts, approached within a short distance of Phila- delphia, and kept Maryland and Virginia in constant alarm,: 13 CHAPTER XIII. Hildreth's account of the Progress and Conclusion of the Fourth Intercolo- nial War Accession of George III The English masters of the conti- nent, north of the Gulf of Mexico, and east of the Mississippi. WILLIAM PITT, afterward Earl of Chatham, took adroit advantage of the popular discontent at the ill success of the war, to force himself to a chief seat in the British cabinet a station which he owed more to his energy and eloquence than to court favor, or to the influence of family or party connections, hitherto, in England, the chief avenues to power. Leaving to Newcastle, who still acted as nominal head of the ministry, the details of the domestic administration, Pitt, as secretary of state, with the cipher, Holderness, as his col- league in that department, assumed to himself the control of foreign and colonial affairs, and the entire management of the war. (1757.) Determined on a vigorous campaign in America, he ad- dressed a circular to the colonies, in which he called for twenty thousand men, and as many more as could be fur- nished. The crown would provide arms, ammunition, tents, and provisions ; the colonies were to raise, clothe, and pay the levies ; but for all these expenses, Pitt promised a parlia- mentary reimbursement a promise which acted like magic. Massachusetts voted seven thousand men, beside six hundred maintained for frontier defense. To fill up this quota, sol- diers were drafted from the militia and obliged to serve. The advances of Massachusetts during the year, were not less than a million of dollars. Individual Boston merchants paid taxes to the amount of $2,000. The tax on real estate amounted to two thirds the income. The insolvencies 146 KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 147 occasioned by the pressure of the war, gave rise to a bank- rupt act, but this was disallowed in England. Connecticut voted five thousand men. New Hampshire and Ehode Island furnished each a regiment of five hundred men. The New York quota of one thousand seven hundred men was raised to two thousand six hundred and eighty. The New Jersey regiment was enlarged to a thousand. The Assembly of Pennsylvania appropriated .100,000 toward bringing two thousand seven hundred men into the field. Virginia raised two thousand men. (1758.) To co-operate with these colonial levies, the Koyal Ameri- cans were recalled from Carolina. Large re-enforcements of regulars were also sent from England, made disposable by a plan which Pitt had adopted for intrusting the local de- fense of Great Britain, to an organized and active body of militia* By means of these various arrangements, Aber- crombie, appointed commander-in-chief, found fifty thousand men at his disposal a greater number than the whole male population of New France. Of this army, twenty-two thou- sand were regulars, including the Koyal Americans ; the rest were provincials. The total number of the inhabitants of Canada able to bear arms, did not exceed twenty thousand ; the regular troops were from four to five thousand. As the people had been so constantly called off to bear arms, culti- vation had been neglected, and Canada suffered almost a famine. Shirley's schemes of conquest were now renewed. Louis- burg, Ticonderoga, and Fort Du Quesne were all to be struck at once. The first blow fell on Louisburg. Boscawen ap- peared before that fortress with thirty-eight ships of war, convoying from Halifax an army of fourteen thousand men, chiefly regulars, under General Amherst, but including, also, a strong detachment of New England troops. Louisburg was held by a garrison of three thousand men ; eleven ships of war lay in the harbor. But the works were too much out of repair to withstand the operations of a regular siege ; and the garrison, after suffering severe loss, found themselves obliged to capitulate. This capitulation included not Louis- burg only, but the islands of Cape Breton, St. John's, (now Prince Edward's,) and their dependencies. The garrison be- came prisoners of war ; the inhabitants, many of them 148 HlSTOKICAL AND refugees from Acadie, were shipped to France. Such was the end of the French attempts at colonization, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which now passed into exclusive English occupa- tion. Amherst sailed with his army for Boston, and thence marched to the western frontier. While the siege of Louisburg was going on, Abercrombie, with sixteen thousand men, embarked at Fort William Henry in flat boats prepared for the purpose, and, passing down Lake George, landed near its outlet. The van, advancing in some confusion through the woods, encountered a French scouting party, which had also lost its way, and a skirmish ensued, in which fell Lord Howe, -a young officer who had made himself very popular with the provincials, and to whose memory, Massachusetts erected a monument in Westminster Abbey. Ticonderoga was held by some two thousand French sol- d : ers. As reinforcements were said to be approaching, Abercrombie, without waiting for his artillery, rashly ordered an assault. The rear and sides of the fort were covered by water, and the front by a morass. The storming party were ordered to rush swiftly through the enemy's fire, reserving their own till they had passed the breastwork. But that breastwork was nine feet high, much stronger than was ex- pected, and guarded, in addition, by trees felled, with their tranches sharpened, and pointing outward like so many lances against the assailants. After a four hours 7 struggle, and the loss in killed and wounded of two thousand men, Abercrom- bie abandoned the attack, and the next day made a precipi- tate and disorderly retreat to Fort William Henry. Among the woun led was Charles Lee, then a captain in the British service, afterward first major-general of the revolutionary army. In consequence of this defeat, Abercrombie was superseded, and the command-in-chief given to Amherst. Though no further attempt was made on Ticonderoga, Abercrombie's forces were not wholly idle. With a detach- ment of three thousand men, chiefly provincials of New York and New England, Bradstreet marched to Oswego, embarked there in vessels already provided, and, having ascended the lake, landed at Fort Frontenac. That place was untenable. The feeble garrison, taken entirely by surprise, speedily surrendered. Nine armed vessels were KE VOLUTION ARY INCIDENTS. 149 captured ; and the fort, with a large store of provisions, was destroyed. Bradstreet's loss by the enemy was inconsidera- ble ; but not less than five hundred men perished by sickness. These troops, on their return, assisted in building Fort Stan- wix, intermediate between Oswego and Albany, on the site now occupied by the nourishing village of Borne. Among the officers under Bradstreet were Woodhull, who fell nine- teen years afterward on Long Island, and Van Schaick, afterward a colonel in the New York revolutionary line. The expedition against Fort Da Quesne had been commit- ted to General Forbes, with an army of seven thousand men, including the Pennsylvania and Virginia levies, the Eoyal Americans recalled from South Carolina, and an auxiliary force of Cherokee Indians. The Virginia troops were con- centrated at Cumberland, and those of Pennsylvania at Raystown, on the south branch of the Juniata. Washington advised to .march from Cumberland, along the road cut by Braddock's army; but, under the advice of some Pennsylva- nia land speculators, Forbes ordered a new road to be opened from Raystown. With a division of two thousand five hun- dred men, Bouquet, who commanded the advance, presently reached Loyal Hanna, on the Kiskiminitas, the south branch of the Alleghany. Major Grant, with eight hundred men, sent forward from Loyal Hanna to reconnoiter, was surprised and driven back, with the loss of three hundred men, being himself taken prisoner. The enemy presently attacked Bouquet in his camp, but were repulsed by the artillery. The obstacles along the new route proved very serious ; and the Virginia Assembly, in a state of discouragement, resolved to withdraw a part of their troops. Forbes at last joined Bouquet with the main body and the heavy baggage. But the army, weakened by desertion and dispirited by sickness, was still fifty miles from Fort Du Quesne, and separated from it by an immense forest, without a road. Winter also was close at hand. A council of war advised the abandon- ment of the enterprise ; but, before any retrograde motion was made, three prisoners, accidentally taken, revealed the feebleness of the enemy. The blow struck by Bradstreet at Fort Frontenac had been felt on the Ohio in the failure of expected supplies, and the French, in consequence, had been deserted by the greater part of their Indian allies. Inspired 13* 150 HISTORICAL A-ND with fresh ardor, and leaving baggage and artillery behind, the troops, in spite of obstacles, pushed forward, at a rate, however, of less than ten miles,a day. The day before they reached the fort, the French garrison, reduced to less than five hundred men, set fire to the works, and retired down the river. A detachment of four hundred and fifty men was left to hold this important post, for the possession of which the war had commenced, and which was now named Fort Pitt by the captors. The rest of the army hastened to return, before the setting in of winter. Fruits of this conquest were spee- dily realized in the inclination of the neighboring Indians for peace. Virginia and Maryland were now relieved from Indian incursions. Already a treaty had been held at Easton, with the Six Nations and their dependent tribes, the Dela- wares and others, by which all existing difficulties had been finally settled, and peace once more restored to the frontiers of Pennsylvania. Only the Eastern Indians still remained hostile. To hold them in check, and to cut off their communication with Can- ada, Fort Pownall was presently built on the Penobscot, the first permanent English occupation of that region. The perseverance of the Pennsylvania Assembly triumphed at last. Tired of struggling on unpaid for they resolutely refused to vote him -any salary unless he would come to their terms Governor Denny consented to a tax act in which the proprietary estates were included. The Assembly had indem- nified him against the forfeiture of the bond by which he had bound himself to obey his instructions, and they rewarded this and other compliances by liberal grants of salary. But this violation of his instructions very soon cost Denny his office. (1759.) Seconded by an eager Parliament, Pitt resolved to follow up the successes of the late campaign by an attack on Can- ada an intention communicated, under an oath of secrecy, to the colonial Assemblies. Stimulated by the prompt reim- bursement of their last year's expenses to the amount of near a million of dollars, the Assemblies acted with prompti- tude and energy. With the opening of the spring, twenty thousand colonial soldiers were again in the field, aid to enable the commissariat department, which found it difficult to sell bills on the British treasury, to provide provisions for KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 151 the troops, the Assemblies of New York and Pennsylvania advanced a large sum in paper money. The plan now adopted for^the conquest of Canada, was not materially different from that which Phipps and Warren had successively failed to execute. Amherst advanced by way of Lake Champlain with twelve thousand regulars and pro- vincials; Wolfe, a young general who had distinguished himself at the siege of Louisburg, having sailed early in the spring from England, escorted by a powerful fleet, made his appearance in the St. Lawrence with an army of eight thou- sand regular troops, in three brigades, commanded by Monc- ton, Townshend, and Murray. The danger of Quebec caused the withdrawal of the garrisons of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and both these places soon, without any serious strug- gle, passed into Amherst's hands. According to the scheme of operations, Amherst should have proceeded down Lake Champlain to join Wolfe before Quebec, or, at least, to effect a diversion by attacking Mon- treal; but the want of vessels 'rendered this movement impossible. With Amherst was a body of New Hampshire Kangers, under Major Eogers, distinguished as a partisan officer, in whose corps served as captain, John Stark, a briga- dier afterward in the revolutionary army. Two hundred of these rangers were detached from Crown Point, against the Indian village of St. Francis, whose inhabitants had long been the terror of the New England frontier. Enriched by plunder and the ransom of their captives, these Indians had a handsome Catholic chapel, with plate and ornaments. Their village was adorned by numerous scalps, trophies of victory, stretched on hoops, and elevated on poles. The rangers accomplished their march through the woods, and took the village entirely by surprise. A large part of the warriors were slain ; the village as had happened so often in New England was first plundered, and then burned. Their object thus accomplished, fearing lest their trail from Crown Point mighfc be watched, the victors attempted to return by way of Lake Memphremagog and the Connecticut. But their provisions fell short; some perished for want of food; some were killed by the pursuing Indians. The greater part, however, reached, at last, the uppermost settlements on 152 HISTORICAL AND the Connecticut, just below Bellows Falls, and thence made good their retreat to Crown Point. In pursuance of the original plan of campaign, a third array, composed principally of provincials, and commanded by General Prideaux, had been collected at Oswego, for an attack on Niagara. Notwithstanding the late treaty of neu- trality, the influence of Sir William Johnson had induced a large body of warriors of the Six Nations to join this army. After a prosperous voyage from Oswego, Prideaux landed at Niagara and opened his batteries, but was soon killed by the bursting of a gun, when Johnson succeeded to the chief com- mand. Twelve hundred French regulars, drawn from the western posts, and followed by an equal force of Indian auxiliaries, advanced to raise the siege. Aware of their approach, Johnson took an advantageous position in advance of the fort. The relieving force was totally routed, and a large part taken prisoners. The fort surrendered the next day, and six hundred men with it. According to the plan of operations, Johnson should have descended Lake Ontario to co-operate on the St. Lawrence with Amherst and Wolfe ; but the want of proper shipping, the small supply of provis- ions, and the incumbrance of the French prisoners, prevented him from doing so. Deprived thus of all co-operation, Wolfe was left to besiege Quebec alone. Occupying a point of land on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, protected on the south by that river, and on the north by the tributary stream of the St. Charles, Quebec consisted then, as now, of an upper and a lower town, both regularly fortified. The lower town was built on a narrow beach at the water's edge, above which rose the Heights of Abraham, an almost perpendicular range of lofty rocks, forming the river banks. On the level of these heights stretched a wide plain, on which the upper town was built. Overhanging the St. Lawrence, and extending for a great distance above the town, the heights seemed to afford on that side, an almost impregnable defense. Several float- ing batteries and armed vessels were moored in the St. Charles, and beyond it, in a camp strongly intrenched, and covered by the Montmorency, another and larger river, which enters the St. Lawrence a short distance below Quebec, lay Montcalm's army, almost equal in numbers to that of Wolfe, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 153 but composed largely of Canadians and Indians. Every exertion had been made for the defense of the city, but the supply of provisions was very limited. Wolfe had landed on the fertile island of Orleans, just below the city. His naval superiority gave him full com- mand of the river. After a slight skirmish, he gained pos- session of Point Levi, held by a body of French troops, on the south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec, where he erected batteries, which set fire to and destroyed the Cathedral and many houses, but the distance was too great for any effect on the fortifications. Wolfe then landed on the opposite bank, below the town, intending to force the pas- sage of the Montmorency, and to bring Montcalni to an action. The French were very strongly posted, and the impetuosity of Wolfe's advanced party, which rushed to the attack before support was ready, obliged him to retire with a loss of five hundred men. An attempt was then made to destroy the French shipping, and to alarm and draw out the garrison by descents above the town. One valuable magazine was destroyed, a great many houses were burned, much plunder was made, but it was impossible to cut out the French ships. To guard against future attacks, Montcalni sent De Bougainville up the river with fifteen hundred men. The prospect was very discouraging. The season for ac- tion was fast passing. Nothing had been heard of the forces designed to co-operate from the side of New York, except reports from the enemy, of the retreat of Amherst. Though suffering from severe illness, instead of despairing, Wolfe embraced the bold proposal of his principal officers, to scale the Eights of Abraham, and thus to approach the city on the side where its defenses were feeblest. Above Quebec there was a narrow beach sufficient to afford a practicable landing place ; but it might easily be missed in the dark ; and the hights rose so steep above it, that even by daylight and unopposed, the ascent was a matter of hazard and diffi- culty. Should the French be on their guard, repulse was inevitable. (1759..) The army, placed on ship-board, moved up the river, several miles beyond the proposed landing-place. To distract atten- tion and conceal the real design, a show was made of 154: HISTORICAL AND disembarking at several points. When night had set in, flat-bottomed boats, with the soldiers on board, fell down the river with the tide, and, carefully avoiding the French sen- tinels, succeeded in finding the beach. The light troops wer led by Colonel Howe, afterward Sir William, and commander- in-chief of the British armies in America, Assisted by the rugged projections of the rocks and the branches of trees, they made their way up the hights, and, having dispersed a small force stationed there, covered the ascent of the main body. Early in the morning, the whole British army ap- peared drawn up on the Plains of Abraham. To meet this unexpected movement, Montcalm put his troops in motion. Nothing now but a victory could prevent a siege and save the city. He advanced, accordingly, in order of battle. Bodies of Indians and Canadians in his front, kept up an irregular but galling fire. Wolfe gave orders to disregard these skirmishers, and to await the approach of the main body. The French had arrived within forty yards of the English, when their advance was checked by a heavy fire of musketry and grape. Eight or ten six-pounders, dragged up the hights by the seamen, were brought into line after the action began. The French appear to have had but two small field-pieces. The battle raged fiercest on the right of the English and the left of the French, where the two gen- erals were respectively stationed opposite each other. Though already twice wounded, Wolfe gave orders for the charge. He fell, wounded a third time, and mortally ; but the grena- diers still advanced. The French, close pressed by the Eng- lish bayonets and the broadswords of the Scotch Highland regiments, began to give way. To complete their confusion, Montcalm fell with a mortal wound. The whole French line was soon in disorder. Five hundred Frenchmen were killed ; a thousand, including the wounded, were taken prisoners. The English loss amounted to six hundred killed and wound- ed. A part of the dispersed army escaped into the town, but the bulk of the fugitives retired across the St. Charles. Hardly was the battle over, when De Bougainville made his appearance, marching hastily down the river. An hour or two sooner, and he might have changed the fortune of the day. As it was, after collecting the fugitives from behind the St. Charles, he retired again up the St. Lawrence. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 155 Preparations for besieging the city were commenced by Townsliend, whom Wolfe's death and Moncton's severe wound had made commander-in-chief, but through lack of provisions it surrendered on capitulation, five days after the battle the regulars to be sent to France, the inhabitants to be guaran- teed their property and religion. General Murray, with five thousand men, was left in garrison. The fleet, with the sick and the French prisoners, hastened to anticipate the approach- ing frost by retiring to Halifax, where the ships were to winter. The Cherokees, who had accompanied Forbes in his ex- pedition against Fort Du Quesne, returning home along the mountains, had involved themselves in quarrels with the back settlers of Virginia and the Carolinas, in which several, both Indians and white men, had been killed. Some chiefs, who had proceeded to Charleston to arrange this dispute, were received by Governor Littleton in very haughty style, and he presently inarched into the Cherokee country at the head of fifteen hundred men, contributed by Virginia and the Carolinas, demanding the surrender of the murderers of the English. He was soon glad, however, of any apology for retiring. His troops proved very insubordinate ; the small- ?ox broke out among them ; and, having accepted twenty-two ndian hostages as security for peace and the future delivery of the murderers, he broke up his camp, and fell back in haste and confusion. (Jan. 1760.) The hostages, including several principal chiefs and war- riors, were placed for safe keeping in Fort Prince George, at the head of the Savannah. No sooner was Littleton's army gone, than the Cherokees attempted to entrap into their power the commander of that post, and, apprehensive of some plan for the rescue of the hostages, he gave orders to put them in irons. They resisted ; and a soldier having been wounded in the struggle, his infuriated companions fell upon the prisoners and put them all to death. Indignant at this outrage, the Cherokees beleaguered the fort, and sent out war parties in every direction, to attack the frontiers. The As- sembly of South Carolina, in great alarm, voted a thousand men, and offered a premium of X25 for every Indian scalp. North Carolina offered a similar premium, and authorized, in addition, the holding of Indian captives as slaves. An 156 HISTORICAL AND express, asking assistance, was sent to General Amherst, who detached twelve hundred men, under Colonel Montgomery, chiefly Scotch Highlanders, lately stationed on the western frontier, with orders to make a dash at the Cherokees, hut to return in season for the next campaign against Canada. Promoted to the government of Jamaica, Littleton had resigned the administration of South Carolina to William Bull, the lieutenant-governor, a native of the province, whose father, of the same name, had formerly administered the government, as president of the council. Bull, a man of talents and character, had received at Leyden a medical degree the first, or one of the first, ever obtained by a native Anglo-American. With some short intervals, during which Thomas Boone, Lord Charles Montague, and Lord William Campbell acted as governors, he continued, as lieu- tenant-governor, at the head of affairs, till South Carolina ceased to be a British province. Joining his forces with the provincial levies, Montgomery entered the Cherokee country, raised the blockade of Fort Prince George, and ravaged the neighboring district. March- ing then upon Etchoe, the chief village of the Middle Cher- okees, within five miles of that place he encountered a large body of Indians, strongly posted in a difficult defile, from which they were only driven after a very severe struggle ; or, according to other accounts, Montgomery was himself repulsed. At all events, he retired to Charleston, and, in obedience to his orders, prepared to embark for service at the north. When this determination became known, the province was thrown into the utmost consternation. The Assembly declared themselves unable to raise men to protect the frontiers ; and a detachment of four hundred regulars was presently conceded to Bull's earnest solicitations. During the pressure of the war with the Western Indians, as one means of raising supplies, the Assembly of Virginia, by two or three successive acts, had carried the five per cent, standing duty on imported slaves as high as twenty per cent. This duty having " been found very burdensome to the fair purchaser, a great disadvantage to the settlement and improve- ment of the lands in the colony, introductive of many frauds, and not to answer the end thereby intended, inasmuch as the same prevents the importation of slaves, and thereby EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 157 lessens the fund arising from the duty/ 7 it was now reduced to ten per cent a positive and distinct legislative assertion, notwithstanding what Jefferson has represented to the con- trary, that Virginia duty on slaves was imposed for revenue only. The proprietaries of Pennsylvania, disgusted at Denny's faithlessness, had prevailed upon Hamilton to accept again the office of de.puty-governor. But, to obtain means for fur- nishing the quota of that province toward the approaching campaign, he was obliged, like his predecessor, to consent to a tax on the proprietary estates. Bound by the consent of their deputy, though given against their instruction for such was the constitutional doctrine established in Pennsyl- vania the Penns petitioned for the royal veto on eleven acts which Denny had passed, including the tax act above referred to. Franklin, as an agent for the Assembly on the one hand, and the proprietaries on the other, were heard by their counsel before the Board of Trade. In giving their decision, the Lords of Trade commented in very severe terms on the collu- sion between the Assembly and D^nny, evinced by a grant to the governor of a distinct sum of money for consenting to each of these eleven obnoxious acts. The other acts were disallowed ; but, on the great point of the right to tax the proprietary estates, the Assembly triumphed. The Board of Trade required, indeed, certain modifications of the act, to which Franklin readily assented on behalf of the province. The Assembly gave him a vote of thanks ; but they hesitated in fulfilling the agreement he had made ; nor was it long before the dispute with the proprietaries broke out with more violence than ever. After the fall of Quebec, Vaudreuil, the governor general of Canada, had concentrated all his forces at Montreal, and, during the winter, had made every possible preparation for attempting the recovery of the capital before the garrison could be relieved. As soon as the melting of the ice would permit, M. De Levi advanced for that purpose with ten thou- sand men. The English garrison had suffered during the winter for want of fresh provisions. A thousand soldiers had died of the scurvy. Murray could hardly muster three thou- sand men fit for duty. Anxious, however, to avoid a siege, and trusting to his superior discipline, IIQ marched out, and 14 158 HISTORICAL AND, gave battle at Sillery. He was beaten, however, with the loss of all his artillery and a thousand men, was driven back to Quebec, and besieged there. Some ships, dispatched from England very early in the season, presently arrived with supplies, anticipating not only the French fleet, but the Eng- lish squadron also which had wintered at Halifax. Alarmed at their appearance, and supposing that the whole English fleet had arrived, M. De Levi gave over the siege, and retired precipitately to Montreal. Against this last stronghold of the enemy all efforts were now directed. Anxious to com- plete the conquest of Canada, the Northern colonies zealously contributed. Three armies were soon in motion. Amherst, at the head of ten thousand men, beside a thousand Indians of the Six Nations, led by Johnson, embarked at Oswego, and sailed down the lake and the St. Lawrence to Montreal, where he was met by Murray with four thousand men froni Quebec. Haviland arrived the next day, with a third army of three thousand five hundred men, by way of Lake Champlain. The force thus assembled was quite overwhelming. Resistance was not to be thought of. The French governor signed a capitulation, by which he gave up not only Montreal, but Presque Isle, Detroit, Mackinaw, and all the other posts of Western Canada. The regular troops, about four thousand men, were to be sent to France. The Canadians were guar- anteed their property and worship. Nowhere was the general joy of the colonies at the conquest of Canada more enthusiastically felt than in New York, of which the northern and western limits had so long been in dispute with the French. New York had indeed, in those directions, no definite boundary, though the Assembly had been accustomed to claim, by virtue of alleged cessions from the Six Nations, as far north as the outlet of Lake Cham- plain, and the whole peninsula between Lakes Ontario and Huron pretensions extended, indeed, even to the peninsula of Michigan, and beyond it. By the sudden death of Delancey, the administration of New York had devolved on Cadwallader Colden, who was presently appointed lieutenant-governor. Though now upward of seventy years of age, Colden continued in that office for KEVOLUTIONTARY INCIDENTS. 159 sixteen years ; and, in consequence of the frequent absence of the governors, was repeatedly at the head of affairs. Great, too, was the exultation in New England, whose eastern and northern frontiers were now finally delivered from that scourge of Indian warfare by which they had been visited six timi>s within the preceding eighty-five years. The Indians themselves, by these successive contests, had been almost annihilated. Most of the hostile tribes had emigrated to Canada, or else were extinct. There remained only a small band of Penobscots, on whom was bestowed. a limited reservation, still possessed by their degenerate descendants. While the northern colonies exulted in safety, the Chero- kee war still kept the frontiers of Carolina in alarm. Left to themselves by the withdrawal of Montgomery, the Upper Cherokees had beleaguered Fort London. After living for some time on horse-flesh, the garrison, under a promise of safe-conduct to the settlements, had been induced to sur- render. But this promise was broken ; attacked on the way, a part were killed, and the rest detained as prisoners; after which, the Indians directed all their fury against the fron- tiers. On a new application, presently made tu Amherst, for assistance, the Highland regiment, now commanded by Grant, was ordered back to Carolina. (1761.) New levies were also made in the province, and Grant presently marched into the Cherokee country with two th m- sand six hundred men. In a second battle, near the same spot with the fight of the previous year, the Indians were driven back with loss. Etchoe, with the other villages of the Mid- dle Cherokees, was plundered and burned, and all the grow- ing corn destroyed. The Indians took refuge in the defiles of the mountains, and, subdued and humbled, sued for peace. As the condition on which alone it would be granted, they were required to deliver up four warriors, to be shot at the head of the army, or to furnish four green Indian scalps within twenty days. A personal application to Governor Bull, by an old chief, long known for his attachment to the English, procured a relinquishment of this brutal demand, and peace was presently made, without any further effusion of blood. The English arms were thus everywhere triumphant ; but as the French might attempt the re-conquest of Canada, the 160 HISTORICAL AND colonies were still required to keep up their quotas at two- thirds of the former amount. The French officers in Canada, in the course of the war, had been guilty of immense pecu- lations. There was outstanding, in unpaid bills on France, and in card or paper money, more than twenty millions of dollars, a large portion of it, as the French court contended, fraudulently issued. But a very small indemnity was ever obtained by the holders of this paper, the payment of which had been suspended immediately after the capture of Quebec. Having obtained an appointment as governor of South Carolina, on which, however, he never entered, after a very popular administration, Pownall had been succeeded as gov- ernor of Massachusetts, by Francis Bernard, late governor of New Jersey, where Thomas Boone, and, on his speedy re- moval to South Carolina, Josiah Hardy supplied his place. The British merchants loudly complained of a trade car- ried on by the northern colonies, not only with the neutral ports of St. Thomas arid Eustatius, but directly with the French islands, under flags of truce granted by the colonial governors nominally for an exchange of prisoners, but in- tended, in fact, as mere covers for a commerce, whereby the French fleets, garrisons, and islands in the West Indies were supplied with provisions and other necessaries. Pitt had is- sued strict orders to put a stop to this trade ; but it was too profitable to be easily suppressed. The colonists, indeed, maintained that it was policy to make as much money out of the enemy as possible, and they cited the example of the Dutch, who had fought with the Spaniards and traded with them at the same time. Bernard, a great stickler for the authority of the mother country, found an able coadjutor in Thomas Hutchinson, late speaker of the House of Kepresentatives, and now a counselor, whose zeal for the crown and appetite for emolu- ment, had been rewarded by the office of judge of probate for Suffolk county, and, on Phipps's death, by the post of lieutenant-governor, to which was now added the place of chief justice, much to the disappointment of Otis, Hutchin- son's successor as speaker, to whom Pownall had promised a seat on the bench. The strict enforcement of the acts of trade, attempted by Bernard, had provoked a strenuous opposi- tion, and the custom-house officers had applied to the Superior KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 161 Court to grant them writs of assistance, according to the E iglish Exchequer practice warrants, that is, to search, wh i n and where they pleased, for smuggled goods, and to call in the aid of others to assist them. To oppose the issue of these writs, the merchants retained Oxenbridge Thatcher and James Otis. Thatcher was a leading practitioner in Bos- ton. Otis, son of the speaker, a young lawyer of brilliant talents and ardent temperament, was advocate of the Admir- alty, and in that capacity bound to argue for the issue of the writs. But he resigned his office, and accepted the retainer of the merchants. Not content with Thatcher's merely legal and' technical objections, Otis took high ground as to the rights of the colonies. He assailed the acts of trade as op- pressive in some instances and unconstitutional in others, and by his vehement eloquence gave a tone to public sentiment, not without serious influence on subsequent events. The writs were granted, but they were so excessively unpopular as to be seldom used. Elected a representative from Boston, Otis became a leading member of the House, and a warm opponent of Hutchinson, whom he endeavored to exclude from the council by a bill declaring the places of chief jus- tice and counselor incompatible with each other. But Hutch- inson's influence was considerable, enough to defeat this bill. Another, which passed, requiring the oath of a custom-house officer to justify the issue of a writ of assistance, was rejected by the governor. The accession of the young king, George III, though it introduced some new members into the cabinet, had made no immediate change of policy. (1760.) Canada conquered, the British arms had been turned against the French islands in the West Indies. Guadaloupe had been already captured. (1761.) General Moncton, after producing to the council of New York his commission as governor, sailed from that port with two line-of-battle ships, a hundred transports, and twelve thousand regular and colonial troops. Gates went out with him as aid-de-camp, and carried to England the news of the capture of Martinique. Montgomery, afterward, as well as Gates a general of the revolutionary army held in this expedition the rank of captain. The colonial troops were led bj General Lyman. The successes of Moncton were not limited to Martinique. Grenada, St. Lucie, and 14* 162 HISTORICAL AND St. Vincent's every island, in fact, which the French pos- sessed in the Caribbee group, fell into the hands of the British. The French fleet was ruined. French merchantmen were driven from the seas. British vessels, including many from New York and New England, acquired the carrying trade, not of the conquered islands only, but, under safe-conducts and flags of truce, of the larger and more wealthy colony of St. Domingo. This lucrative commerce, with the profits of privateering and of supplying provisions for the British fleets and armies, made the war very popular in America, and Pitt an idol ; but that " great Commoner," as he delighted to be called, had ceased to be minister. Charles III., on whom the crown of Spain had lately devolved, had never forgotten nor forgiven a threat of bom- bardment by a British admiral, to which, at a former period, when King of Naples, he had been obliged to yield. As King of Spain, he had signed with France a treaty known as the Family Compact, amounting substantially to an alliance offensive and defensive. Pitt had secret information of this treaty, and wished at once to declare war against Spain. But Pitt was an object of jealousy and dislike to the young king, desirous to secure for himself a more active participation in affairs than had been enjoyed by his two predecessors. The ministry split on this point, Pitt retired from office, and the king hastened to raise to the head of the administration the Marquis of Bute, his late preceptor. Yet, scarcely had Pitt left the ministry, when hostilities commenced on the part of Spain a step which cost that declining monarchy dear. The Spanish colonial commerce was cut off by cruisers, and pre- sently Havana, the key of the Gulf of Mexico, was taken by a British armament. The present contest for territorial and commercial suprem- acy had extended even to the East Indies, thus, as it were, encircling the globe. A twenty years 7 struggle in Hindostan, between the French and English East India Companies, had ended in the complete triumph of the English, securing to them the dominion of the Carnatic and Bengal the begin- ning of that career of territorial aggrandizement in India, since so remarkably carried out. With finances almost ruined, powerless to struggle any longer against such a succession of losses, the French court KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 163 was obliged to abandon tbe contest, and with it all claim to territorial possessions on the North American continent. The island and city of New Orleans, with all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi, were ceded to Spain, in consideration of her losses in the war. Louisiana, thus given to the Span- iards, contained about ten thousand inhabitants. The trans- fer was very disagreeable to them, and six years elapsed before the Spanish actually took possession. By the treaty of Fontainebleau, all the vast region east of Mississippi, the island of New Orleans excepted, was yielded up to the British. Spain also ceded Florida in exchange for Havana. Thus was vested in the British crown, so far as the consent of rival European claimants could give it, the sovereignty of the whole eastern half of North America, from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson's Bay and the Polar Ocean, including hundreds of thousands of square miles upon which the foot of the white man had never yet trod. By the terms of the treaty, the navigation of the Mississippi, from it source to its mouth, was to be free to both parties, withou. liability to stoppage, search, or duty. Martinique, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucie, islands of the Car- ribee group, which some politicians wished Great Britain to retain instead of Canada, were restored to France ; also her former rights in the Newfoundland fishery. Beside Canada and its appurtenances, Great Britain received also St. Vin- cent's, Dominica, and Tobago, islands hitherto called neutral, and the two former still possessed by the native Indian inhab- itants the French and English not having hitherto been able to agree which should be allowed to take possession of them. These islands were erected, by proclamation, into the government of Grenada. (1763.) The same proclamation erected on the continent the three new British provinces of East Florida, West Florida, and Quebec. East Florida was bounded on the north by the St. Mary's, the intervening region thence to the Altamaha being annexed to Georgia. The boundaries of West Florida were the Appalachicola, the Gulf of Mexico, the Misssissippi, Lakes Ponchartrain and Maurepas ; and on the north, the thirty- first degree of north latitude, for which, however, was sub- stituted, the next year, a line due east from the mouth of 164: HISTORICAL AND the Yazoo, so as to include the French settlements about Natchez. The boundary assigned to the province of Quebec corresponded with the claims of New York and Massachu- setts, being a line from the southern end of Lake Nepissing, striking the St. Lawrence at the forty-fifth degree of north latitude, and following tbat parallel across the foot of Lake Champlain to the sources of the Connecticut, and thence along the highlands which separate the waters flowing into the Sfc. Lawrence from those which fall into the sea. By the same proclamation, grants of land were authorised to the reduced officers and discharged soldiers who had served during the war five thousand acres each to field officers, three thousand to captains, two thousand to subalterns and staff officers^ two hundred to non-commissioned officers, and fifty to privates. To prevent the mischiefs and disputes which had grown out of the purchase of Indian lands by pri- vate individuals, all such purchases within the crown colonies were in future to be made only by public treaty, and for the use of the crown ; nor, except in Quebec and West Florida, were any lands to be taken up beyond the heads of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic. These provisions were designed to restrain the backwoodsmen, and to prevent Indian hostilities ; but already, before the proclamation had been issued, a new ana alarming Indian war had broken out. Since the capture of Fort Du Quesne, settlers from Penn- sylvania, Maryland, and Virginia had poured over the moun- tains, very little scrupulous in their conduct toward the Indians, who began to see and feel the danger of being soon driven to new migrations. Perhaps, too, their prejudices were influenced so at least the colonists thought by the arts of French fur traders, who dreaded the competition of English rivals. The Dela wares and the Shawnese, who had lately migrated from Pennsylvania, and who now occupied the banks of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami, seem to have taken the lead in a widespread confederacy, of which Pontiac, a Shawnese chief, is represented to have been the moving spirit. It included not only the tribes lately the allies of the French, but the Senecas also, the most western clan of the Six Nations. The other five clans, though not without much difficulty, were kept quiet by Sir William Johnson. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 165 A simultaneous attack was unexpectedly made along the whole frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The English traders scattered through the region beyond the mountains, were plundered and slain. The posts between, the Ohio and Lake Erie were surprised and taken indeed, all the posts in the western country, except Niagara, Detroit, and Fort Pitt. The two latter were closely blockaded ; and the troops which Amherst hastily sent forward to relieve them, did not reach their destination without some very hard fighting. This sudden onslaught, falling heaviest on Pennsylvania, excited the ferocity of the back settlers, chiefly Presbyterians of Scotch and Irish descent, having very little in common with the mild spirit of the Quakers. Well versed in the Old Testament, the same notion had obtained among them current in early times of New England and Virginia, that as the Israelites exterminated the Canaanites, so they ought to exterminate the bloody, heathen Indians, stigmatized as the children of Ham. Under this impression, and imagining them to be in correspondence with the hostile Indians, some settlers of Paxton township attacked the remnant of a friendly tribe, who were living quietly under the guidance of Moravian missionaries at Conestoga, on the Susquehanna. All who fell into their hands, men, women, and children, were ruthlessly murdered. Those who escaped by being absent, fled for refuge to Lancaster, and were placed for secu- rity in the work-house there. The " Paxton Boys," as they called themselves, rushed into Lancaster, broke open the doors of the work-house, and perpetrated a new massacre. It was in vain that Franklin, lately returned from Europe, denounced these murders in an eloquent and indignant pam- phlet. Such was the fury of the mob, including many per- sons of respectable character and standing, that they even marched in arms to Philadelphia, for the destruction of some other friendly Indians who had taken refuge in that city. Thus beset, these unhappy fugitives attempted to escape to New York, to put themselves under the protection of Sir William Johnson, the Indian agent ; but Lieutenant-governor Golden refused to allow them to enter that province. John Penn, son and presumptive heir of Richard Ponn, one of the joint proprietors, had lately arrived in Pennsyl- vania, to take Hamilton's place as governor. Politics still 166 HISTORICAL AND ran very high ; but, in this emergency, the aid and advice of Franklin, the head of the opposition, and speaker of the Assembly, were eagerly sought. Owing to the royal veto on the late act for a volunteer militia, and the repeated re- fusals of the Assembly to establish a compulsive one, there was no organized military force in the province, except a few regular troops in the barracks at Philadelphia. By Frank- lin's aid, a strong body of volunteers, for the defense of the city, was speedily enrolled. When the insurgents approached, Franklin went out to meet them ; and, after a long negocia- tion, and agreeing to allow them to appoint two delegates to lay their grievances before the Assembly, they were persuaded to disperse without further bloodshed. So ended this most disgraceful affair. There was no power in the province ade- quate to punish these outrages. The Christian Indians presently re-established themselves high up the eastern branch of the Susquehanna. Five or six years after, des- tined yet to suffer further outrages, they migrated to the country northwest of the Ohio, and settled, with their mis- sionaries, in three villages on the Muskingum. General Gage, successor to Amherst as commander-in- chief of the British forces in America, had called upon the colonies for troops to assist in subduing the Indians. So extensive was the combination, that Major Loftus, while attempting to ascend the Mississippi with four hundred men, to take possessisn of the Illinois country, was attacked near the present site of Fort Adams, and obliged to give over the enterprise. New England, remote from the seat of danger, answered Gage's call scantily and reluctantly. Virginia furnished seven hundred men, and Pennsylvania one thou- sand. A pack of blood-hounds was sent out from England. Two expeditions were presently organized and sent into the Indian country, one under Bouquet, by way of Pittsburg, the other, under Bradstreet, along the lakes. The Indians, finding themselves thus vigorously attacked, consented to a treaty, by which they agreed to give up all prisoners, and to relinquish all claim to lands within gun-shot of any fort, of which, the British were authorized to build as many as they chose. Indians committing murders on white men were to be given up, to be tried by a jury, half Indians and halt:' colonists. (1764.) CHAPTER XIV. Condition of the Colonies at the conclusion of the Fourth Intercolonial "War Theory of the English Parliament Grenville's Scheme of Colonial Taxation Passage and Repeal of the Stamp Act. THAT war by which the possession of North America had been confirmed to the English crown, had not been carried on without great efforts and sacrifices on the part of the col- onists. By disease or the sword, thirty thousand colonial soldiers had fallen in the struggle. An expense had been incurred of upward of sixteen millions of dollars, of which only about five millions had been reimbursed by Parliament. Massachusetts alone had kept from four to seven thousand men in the field, beside garrisons, and recruits to the regular regiments. These men, it is true, served but a few months in the year. At the approach of winter they were generally disbanded, and for every campaign a new army had to be raised. They were fed at British cost ; yet in the course of the war the expenses of Massachusetts, exclusive of all par- liamentary reimbursements, had amounted to two millions and a half of dollars, all of which had been raised without resort to paper money, though not without incurring a heavy debt in addition to severe taxation. Connecticut, in the same period, expended not less than two million dollars. The out- standing debt of New York was near a million. If the expenditures of the southern colonies had been less profuse, they had far exceeded all former experience. Virginia, at the close of the war, had a debt of eight hundred thousand dollars. (1763.) The New England clergy complained that the morals of their parishioners had been corrupted by service in the armies ; and more disinterested observers might be willing to 167 168 HISTORICAL AND admit that the reverential simplicity of rural life, however tinged by superstition, was ill exchanged for any liberality of opinions or polish of manners to be acquired in a camp. Tet the intermixture of troops from various colonies, must have tended to enlarge the circle of ideas, and partially to do away with local prejudices ; while. co-operation in a common object, had impressed upon the colonial mind the idea of union and a common interest. The royal and proprietary governors, to obtain the neces- sary supplies, had been obliged to yield to perpetual encroach- ments. The expenditure of the great sums voted by the Assemblies had been kept, for the most part, in their own hands, or those of their specially appointed agents; and, contrary to what usually happens, executive influence had been weakened instead of strengthened by the war, or rather, had been transferred from the governors to the colonial Assemblies. In the prosecution of hostilities, much of the hardest and most dangerous service had fallen to the share of the colonial levies, employed especially as scouts and light troops. Though exceedingly disgusted by the superiority always assumed by the British regular officers, and allowed them by the rules of the service, the long continuance and splendid successes of the war, had filled the colonies with a martial spirit, and the idea of martial force had grown familiar, as a method, at once expedient and glorious, of settling disputed points of authority and right. With colonies thus taught their strength and resources, full of trained soldiers, accustomed to extraordinary efforts and partial co-operation, the British ministry now entered on a new struggle one, of which all like former contests, were but as faint types and forerunners. It was proposed to main- tain in America ten thousand troops as a peace establishment, nominally for the defense of the colonies ; perhaps also, in fact, as a support to that superintending metropolitan author- ity, of which the weakness had been sensibly felt on various occasions during the war. The outbreak of the western Indians served, however, to show that some sort of a peace establishment was really necessary. Four great wars within seventy years, had overwhelmed Great Britain with heavy debts and excessive taxation. Her KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 169 recent conquests, so far from relieving her embarrassments, had greatly increased that debt, which now amounted to 140,000,000, near $700,000,000. Even in the midst of .the late struggle, in the success of which they had so direct an interest, the military contributions of the colonial Assem- blies had been sometimes reluctant and capricious, and always irregular and unequal. They might, perhaps, refuse to con- tribute at all toward a standing army in time of peace, of which they would naturally soon come to be jealous. It seemed necessary, therefore, by some exertion of metropoli- tan authority, to extract from the colonies, for this purpose, a regular and certain revenue. At the very commencement of the late war, the Board of Trade had proposed a scheme of parliamentary taxation for the colonies. In the course of the war, Pitt had intimated to more than one colonial governor, that, "when it was over, the authority of Parliament would be exerted to draw from America the means for its own defense. Peace was no sooner established, than Pitt's successors in the ministry hastened to carry out the scheme thus foreshadowed. That Parliament possessed a certain authority over the colonies, in some respects super-eminent, was admitted by all ; but the exact limits of that authority had never been very accurately settled^ As against the royal prerogative, the colonists had been eager to claim the benefits of English law; not the common law only, but all statutes, such as the Habeas Corpus Act, of a remedial and popular character. There were other statutes, however, the Mutiny Act, for in- stance, from which they sought to escape on the ground of non-extension to America. Against the interference of Par- liament in matters of trade, most of the colonies, especially those of New England, had carried on a pertinacious struggle. In spite, however, of opposition, that interference had been extended from the trade of the colonies with foreign nations and each other, to many other matters but remotely connected with it. By the English post-office system, introduced into America, the transportation of mails and the rates of postage had been regulated. Parliament had interfered with the colonial currency, establishing the standard in coin, and re- stricting the issue of paper notes. Joint-stock companies,, with more than ^ certain number of partners, had been 15 170 HISTORICAL AND prohibited. The collection of debts had been regulated. A uniform law of naturalization had been established. Parlia- ment had prohibited or restricted certain trades and manu- factures, and had even assumed to legislate respecting the administration of oaths. All or most of these exertions of authority had been protested against at the time ; but the colonists had yielded at last, and the power of regulating colonial trade for the exclusive benefit of the mother country, exercised for two or three generations, and sustained by a system of custom-house officers and Admiralty courts, had acquired, in spite of unpopularity and a systematic evasion still extensively practiced, the character and attributes of a legal vested right. (1763.) The super-eminent power of all, that of levying taxes for revenue, Parliament had never exercised. The rates of post- age, of which the payment was voluntary, might be con- sidered not so much a tax as an equivalent for services rendered. The intercolonial duties on " enumerated articles/ 7 producing little more than sufficient to pay the expenses of the custom-houses, had for their professed object, not revenue, but the regulation of trade. The trifling surplus paid into the British treasury was but a mere incident to that regula- tion. Yet the colonial custom-houses, though hitherto main- tained with no intention of collecting taxes, might easily be adapted to that purpose ; and, as the colonists were already accustomed to the payment of parliamentary duties, they might not readily distinguish between duties for regulation and duties for revenue. A part of the new scheme, as suggested to Parliament by Lord Grenville, Bute's chancellor of the Exchequer, appears to have proceeded on this idea. In spite of recent vigilance in the enforcement of the acts of trade, the Molasses Act was still extensively evaded. By reducing the duties exacted under that act, now about to expire, Grenville proposed to diminish the temptation to smuggle ; and, while seeming thus to confer a boon on the colonies, by opening to them, under moderated duties, the trade with the foreign sugar islands, by the same process, to convert the Molasses Act from a mere regulation of trade, into a source of revenue, to be enhanced by duties on other foreign products. Had the proposition stopped here, there might have been some chance of gradually KEVOLUTIO.YARY INCIDENTS. 171 forcing on the colonies the practice of parliamentary taxation. But the amount which could thus be raised would not suffice for the object in view, and Grenville proposed, in addition, a stamp tax an impost, in several respects, much like those of the custom-house, and very like them in facility of collec- tion. ,A11 bills, bonds, notes, leases, policies of insurance, papers used in legal proceedings, and a great many other documents, in order to be held valid in courts of law, were to be written on stamped paper, sold by public officers ap- pointed for that purpose, at prices which levied a stated tax on every such document. Stamp duties, said to be an inven- tion of the Dutch, though long familiar in England, were as yet almost unknown in America, where only one or two colonies had made some slight trial of them. Shortly after the final treaty of peace, Grenville laid this plan before Parliament, not for immediate action, but by way of information and notice. The colonial agents, or some of them, wrote to America for instructions, but the public mind was engrossed by the sudden renewal of the war on the western frontier, and Grenville's proposition hardly attracted so much attention as might have been expected. The As- sembly of Pennsylvania was content with simply stating a willingness "to aid the crown according to their ability, whenever required in the usual constitutional manner." They even proposed to forward a plan by which all the colo- nies might be made to contribute fairly and equitably to the public defense ; but that idea they soon abandoned. Bollan, so long the agent of Massachusetts, had been lately dismissed, and the place given to Jasper Manduit, whose letters, containing an account of Grenville's proposals, were laid before the General Court at an adjourned session. There seems at this moment to have been a lull in the politics of that province. The excitement growing out of the question of writs of assistance had subsided. Hutchinson, who still sat in the council, in spite of Otis's attempt to exclude him, had a principal hand in drawing up the instructions to the agent. They suggested, indeed, the right of the colonists to tax themselves, but in a very moderate tone. It was even voted to send Hutchinson as a special agent to England ; but this was prevented by Governor Bernard, who thought it irregu- lar for the lieutenant-governor to be absent from the province. 172 HISTORICAL AND At the next session of Parliament, Grenville, now prime minister, brought forward his scheme of taxation in a more formal shape. After a debate which excited very little interest or attention, the House of Commons resolved, without a division, " that Parliament had a right to tax the colonies," and they recommended such a stamp act as the minister had proposed. Further action as to this stamp tax was, however, delayed, to give the colonists an opportunity for suggesting, if they chose, some more satisfactory means for raising the half mil- lion of dollars which the minister required. The. other part of the ministerial scheme was at once carried out by a law known as the " Sugar Act," reducing by one half, the duties imposed by the old Molasses Act on foreign sugar and molasses imported into the colonies ; levying duties on coffee, pimento, French and East India goods, and wines from Madeira and the Azores, which hitherto had been free ; and adding iron and lumber to the list of " enumerated articles," which could not be exported, except to England. Openly avowing in its pre- amble the purpose of " raising a revenue for defraying the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing his majesty's dominions in America," this act gave increased jurisdiction to the colonial Admiralty courts, and provided new and more efficient means for enforcing the collection of the revenue. Partial accounts of these proceedings having reached Mas- sachusetts previous to the annual election, the town of Boston took occasion to instruct its newly-chosen representatives to use all their efforts against the pending plan of parliament taxation, and for the repeal of any such acts already passed. These instructions, drafted by Samuel Adams, contained the first decided protest against Grenville's scheme. Among other things, they suggested the expediency of a combination of all the colonies for the defense of their common interests. At the session which speedily followed, the House of Rep- resentatives resolved, " that the imposition of duties and taxes by the Parliament of Great Britain, upon a people not represented in the House of Commons, is absolutely irrecon- cilable with their rights." A pamphlet, lately published by Otis, " The Rights of the British Colonies asserted," was read and approved. A copy was transmitted to the agent in England, and along with it an energetic letter. " The silence REVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 173 of the province," said this letter, alluding to a suggestion of the agent, that he had taken silence for consent, " should have been imputed to any cause even to despair rather than be construed into a tacit cession of their rights, or the acknowledgment of a right in the Parliament of Great Britain to impose duties and taxes on a people who are not rep- resented in the House of Commons." " If we are not represented, we are slaves !" Following up the suggestions of the Boston instructions, a committee was appointed to correspond, during the recess, with the Assemblies of the other colonies. These energetic measures, warmly supported by Thatcher and Otis, were adopted just at the close of the session, and in Hutchinson's absence. The concurrence of the council was not asked. Not that any open advocates for parliamentary taxation were to be found in that body ; even Governor Ber- nard avowed his opposition, at least, to the proposed Stamp Act ; but the council, for years past very much under Hiitch- inson's influence, was composed of wealthy and moderate men, who might not choose to venture^ on so vigorous a remonstrance. Otis's pamphlet on colonial rights conceded to Parliament a superintending power to enact laws and regulations for the public good a power limited, however, by the "natural rights of man," and " the constitutional rights of British subjects," claimed as the birthright of all born in the colo- nies. It was maintained as one of these rights, that taxes could not be levied on the people, "but by their consent in person or by deputation." The distinction was scouted be- tween external and internal taxes, meaning in the one case, taxes on trade, and in the other, taxes on land and personal property. If trade might be taxed without the consent of the colonists, so might land and houses. Taxes of either kind were pronounced " absolutely irreconcilable with the rights of the colonists as British subjects and as men." Yet nothing like forcible resistance was hinted at. " There would be an end to all governments, if one, or a number of subjects or subordinate provinces, should take upon them so far to judge of the justice of an act of Parliament, as to refuse obedience to it." "Forcibly resisting the Parliament and the king's laws is high treason." " Therefore let the 15* 174 HISTORICAL AND Parliament lay what burdens they please on us, we must, it is our duty to submit, and patiently bear them till they will be pleased to relieve us." Such, at this moment, were the public professions, and most probably the private opinions of the strongest advocates of the rights of the colonists at least of those who had been bred, like Otis, to the profession of the law. But this doctrine of patient submission to injus- tice, was not of a sort to go down in America. Thatcher also published a tract against the scheme of par- liamentary taxation, and similar tracts were put forth in Ehode Island "by authority;" in Maryland by Dulany, sec- retary of the province ; and in Virginia by Bland, a leading member of the House of Burgesses. The opposition of Massachusetts to the new " Sugar Act," was presently re-echoed from Pennsylvania, and strong in- structions to oppose the whole scheme of taxation were given to Franklin r about to depart for England as the agent for the colony, to solicit the overthrow of the proprietary govern- ment. At the adjourned session of the Massachusetts General Court, the powerful influence of Hutchinson again became obvious. The House adopted a strong petition to Parlia- ment, drawn by a committee of which Otis was chairman. The council refused to concur. A joint committee then ap- pointed, reported a petition to the House of Commons, drafted by Hutchinson, and not at all to the taste of the more ardent patriots. Yet, after some alterations, it was. adopted by the Court. A letter to the agent, in a somewhat more decided tone, spoke of self-taxation as the right of the colony, not as a mere usage and favor, in which light the petition seemed to regard it. Connecticut, following in the steps of Massachusetts, adopted the same moderate tone. The Assembly of New York agreed to a petition much more strongly expressed so strongly, that no member of Parliament could be found to present it. This petition, adopted and re-echoed by Rhode island, made the Massachusetts leaders still more dissatisfied with the tameness of theirs. In the Virginia House of Burgesses, Peyton Randolph, the attorney-general, conspicuous formerly in the controversy with Dinwiddie, Richard Henry Lee, son of a former president EEVOLUTIONABY INCIDENTS. 175 of the council, George Wythe, and Edmund Pcndleton, all distinguished lawyers and leaders of the colonial aristocracy, were appointed a committee to draw up a petition to the king, a memorial to the House of Lords, and a remonstrance to the Commons. These papers claimed for the colony, the priv- ilege of self-taxation ; but their tone was very moderate. Instead of relying on the matter of right, they dwelt at length on the embarassments and poverty of the province, encumbered by the late war with a heavy debt. These faint protestations produced no effect on the made up minds of the British ministers. In spite of remonstrances addressed to Grenville by Franklin, Jackson, the newly-ap- pointed agent of Massachusetts, Ingersoll, the agent for Connecticut, and other gentlemen interested in the colonies, a bill for collecting a stamp tax in America was presently brought in. The London merchants concerned in the Amer- ican trade petitioned against it ; but a convenient rule not to receive petitions against money bills, excluded this as well as those from the colonial Assemblies. In reply to Colonel Barre, who had served in America, and who made a speech against the bill, Townshend, one of the ministers, spoke of the colonists as " children, planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and protected by our arms." Barre's indig- nant retort produced a great sensation in the House. " They planted by your care ? No ; your oppressions planted them in America." '" They nourished by your indulgence ? They grew up by your neglect of them. 77 " They protected by your arms? Those sons of liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defense. I claim to know more of America than most of you, having been resident in that country. The people, I believe, are as truly loyal subjects as the king has, but a people jealous of their liberties, and who will vin- dicate them, should they ever be violated. But the subject is too delicate ; I will say no more.' 7 Barre placed his oppo- sition on the ground of expediency ; General Conway, and Alderman Beckford, one of the London members, denounced the bill as unjust. It passed, however, in the Commons, five to one ; in the Lords there was no division nor the slightest opposition. (1765.) A clause inserted into the annual Mutiny Act, carried out another part of the ministerial scheme, by authorizing as 176 HISTORICAL AND many troops to be sent to America as the ministers saw fit. For these troops, by a special enactment, known as " the Quartering Act," the colonies in which they might be sta- tioned, were required to find quarters, fire-wood, bedding, drink, soap, and candles. News of the passage of these acts, reached Virginia while the Assembly was sitting. The aristocratic leaders in that body hesitated. The session approached its close, and not one word seemed likely to be said. But the rights of the colonies did not fail of an advocate. Patrick Henry had already attracted the attention of the House, by his suc- cessful opposition to Robinson's proposed paper money loan, as mentioned in the previous chapter. Finding the older and more weighty members unlikely to move, he assumed the responsibility of introducing a series of resolu- tions, which claimed for the inhabitants of Virginia all the rights of born British subjects; denied any authority any- where, except in the provincial Assembly, to impose taxes upon them ; and denounced the attempt to vest that authori- ty elsewhere, as inconsistent with the ancient Constitution, and subversive of British as well as of American liberty. Upon the introduction of these resolutions, a hot debate en- sued. " Caesar had his Brutus/' said Henry, " Charles I. his Cromwell, and George III. " " Treason ! treason !" shouted the speaker, and the cry was re-echoed from the House. " George III.," said Henry, firmly, " may profit by their ex- ample. If that be treason, make the most of it!" In spite of the opposition of all the old leaders, the resolutions passed, the fifth and most emphatic, by a majority of only one vote. The next day, in Henry's absence, the resolutions were recon- sidered, softened, and the fifth struck out. But a manuscript copy had already been sent to Philadelphia ; and, circulating through the colonies in their original form, these resolutions gave everywhere a strong impulse to the popular feeling. Before these Virginia resolutions reached Massachusetts, the General Court had met, at its annual session. Consider- ing " the many difficulties to which the colonies are, and must be reduced by the operation of some late acts of Par- liament," the House of Eepresentatives appointed a commit- tee of nine, to consider what steps the emergency demanded. That committee recommended a convention or congress, to be EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 177 omposod of " committees from the Houses of Representa- tives or Burgesses in the several colonies." to meet at New York on the first Tuesday of October following, there to con- sult " on the difficulties in which the colonies were, and must be placed by the late acts of Parliament levying duties and taxes upon them ;" and, further, " to consider of a general and humble address to his majesty and the Parliament, to implore relief/' Even the partisans of Bernard judged it best to concur in the adoption of this report ; and they con- gratulated themselves that Buggies and Partridge, two of the committee appointed to represent Massachusetts at the congress, were "prudent and discreet men, fast friends of government." The third was James Otis. A circular let- ter, addressed to all the other colonies, recommended similar "-appointments. Governor Fitch arid a majority of the Con- necticut assistants, seemed inclined to submit to the Stamp Act, but Trumbull and others loudly protested against it, and the popular feeling was all on their side. The stamps were to be prepared in Great Britain, and sent to officers in the colonies, appointed to sell them. Anxious to make this unpopular measure as palatable as possible, the colonial agents were consulted as to the persons fit to be ap- pointed. So little did even Franklin foresee the result, that he procured that office at Philadelphia for one of his particu- lar friends and supporters. He also advised Ingersoll, the Connecticut agent, to accept that appointment for his own colony. Before the stamps reached America, symptoms of a violent ferment appeared. A great elm in Boston, at the corner of the present Washington and Essex Streets, under which the opponents of the Stamp Act were accustomed to assemble, . soon became famous as " liberty tree." Those persons sup- posed to favor the ministry were hung in effigy on the branches of this elm. A mob attacked the house of Oliver, secretary of the colony, who had been appointed stamp dis- tributor for Massachusetts, broke his windows, destroyed his furniture, pulled down a small building, supposed to be in- tended for a stamp office, and frightened Oliver into a resignation. Jonathan Mayhew, the able minister of the West Church, in Boston distinguished by some recent con- v 'troversial tracts, in which he had severely criticised the 173 HISTORICAL AND conduct of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, in maintaining Episcopal missionaries in New England preach- ed a warm sermon against the Stamp Act, taking for his text, " I would they were even cut off which trouble you !" The Monday evening after this sermon the riots were renewed. The mob attacked the house of Story, registrar of the Ad- miralty, and destroyed not only the public files and records, but his private papers also. Next they entered and plun- dered the house of the controller of customs ; and, maddened with liquor and excitement, proceeded to the mansion of Hutchinson, in North Square. The lieutenant-governor and his family fled for their lives. The house was completely gutted, and the contents burned in bonfires, kindled in the square. Along with Hutchinson's furniture and private pa- pers, perished many invaluable manuscripts relating to the history of the province, which Hutchinson had been thirty years in collecting, and which it was impossible to replace. As commonly happens on such occasions, the immediate actors in these scenes were persons of no note, the dregs of the population. Mayhew sent the next day a special apology and disclaimer to Hutchinson. The inhabitants of Boston, at a town meeting, unanimously expressed their "abhor- rence " of these proceedings ; and a " civic guard " was organ- ized to prevent their repetition. Yet the rioters, though well known, went unpunished a sure sign of the secret concur- rence and good-will of the mass of the community. It is only in reliance on such encouragement, that mobs ever venture to commit deeds of violence. Those now committed were revolutionary acts, designed to intimidate melancholy forerunners of civil war. Throughout the northern colonies, associations on the basis of forcible resistance to the Stamp Act, under the name of " Sons of Liberty 7 ' a title borrowed from Barre's famous speech sprung suddenly into existence. Persons of influ- ence and consideration, though they might favor the object, kept aloof, however, from so dangerous a combination, which consisted of the young, the ardent, those who loved excite- ment, and had nothing to lose. The history of these " Sons of Liberty " is very obscure ; but they seem to have spread rapidly from Connecticut and New York into Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, and to have taken up, as KEVOLUTIOXARY INCIDENTS. 179 their special business, the intimidation of the stamp officers. In all the colonies, those officers were persuaded or compelled to resign ; and such stamps as arrived either remained un- packed, or else were seized and burned. The Assembly of Pennsylvania unanimously adopted a series of resolutions, denouncing the Stamp Act as "unconstitutional, and sub- versive of their dearest rights." Public meetings to protest against it, were held throughout the colonies. The holding of such meetings was quite a new incident, and formed a new era in colonial history. In the midst of this universal excitement, at the day appointed by Massachusetts, committees from nine colonies met in New York. The Assemblies of Virginia and North Carolina not having been in session since the issue of the Massachusetts circular, no opportunity had occurred of appoint- ing committees. New York was in the same predicament ; but a committee of correspondence, appointed at a previous session, saw fit to attend. In Georgia, Governor Wright refused to call the Assembly together ; but the speaker of the House of Representatives, after consulting with a major- ity of the membars, sent a letter to New York approving the proposed congress, and promising to support its measures. The New Hampshire House of Representatives gave their sanction to the congress, and offered to join in any suitable memorial ; but, " owing to the particular state of their affairs" by which may be understood the predominant influence of Governor Wentworth, they sent no delegates. Dr. Franklin, about the close of his first agency in England, had obtained the post of Governor of New Jersey, vacated by Hardy, for his natural and only son, William Franklin. The new gov- ernor, who inherited all the prudence, with none of the patri- otic ardor of his father, had prevailed upon the Assembly of that province to return a negative answer to the Massachu- setts letter ; but this proved so unsatisfactory to the people, that the speaker called the members together by circular, and delegates were appointed. The Congress was organized by the appointment of Rug- gles as president. There were present, among other mem- bers, beside Otis, of Massachusetts, William Johnson, of Connecticut ; Philip Livingston, of New York ; John Dickin- son, of Pennsylvania ; Thomas M'Kean, of Delaware, and 180 HISTORICAL AND Christopher Gadsden and John Hut-ledge, of South Carolina, all subsequently distinguished in the history of the Revolu- tion. A rule was adopted, giving to each colony represented, one vote. In the course of a three weeks' session, a Declaration of the Rights and Grievances of the Colonies was agreed to. All the privileges of Englishmen were claimed by this decla- tion, as the birthright of the colonists among the rest, the right of being taxed only by their own consent. Since dis- tance and local circumstances made a representation in the British Parliament impossible, these representatives, it was maintained, could be no other than the several colonial Legis- latures. Thus was given a flat negative to a scheme lately broached in England by Pownall and others, for allowing to the colonies a representation in Parliament, a project to which both Otis and Franklin seem at first to have leaned. A petition to the king, and memorials to each House of Parliament were also prepared, in which the cause of the colonies was eloquently pleaded. Buggies refused to sign these papers, on the ground that they ought first to be approved by the several Assemblies, and should be forwarded to England as their acts. Ogden, one of the New Jersey delegates, withheld his signature on the same plea. The delegates from New York did not sign because they had no special authority for their attendance ; nor did those of Con- necticut or South Carolina, their commission restricting them to a report to their respective Assemblies. The peti- tion and memorials, signed by the other delegates, were transmitted to England for presentation. The several colonial Assemblies, at their earliest sessions, gave to the proceedings a cordial approval. The conduct of Ruggles, in refusing his signature, was severely censured by the Massachusetts representatives. Ogden was burned in effigy by the people of New Jersey. The first day of November, appointed for the Stamp act tc go into operation, came and went, but not a stamp was any- where to be seen. Two companies of rioters paraded that evening the streets of New York, demanding the delivery of the stamps, which Golden, on the resignation of the stairip distributor, and his refusal to receive them, had taken into the fort. Golden was hung in effigy. His carriage was KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 181 seized, and made a bonfire of, under the muzzles of the guns ; after which the mob proceeded to a house in the outskirts, tnen occupied by Major James, of the Koyal artillery, who had made himself obnoxious by his free comments on the con- duct of the colonists. James' furniture and property were destroyed, as Hutchinson's had been. General Gage, the commander-in-chief of the British forces in America, was at New York, but the regular garrison in the fort was very small. Alarmed for the safety of the city, and not willing to take any responsibility, as Sir Henry Moore, the recently appointed governor, was every day expected, Golden agreed by Gage's advice, the captain of a British ship of war in the harbor having refused to receive them, to give up the stamps to the mayor and corporation. They were accordingly depos- ited in the City Hall, under a receipt given by the Mayor. These proceedings had been under the control of the infe- rior class of people, of whom Isaac Sears, formerly a ship- master, and now inspector of potashes, was a conspicuous leader. The next day a meeting was called of the wealthier inhabitants, and a committee was appointed, of which Sears was a member, with four colleagues, to correspond with the other colonies. This committee soon brought forward an agreement to import no more goods from Great Britain till the Stamp Act was repealed the commencement of a system of retaliation on the mother country repeatedly resorted to in the course of the struggle. This non-importation agree- ment, to which a non-consumption agreement was presently added, beside being extensively signed in New York, was adopted also in Philadelphia and Boston. At the same time, and as part of the same plan, a combination was entered into for the support of American manufactures, the wearing ot American cloths, and the increase of sheep, by ceasing to eat lamb or mutton. Business, suspended for a while, was presently resumed. Stamped papers were required in judicial proceedings, but by continuing the cases before them, or going on without notice of the deficiency, even the judges, after some hesitation, con- curred in nullifying the act. A change in the English ministry, which took place in July, and the news of which reached America in September, 16 182 HISTORICAL AND encouraged the colonists in the stand they had taken. change originated in domestic reasons, wholly unconnected with colonial polity ; it was regarded, however, as favorable to the general cause of freedom. The old Whig aristocracy, which had governed the kingdom since the accession of the house of Hanover, had split up, of late, into several bitter and hostile factions, chiefly founded on mere personal consid- erations. Pitt's repeated attacks on former ministries, and, at last, his forcing himself into power, had contributed not a little to this result. The accession of George III, had given rise to a new party, by which Pitt himself had been super- seded a party which called themselves " king's friends," composed partly of political adventurers from among the Whigs, such as Grenville, the late minister, but partly also of the representatives of the old Tory families, for half a century previous excluded by the Whigs from office. These " king's friends" were regarded as hostile to popular rights, and were looked upon by the great body of the middle class with very jealous eyes. It was their distinguishing doctrine, that the authority of the king had been usurped and en- croached upon by the House of Commons. The Marquis of Buckingham, the new minister, leader of one of the frag- ments of the old Whig party, was liberally disposed ; but as yet, there hardly existed in England a popular party, in our American sense. The interests of trade and manufac- tures were not, indeed, without their representatives, chosen from some of the large towns, but a great part of the boroughs were "rotten" the property, that is, of one or more individuals, who, in fact, named the representatives; while money, in the shape of bribes, decided the choice in many of the rest. The House of Commons represented a narrow aristocracy, the majority of the members being sub- stantially nominated by the great landholders. The House, thus, chosen, debated with closed doors, only a few spectators being admitted, as a special favor. To publish an account of their proceedings was a breach of privilege, and only brief and imperfect sketches, even of the principal debates, found their way into print. Faint signs were but just be- ginning to appear, of that social revolution which has created the modern popular party of Great Britain and Europe, giving complete publicity to legislative proceedings, and KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 183 organizing public opinion as a regular and powerful check upon authority. In the address from the throne, at the opening of the session, the new ministry brought the state of colonial affairs before Parliament. They produced the correspondence of the colonial governors, and other papers relating to the late dis- turbance. Numerous petitions from British merchants, for the repeal of the Stamp Act, were also presented to the two Houses. (1766.) Pitt, for some time past withdrawn by sickness from pub- lic affairs, was unconnected, at this moment, with either Grenville's or Kockingham's party. He now appeared in his place in the House of Commons, and delivered his opinion, " that the kingdom had no right to levy a tax on the col- onies." " Th Commons in America, represented in their several assemblies, have invariably exercised the constitu- tional right of giving and granting their own money ; they would have been slaves if they had not ; at the same time, this kingdom has ever possessed the power of legislative and commercial control. The colonies acknowledge your author- ity in all things, with the sole exception that you shall not take their money out of their pockets without their consent." This decided avowal by Pitt, made a profound impression on the House. After a long pause, Grenville rose to vindi- cate the Stamp Act. The tumults in America bordered, he averred, on open rebellion ; but if the doctrines now promul- gated were upheld, they would soon lose that name, and be- come a revolution. Taxation was a branch of the sovereign power, constantly exercised by Parliament, over the unrepre- sented. Resorting, then, to a method of intimidation com- mon with politicians, "the seditious spirit of the colonies," he said, " owes its birth to the faction in this House." This invidious assault was met by Pitt with characteristic intrepid- ity. " A charge is brought against gentlemen sitting in this House, of giving birth to sedition in America. The freedom with which they have spoken their sentiments against this unhappy act, is imputed to them as a crime. But the imputation shall not discourage me." " We are told America is obstinate America is almost in open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice that America has resisted. Three millions of people so dead to all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to 13-i HISTORICAL AND submit to be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of all the rest." " The Americans have been wronged ! They have been driven to madness by injustice ! Will you punish them for the madness you have occasioned ? No ! Let this country be the first to resume its prudence and tem- per ; I will pledge myself for the colonies, that on their part, animosity and resentment will cease." The new ministry were under no obligation to support the policy of their predecessors. Anxious to escape the difficulty by the readiest means, they brought in a bill for repealing the Stamp Act. Franklin, summoned to the bar of the House as a witness, testified that the act could never be en- forced. His prompt and pointed answers gained him great credit for information, acuteness, and presence of mind. In favor of repeal, Burke, introduced into Parliament by Rockingham, to whom he had been private secretary, and for one of whose rotten boroughs he sat, gave his eloquent support. In spite of a very strenuous opposition on the part of the supporters of the late ministry, the bill of repeal was carried in the House of Commons, by a vote of two hundred and seventy-five to one hundred and sixty-seven. But the ministers by no means went the length of Pitt. They placed the repeal on the ground of expediency merely, and they softened the opposition by another bill, previously passed, which asserted the power and right of Parliament " to bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever." Lord Cam- den, formerly Chief-justice Pratt, made a vigorous opposition to this bill, in the House of Lords. " My position is this I repeat it I will maintain it to the last hour taxation and representation are inseparable. The position is founded in the law of nature. It is more : it is itself an eternal law of nature." Lord Mansfield, on the other hand, maintained the sovereign power of Parliament as including the right to tax ; an idea quite too flattering to the pride of authority to bo easily relinquished. CHAPTER XY. Dawn of the Revolutionary Period Humorous "History of John Bull's Children " Contrast between causes which led to the Revolution of 1688, in England, and those which led to the American Revolution ; from Judge Drayton's Charge, in 1776. We now come to a new era of struggle, in the history of " Sam," by, and through which, his youthful prowess, thus continually exercised, as we have witnessed, becomes meet for successful collison with the uttermost force which is likely to array itself against his future. He has one more covert foe, with whom it is necessary that he should he finally " at quits/ 7 and who, (though not necessarily an internal one as are the Jesuits !) is yet, through his machinations, as dangerous, and even more important. As usual, with the most serious affairs of the kind it is a family quarrel, in which his elder first cousin, John Bull, assumes a domineering and pugilistic attitude, to the great tribulation of Sam who, for the very reason that he was born of nothing but a cloud, was particularly sensitive about the matter of descent, primogeniture, reversions, titles, etc. Now all this may seem to have been very inconsistent on his part, but a slight sketch of his family history about those times, will illustrate these traits of Sam sufficiently. "THE HISTORY OF JOHN BULI/S CHILDREN." We find the following in the "Maryland Gazette" of August, 1776, into which it was copied from the " London Chronicle." I, Sir Humphrey Polesworth, who formerly gave the world a true and faithful account of Jphn Bull, and of his mother. 16* 185 186 HISTORICAL AND and his sister, and wives, and his servants, now write the history of his children, and how they were got, and how they were educated, and what befell them. Courteous reader, if thou hast any curiosity to know these things, read the follow- ing chapters, and learn. CHAPTER I. Of seven natural children, which John Bull had in his younger days by Doll Secretary, his mother's maid ; namely, three boys, John, junior, or master Jacky, Yorky, and Jerry: four girls, Penelope, Mary, Virgy, and Caroline. How the old lady would suffer no bastards in her family ; and ho\v the poor infants were turned adrift on the fish-ponds as soon as born ; how they landed on the western shore, and were there nursed by a wild bear, all under the green wood tree. CHAPTER n. How John disowned them, and left them to get over the children's disorders the best way they could, without paying a farthing for nurses, or apothecary's bills ; and how, as soon as they had cut their eye-teeth, and were able to walk alone, John claimed them for his own. CHAPTER in. How Master Jacky turned fisherman and ship-carpenter. Yorky and Jerry drove a great trade ; Miss Penny dealt in flour, called the Maid of the Mill, and never courtesied to anybody. How Mary and Virgy set up a snuff-shop ; and Caroline turned dry salter, and sold indigo ; and how they all flourished exceedingly, and laid out every penny they earned, in their father's warehouse. CHAPTER rv. Of two children more, that John had after- ward, in lawful wedlock (viz : a boy whom he called Georgy, after his great patron, and a girl, whom he called Peg, after his sister Margaret); how he crammed them with sugar- plums, and how they remain sickly, rickety brats to this clay. CHAPTER v. How young Master Baboon, old Louis' only son, fell in love with Miss Virgy, and how he came behind with intent to ravish her; how she squealed, and alarmed her dad. CHAPTER vi. How John called for his stick and his barge, and crossed the pond to save his daughter's virtue ; how young Louis gave him a confounded rap on his fingers and drove him back ; then at his daughter again. CHAPTER vii. How her brother Jack came to her assist- ance, and -threw young Louis on his back; how old Louis REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 1ST Baboon flew to help his son, and carried Lord Strutt along with him ; how John Bull returned and mustered all his children at his back, and to it they went. CHAPTER vm. How they had a long tussle ; how John's children saved their old dad from a broken head, and helped to seize young Louis and tie him ; how the old folks agreed to leave young Louis in custody, and drink friends them- selves ; and how John made his children pay a share of the reckoning, without giving them any of the drink. CHAPTER ix. How John, in his cups, bragged of his exploits, and said he had done all himself, and his children nothing ; how he made choice of fair George, the gentle shepherd, for his house-steward, and because he could tell, without the book, that two and three make five, and had the multiplication table by heart. CHAPTER x. The whole stewardship of fair George how he neglected to protest Louis Baboon's note of hand on the day of payment, and released Lord Strutt from a mortgage on his manor of Eastland ; how he took an aversion to cider, and would allow none to be drunk in his family ; how he rum- maged every man's chest for pen, ink, and paper, and obliged those he caught writing, to stand atop of the table, with a wooden neckcloth under their chin, while he counted sixty times sixty ; and how this is called the gentle shepherd's benefit of the clergy, unto this day. CHAPTER xi. How fair George took an antipathy to John's children, because he said they put nothing into the box at Christmas ; and when they came to pay their shop accounts, they brought in their money at the back door ; how he advised John to brand them on the far buttock, as they do stray cattle, that he might know them as his own. CHAPTER xii. How John's children rode restive, and swore they would not have the broad R stamped on their b k- s des ; how John, in heating the irons, burnt his own fingers, most d ly ; how all his neighbors laughed, and fair George could not find him a plaster. CHAPTER xin. How John, in a passion, kicked fair George down stairs, and rung up other servants ; how they advised him to consult his wife ; and how Mrs. Bull advised him to let his children alone ; that, though they were born in sin, they were his own flesh and blood, and needed no stamp to show 188 HISTORICAL AND it ; how John took her advice, and let the irons cool again ; and how some suspected if John's fingers had not smarted he would not have complied so soon. CHAPTER xiv. A dialogue on education, between fair George and lame Will. How Will proved it to be both cruel and impolitic to pinch children till they cried, and then pinch them for crying ; and how George answered and said nothing. CHAPTER xv. How John, by means of his new servants, became beloved of his children, and respected by his neigh- bors ; how he obliged Louis Baboon to beat down the walls of Ecclesdown castle, because it overlooked his pond, and har- bored seagulls, to gobble up his fish . How he made him also pay up his note of hand ; and how Lord Strutt . What Lord Strutt did, does not appear, but this veracious narrator of the olden time, has furnished us with a genealo- gical treatise, invaluable in itself, and highly illustrative of many striking peculiarities, which we find to be even at this day, the distinctive family traits of " Sam," who has clearly inherited many of the good as well as bad qualities com- plained of, and portrayed above in the character of his an- cestor, John Bull. Though Sam is in this instance the rather graphic complainant, yet we have endeavored to show, that in many instances since, his own conduct would have been no discredit to the attributes of the venerable elder John, himself! But that " Sam " now began to have real causes of com- plaint, we shall perceive by the following "catalogue of op- pressions, and contrast of the causes which led to the revolution which deposed James II., and those which led to the Ameri- can Revolution." This valuable document is from JUDGE DRAYTON'S CHARGE, At an adjournment of the Court of GENERAL SESSIONS OF THE PEACE, OYER AND TERMINER, ASSIZE, AND GENERAL GAOL DELIVERY, held at Charleston, for the District of Charles- ton, on Tuesday, the 23d day of April, 1776, before the HON. WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON, Esq., Chief-justice, and his Associates, justices of the colony of South Carolina. Even the famous revolution in England, in the year 1 088, is much inferior. However, we need no better authority KEVOLUTTONAKY INCIDENTS. than that illustrious precedent, and I will therefore com- pare the causes of, and the law upon the two events. On the 7th of February, 1688, the Lords and Commons of England, in convention, completed the following resolu- tions : "Kesolved, That King James II., having endeavored to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by breaking the original contract between king and people ; and, by the ad- vice of Jesuits and other wicked persons, having violated the fundamental laws, and having withdrawn himself out of this kingdom ; has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant." That famous resolution deprived James of his crown, and became the foundation on which the throne of the present king of Great Britain is built ; it also supports the edifice of government which we have erected. In that resolve, there are but three facts stated to have been done by James. I will point them out, and examine whether those facts will apply to the present king of Great Britain, with regard to the operations of government, by him or his representative immediately, or by consequence, affecting this colony. The first fact is, the having endeavored to subvert the constitution of the kingdom, by weakening the original contract. The violation of the fundamental laws is the second fact ; and in support of these two charges, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, assembled at Westminister, on the 12th day of February, 1688, declared James was guilty: "By assuming and exercising a power of dispensing with, and suspending of laws, and the execution of laws,' without consent of Parliament; " By committing and prosecuting divers worthy prelates, for humbly petitioning to be excused from concurring to the said assumed power ; "By issuing and causing to be executed a commission, under the great seal, for erecting a court, called the Court of Commissioners for Ecclesiastical Causes ; " By levying money for, and to the use of the crown, by pretense of prerogative, for other time, and in other man- ner, than the same was granted by Parliament ; 190 HISTORICAL AND " By raising and keeping a standing army within this kingdom in time of peace, without consent of Parliament ; and quartering soldiers contrary to law; " By causing several good subjects, being Protestants, to be disarmed, at the same time when papists were both armed and employed, contrary to law ; "By violating the freedom of election of members to serve in Parliament ; " By prosecuting in the Court of King's Bench, for mat- ters and causes cognizable only in Parliament ; and by divers other arbitrary and illegal courses." This declaration, thus contains two points of criminal- ity breach of the original contract, and violation of funda- mental law. The catalogue of our oppressions, continental and local, is enormous. Of such oppressions, I will mention only some of the most weighty : Under color of law, the King and Parliament of Great Britain, have made the most arbitrary attempts to enslave America : By claiming a right TO BIND THE COLONIES IN ALL CASES WHATSOEVER ; By laying duties, at their mere will and pleasure, upon all the colonies ; By suspending the Legislature of New York ; By rendering the American charters of no validity, h'aving annulled the most material parts of the charter of Massa- chusetts Bay ; By divesting multitudes of the colonists of their property without legal accusation or trial ; By depriving whole colonies of the bounty of Providence on their own proper coasts, in order to coerce them by famine ; By restricting the trade and commerce of America ; By sending to, and continuing in America, in time of peace, an armed force, without and against the consent of the people ; By granting impunity to a soldiery instigated to murder the Americans; By declaring, that the people of Massachusetts Bay are liable for offences, or pretended offences, done in that colony, KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 191 to be sent to, and tried for the same in ENGLAND; or in any colony where they can not have the benefit of a jury of the vicinage. By establishing, in Quebec, the Roman Catholic religion, and an arbitrary government ; instead of the Protestant religion and a free government. And thus America saw it demonstrated, that no faith ought to be put in a royal proclamation ; for I must observe to you that, in the year 1763, by such a proclamation, people were invited to settle in Canada, and were assured of a legislative representation, the benefit of the common law of England, and a free government. It is a misfortune to the public, that this is not the only instance of the inefficiency of a royal proclamation. However, having given you one instance of a failure of royal faith in the northern extremity of this abused continent, let it suffice, that I direct your attention to southern extremity, respecting which, the same particulars, were, in the same manner promised, but the deceived inhab- itants of St. Augustine are left by their grand jury, in vain to complain and lament to the world, and yet scarcely per- mitted to exercise even that privilege distinguishing the miserable distinction that royal faith is not kept with them. Let us contrast the causes which led to the Kevolution which deposed James II, with those which led to the American Ee volution : In the first place then, it is laid down in the best law authorities, that protection and subjection are reciprocal ; and that these reciprocal duties form the original contract between king and people. It therefore follows, that the original contract was broken by James' conduct, as above stated, which amount- ed to a not affording due protection to his people. And it is clear that he violated the fundamental laws, by the suspend- ing of laws, and the execution of laws ; by levying money ; by violating the freedom of election of members to serve in parliament ; by keeping a standing army in time of peace ; and by quartering soldiers contrary to law, and without con- sent of parliament which is as much as to say, that he did those things without consent of the legislative Assembly chosen by the PERSONAL ELECTION of that people, over whom such doings were exercised. 192 HISTORICAL AND These points, reasonings and conclusions, being settled in, deduced from, and established upon parliamentary proceedings and the best law authorities, must ever remain unshaken. I am now to undertake the disagreeable task of examining whether they will apply to the violences which have lighted up, and now feed the flames of civil war in America. James II. suspended the operations of laws George III caused the charter of the Massachusetts-Bay to be, in effect, annihilated ; he suspended the operation of the law which formed a legislature in New York, vesting it with adequate powers ; and thereby he caused the very ability of making laws in that colony to be suspended. King James levied money without the consent of the representatives of the people, called upon to pay it King George has levied money upon America, not only without, but expressly against the consent of .the representatives of the people in America. King James violated the freedom of election of members to serve in parliament King George, by his representative, Lord William Campbell, acting for him and on his be- half, broke through a fundamental law of this country, for the certain holding of general assemblies ; and, thereby, as far as in him lay, not only violated, but annihilated the very ability of holding a general assembly. King James, in time of peace, kept a standing army in England, without consent of the representatives of the people, among whom that army was kept King George hath, in time of peace, invaded this continent with a large standing army, without the consent, and he hath kept it within this continent expressly against the consent of the representatives of the people, among whom that army is posted. All which doings by King George III., respecting America, are as much contrary to our interests and welfare, as much against law, and tend as much, at least, to subvert and extirpate the liberties of this colony, and of America, as the similar proceedings, by James II., operated respect- ing the people of England. For the same principle of law, touching the premises, equally applies to the people of England in the one case, and to the people of America in the other. And this is the great principle. Certain acts KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 193 done, over, and affecting a people, against and without THEIR CONSENT, expressed by themselves, or by REPRESENTATIVES of their "OWN ELECTION. Upon this only principle was grounded the complaints of the people of England upon the same is grounded the complaints of the people of America. And hence it clearly follows, that if James II. violated the funda- mental laws of England, George III. hath also violated the fundamental laws of America. Again : King James broke the original contract by not affording clue protection to his subjects, although he was not charged with having seized their towns, or with having held them against the people or, with having laid them in ruins, by his arms or, with having seized their vessels or, with having pursued the people with fire and sword or, with having declared them rebels for resisting his arms, levelled to destroy their lives, liberties, and properties. But George III. hath done all these things against America ; and, it is, therefore, undeniable that he hath not afforded due pro- tection to the people. Wherefore, if James II. broke the original contract, it is undeniable that George III. has also broken the original contract between king and people ; and that he made use of the most violent measures by which it could be done violences of which James tvas GUILTLESS measures carrying conflagrations, massacre and open war amidst a people whose subjection to the king of Great Britain the law holds to be due only as a return for protection. And so tenacious and clear is the law upon this very principle, that it is laid down, subjection is not due even to a king, de jure, or of right, unless he be also king de facto, or in possession of the executive powers dispensing protection. Again, the third fact charged against James is, that he withdrew himself out of the kingdom and we know that the people of this country have declared, that Lord William Campbell, the king of Great Britain's representative, " hav- ing used his utmost efforts to destroy the lives, liberties, and property of the good people here, whom by the duty of his station he was bound to protect, withdrew himself out of the colony." Hence it will appear, that George III. hath withdrawn himself out of this colony, provided it be established that exactly the same natural consequence resulted from the withdrawal in each case respectivelv-^rKm.g Jan^es 17 194 HISTORICAL AND personally out of England, and King George out of Carolina, by the agency of his substitute and representative, Lord William Campbell. By King James' withdrawing, the executive magistrate was gone ; thereby, in the eye of the law, the executive magis- trate was dead, and of consequence, royal government actu- ally ceased in England: so by King George's representative withdrawing, the executive magistrate was gone ; the death, in law, became apparent, and of consequence royal govern- ment actually ceased in this colony. Lord William withdrew as the king's representative, carrying off the great seal and royal instructions to governors ; and acting for, and on the part of his principal, by every construction of law, that con- duct became the conduct of his principal ; and thus, James 11. withdrew out of England, and George III. withdrew out of South Carolina ; and by such a conduct, respectively, the people in each country were exactly in the same degree injured. The three facts against King James being thus stated, and compared with similar proceedings by King George, we are now to ascertain the result of the injuries done by the first, and the law upon that point which being ascertained, must naturally constitute the judgement in law, upon the result of the similar injuries done by the last; and I am happy that I can give you the best authority upon this important point. Treating upon this great precedent in constitutional law, the learned Judge Blackstone declares, that the result of the facts " amounted to an abdication of the government, which abdication did not affect only the person of the king himself, but also, all his heirs; and rendered the throne absolutely and completely vacant." Thus it clearly appears that the government was not abdicated, and the throne vacated by the resolution of the Lords and Commons, but that the resolu- tion was only declaratory of the law of Nature and reason, upon the result of the injuries proceeding from the three combined facts of mal-administration. And thus, as I have on the foot of the best authorities made it evident, that George III., king of Great Britain, has endeavored to subvert the constitution of this country, by breaking the original contract between king and country ; by the advice of wicked persons, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 195 has violated the fundamental laws, and has withdrawn him- self, by withdrawing the constitutional benefits of the kingly office, and his protection out of this country ; from such a result of injuries, from such a conjunction of circumstances, the law of the land authorizes me to declare, and it is my duty boldly to declare the law, that George III., king of Great Britain, has abdicated the government, and that the throne is thereby vacant that is, he has no authority over us, and we owe no obedience to him. The British ministers already have presented a charge of mine to the notice of the Lords and Commons, in Parliament ; and I am nothing loth that they take equal resentment against this charge. For, sup- ported by the fundamental laws of the constitution, and engaged as I am in the cause of virtue, I fear no consequences from their machinations. Thus having stated the principal causes of our last revo- lution, it is clear as the sun in meridian, that George III. injured the Americans, at least as grievously as James II. injured the people of England; but that James did not oppress these in so criminal a manner as George has oppressed the Americans. CHAPTER XVI. Townshend's scheme of Colonial Taxation Repeal of the new taxes, except that on Tea Local Affairs Trade of the Colonies Att mpt to collect the Tax on Tea Reminiscences of the Position of the Tea Ships at Boston Destruction of the Tea in Boston Harbor. In spite of the Parliamentary claim, of power o bind the colonies in all cases whatsoever, the repeal of the >tamp Act produced throughout America a great hurst of loyalty and gratitude. Virginia voted a statue to the king. New York voted statues to the king and to Pitt, both of which were presently erected. Maryland voted a statue to Pitt, and a portrait of Lord Camden. Faneuil Hall was adorned with full-length pictures of Barre and Conway. Pitt became more than ever a popular idol. Resolutions of thanks to him and others were agreed to by most of the colonial Assemblies. A resolution of the House of Commons had demanded indemnity from the colonies for such crown officers as had suffered losses in the late Stamp Act riots. New York promptly complied. After much urging by the governor, Massachusetts passed a similar act ; but a free pardon to the rioters, inserted in it, betrayed the state of public feeling, and gave great offense in England. As the first burst of exultation died away, new discontents began to spring up. The Stamp Act was repealed, but the " Sugar Act" remained in force, and, though modified by a still further reduction of the duties on molasses, to one penny per gallon, it continued to give great dissatisfaction, especially in the northern colonies. Another modification of that act prohibited all direct trade with France. But iron and lumber, lately placed in the list of " enumerated articles," were allowed to be exported to European ports south of Cape Finisterre. 196 KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 197 The opponents of the Stamp Act, or some of them, especially Pitt, had taken a distinction between a direct tax levied on the colonies, and commercial imposts which might be supposed to fall under the admitted parliamentary right of regulating trade. Of this distinction Townshend took advantage in framing his new project but in one respect his bill violated the established policy of the mother country. The royal negative had been repeatedly placed on colonial acts levying imposts on British goods. But this bill, along with tea, included paints, paper, glass, and lead articles of British produce as objects of custom-house taxation in the cJ-jnies. The exportation of tea to America was encouraged by another act, allowing for five years a drawback of the whole duty payable on the importation. The impossibility of enforcing the Stamp Act, not any sense of right or justice, had produced its repeal. This new act of Townshend's, the immediate cause of all the subse- quent troubles, was supposed to be of easier execution, and passed with very little opposition. By another act, reorgan- izing the colonial custom-house system, a Board of Revenue Commissioners for America was established, to have its seat at Boston. (June, 1767.) The Massachusetts House of Representatives consisted at this time of upward of a hundred members, by far the most numerous Assembly in America. Its debates had begun to attract attention, and a gallery had lately been erected for the accommodation of spectators. The council, purged by dropping Hutchinson and several other officials, was now chiefly influenced by James Bowdoin. His grandfather, a French Huguenot, had migrated to New England shortly after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. His father, from very small beginnings, had acquired the largest fortune in Boston, all of which, being an only child, Bowdoin had inher- ited at the age of twenty-one. In the prime of life, of ele- vated character and a studious turn of mind, for several years past a member of the council, he acted in close concert with Adams, to whose impetuous ardor and restless activity his less excitable but not less firm temper served as a useful counterpoise. (1768.) Meanwhile the merchants had been greatly irritated by new strictness in the collection of duties, and by suits even 17* 198 HISTORICAL AND for past breaches of the revenue laws. Shortly after the meeting of the new General Court, the seizure of the sloop Liberty, belonging to Hancock, on the charge of having smuggled on shore a cargo of wine from Madeira, occasioned a great riot. The newly-appointed revenue commissioners fled for their lives, first on board a ship-of-war in the harbor, and then to the barracks on Castle Island, where a company of British artillery was stationed. A town meeting, held in Faneuil Hall, petitioned the governor to remove the ship-of- war from the harbor. The council passed resolutions strongly condemning the rioters, but would not advise that the com- missioners might safely return to the town, nor could the governor induce them to take any decided step of any sort. The House took no notice at all of the matter. An attempt to prosecute those engaged in the riot failed for want of wit- nesses, and even the proceedings against the vessel had to be given up for the same cause. Before news had reached England, of the late riot in Boston, two regiments from Halifax had been ordered thither. When news of that riot arrived, two additional regiments were ordered from Ireland. The arrival of an officer, sent by Gage from New York, to provide quarters for these troops, occasioned a town meeting in Boston, by which the governor was requested to summon a new General Court, which he peremptorily refused to do. The meeting then recommended a convention of delegates from all the towns in the province, to assemble at Boston in ten days; "in consequence of pre- vailing apprehensions of a war with France " such was the pretense they advised all persons not already provided with fire-arms to procure them at once ; they also appointed a day of fasting and prayer, to be observed by all the Congrega- tional societies. Delegates from more than a hundred towns met accordingly at the day appointed, chose Gushing, speaker of the late House, as their chairman, and petitioned Bernard to summon a General Court. The governor not only refused to receive their petition, but denounced the meeting as trea- sonable. In view of this charge, the proceedings were exceed- ingly cautious and moderate. All pretensions to political authority were expressly disclaimed. In the course of a four days' session, a petition to the king was agreed to, and a letter to the agent, De Berdt, of which the chief burden was EEVOLUTIOXARY INCIDENTS. 199 to defend the province against the charge of a rebellious spirit. Such was the first of those popular conventions, des- tined within a few years to assume the whole political author- ity of the colonies. The day after the adjournment, the troops from Halifax arrived. There was room in the barracks at the castle, but Gage, alarmed at the accounts from Massachusetts, had sent orders from New York to have the two regiments quartered in the town. The council were called upon to find quarters, but by the very terms of the Quartering Act, as they alleged, till the barracks were full there was no necessity to provide quarters elsewhere. Barnard insisted that the barracks had been reserved for the two regiments expected from Ireland, and must, therefore, be considered as already full. The council replied, that, even allowing that to be the case, by the terms of the act, the provision of quarters belonged not to them, but to the local magistrates. There was a large building in Boston belonging to the province, known as the " Manufactory House/ 7 and occupied by a number of poor families. Barnard presses tne council to advise that this building be cleared, ami prepared for the reception of the troops ; but they utter 1 y refused. The governor then under- took to do it on his cwn authority. The troops had already landed, under ccvev of the ships of war, to the number of a thousand men. Some of them appeared, to demand an entrance into the Manufactory House ; but the tenants were encouraged to keep possession ; nor did the governor venture to use force. One of the regiments encamped on the Com- mon ; for a part of the other regiment, which had no tents, the temporary use of Faneuil Hall was reluctantly yielded ; to the rest of it, the Town House, used also as a State House, all except the council chamber, was thrown open by the governor's order. It was Sunday. The Town House was directly opposite the meeting-house of the First Church. Can- non were planted in front of it ; sentinels were stationed in the streets ; the inhabitants were challenged as they passed. The devout were greatly aggravated and annoyed by the beating of drums, and the marching of the troops. Presently Gage came to Boston to urge the provision of quarters. The council directed his attention to the terms of the act, and referred him to the selectmen. As the act 200 HlSTOKICAL AND spoke only of justices of the peace, the selectmen declined to take any steps in the matter. Bernard then constituted what he called a Board of Justices, and required them to find quarters ; but they did not choose to exercise a doubtful and unpopular authority. Gage was finally obliged to quarter the troops in houses which he hired for that purpose, and to procure out of his own military chest the firing, bedding, and other articles mentioned in the Quartering Act, the council having declined to order any expenditure for those purposes, on the ground that the appropriation of money belonged exclusively to the General Court. The seventeen months during which the British troops had been stationed in Boston, even the agreement of the commanding officer to use only a single drum and fife on Sundays, had by no means reconciled the townspeople to their presence. A weekly paper, the "Journal of the Times," was filled with all sorts of stories, some true, but the greater part false or exaggerated, on purpose to keep up prejudice against the soldiers. A mob of men and boys, encouraged by the sympathy of the mass of the inhabitants, made it a constant practice to insult and provoke them. The result to be expected soon followed. After numerous fights with straggling soldiers, a serious collision at length took place. A picket guard of eight men, provoked beyond en- durance by words and blows, fired into a crowd, killed three persons, and dangerously wounded five others. The bells were rung; a cry spread through the town "the soldiers are rising." It was late at night ; but the population poured into the streets ; nor was it without difficulty that a general combat was prevented. The next morning, at an early hour, Faneuil Hall was filled with an excited and indignant assem- bly. At a town meeting, legally warned, held that afternoon in the old South Meeting-house, the largest building in the town, it was voted "that nothing could be expected to restore peace, and prevent blood and carnage, but the immediate removal of the troops." A committee was appointed, with Samuel Adams as chairman, to carry this vote to the lieu- tenant governor and council. Adams entered the council chamber at the head of his committee, and delivered his message. Colonel Dairy mple, the commander of the troops, was present, as was the commander of the ships of war in ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 201 the harbor. Hutchinson disclaimed any authority over the soldiers. Adams answered by a reference to that clause in the charter which declared the governor, or, in his absence, the lieutenant governor, commander-in-chief of all the mili- tary and naval forces in the province. After a consultation with Dalrymple, Hutchinson replied that the colonel was willing to remove one of the regiments to the castle, if that would satisfy the people. "Sir," said Adams, "if the lieu- tenant governor, or Colonel Dalrymple, or both together, have authority to remove one regiment, they have authority to remove, two ; and nothing short of the departure of both regiments will satisfy the public mind, or preserve the peace of the province." The town meeting, after the return of their committee, voted the lieutenant governor's offer unsat- isfactory. Hutchinson and Dalrymple seem to have been mutually anxious to shift upon each other the responsibility of yielding to the popular demand. Finally, upon the unan- imous advice of the council, it was agreed that all the troops should be removed, the colonel pledging his honor that mean while not a single soldier should b3 seen in the streets after dark. The funeral of the slain, attended by a vast concourse of people, was celebrated with all possible pomp. The story of the "Boston Massacre," for so it was called, exaggerated into a ferocious and unprovoked assault by brutal soldiers on a defenseless people, produced every where intense excite- ment. The officer and soldiers of the picket guard were indicted and tried for murder. They were defended, how- ever, by John Adams and Josiah Q.uincy, two young lawyers, among the most zealous of the popular leaders ; and so clear a case was made out irf> their behalf, that they were all ac- quitted except two, who were found guilty of manslaughter, and slightly punished. The British cabinet, after great struggles, had been quite sifted of its Whig members. The "king's friends" section of it had expelled all their opponents, and Francis North, eldest son of the Earl of Guilford, by courtesy Lord North, as the leader of that section, had risen to the head of the ministry. As it happened, on the very day of the Boston massacre Lord North brought forward the promised motion to repeal the whole of Townshend's act except the duty on tea. That act, he observed, had been the occasion of most 202 HISTORICAL AND dangerous, violent, and illegal combinations in America against the importation and use of British manufactures. The British merchants had petitioned against it. As to arti- cles of British produce, ever to have taxed them was indeed an absurd violation of established policy. The tax on tea tood on a different ground. When that tax was imposed, a Irawback had been allowed on the exportation of tea to America ; and as the colonists were thus relieved of a duty amounting, on an average, to a shilling a pound, they had no right to complain of a tax of threepence, since they gained, in fact, ninepence the pound by the change. He could have wished to repeal the whole act, could that have been done without giving up the right of taxing the colo- nies a right he would contend for to the last hour of his life. The proposed repeal, without any relaxation of author- ity, was intended as a persuasive to bring the colonists back to their duty. The existing combinations in the colonies, against the use of British manufactures, he thought, would soon come to an end. Pownall moved to include tea in the repeal, supporting this amendment rather on grounds of expediency and com- mercial policy than as a matter of colonial right. He was seconded by Conway and Barre. Grenville declared that when he laid the stamp tax, he had the best information that it would be submitted to, In laying that tax he had acted systematically, to make every portion of the king's dominions bear a part of the public burdens. When that act raised troubles in America, the ministers who succeeded him acted systematically too. Theirs, perhaps, was the next best system to his own. They todk the Americans by the hand, and restored things to the state they were in before the passing of the Stamp Act. In this statement, however, Grenville overlooked the Sugar Act, which the Eockingham ministry had left in full force ; but that he probably regarded as a mere modification of the old Molasses Act, though essen- tially different from it in principle, involving the claim of parliamentary taxation hardly less than the Stamp Act itself. "Since that time," said Grenville, "no minister had acted with common sense. The next ministry laid a tax diametri- cally repugnant to commercial principles, bringing in no money, and throwing North America into ten times greater KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 203 flame than before." He was in favor of easing the Ameri- cans ; but the ministers had no plan. The partial repeal which they proposed would do no good; and the proposed amendment was so very little better, that he did not think it worth while to force it upon a reluctant ministry. He, therefore, should not vote upon the question. The amend- ment was defeated, two hundred and four to one hundred and forty-two; and, on a subsequent day, Lord 'North's bill of repeal became law. The obnoxious Quartering Act, lim- ited by its terms to three years, was suffered silently to expire. But the Sugar Act, and especially the tax on tea, as they involved the whole principle of parliamentary taxa- tion, were quite sufficient to keep up the discontent of the colonies. Lord North's act, in one respect, accomplished its object, in furnishing an excuse for abandoning the non-importation and non-consumption agreements, which soon became limited to the article of tea. Those agreements, though only par- tially observed, and that not without great jealousies and heart-burnings, were not, however, without permanent con- sequences. The discontinuance of that pomp of mourning and funeral expenses, for excess in which the colonists had been hitherto distinguished, takes its date from this occasion. The infant manufactures of America received, too, from these agreements, a strong impulse. Home-made became all the fashion. The graduating class at Cambridge took their degrees this year in homespun suits. The trade between Great Britain and the colonies is stated for the year 1770, as follows, and the average of the last ten years, allowing for a moderate increase, had not been materially different : Exports to Great Britain. New England 148,011 $657,108 New York 69,882 310,276 Pennsylvania 28,109 124,803 Virginia and iMaryland 435,094 1,931,801 Carolinas 278,097 1,234,750 Georgia 55,532 234,352 1,014,725 $4,493,150 20-i HISTORICAL AND Imports from Great Britain. New England 394,451 $1,751,362 New York 475,991 2,113,400 Pennsylvania 134,881 599,093 Virginia and Maryland 717,782 3,186,952 Carolinas 146,272 649,446 Georgia 56, 193 249,496 1,925,570 $8,549,749 The surplus of imports was paid for by the profits of the trade with Spain, Portugal, and the West Indies. The taxation- dispute, after a ten years' growth, was now fast coming to a head. The . ministers saw with no little vexation, that the tax on tea, retained for the express pur- pose of vindicating the authority of Parliament, was sub- stantially nullified, partly by smuggling, and partly by the non-importation and non-consumption agreements, observed as yet with considerable fidelity, especially in the middle and southern colonies. Perhaps it would have been the more politic course, to have given time for these combinations to die away, leaving the gradual introduction of the use of duty-paid tea to the vigilance of the customhouse officers, to appetite, and commercial cupidity and rivalry. Instead of adopting that temporizing policy, the impatient ministers resolved to force at once upon the reluctant colonies a large quantity of the obnoxious article ; well satisfied that, if landed and offered for sale, it would easily find its way into consumption. (1773.) By an act of the preceding session, the allowance of draw- back on teas exported, had been reduced to three-fifths of the duty. So far as America was concerned, a drawback of the whole duty was now revived. The existing restraints upon the East India Company, to export teas on their own account, were also repealed, and arrangements were present- ly entered into with that Company, for the consignment of several cargoes of teas to the principal American ports. No sooner did this project become known in America, than steps were taken to counterwork it. A public meeting of the people of Philadelphia protested, in eight resolutions, against taxation by Parliament ; and denounced as an KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 205 enemy to his country," " whosoever shall aid or abet in unload- in^, receiving, or vending the tea." In accordance with one O 7 O " O of the resolutions, a committee was appointed to wait on the reputed consignees in that city, " to request them, from a regard to their own characters, and the public peace and good order of the city and province, immediately to resign their apppointments." The Messrs. Wharton gave a satis- factory answer, which was received with shouts of applause. Groans and hisses greeted the refusal of another firm to commit themselves till the tea arrived. The names of three well-known firms in Boston, presently began to be noised about as the intended consignees of the East India Company's tea. An anonymous notice was sent to these reputed consignees to be present at noon on a cer- tain day, under Liberty Tree, to resign their appointments, for which day and hour an anonymous hand-bill called a pub- lic meeting to hear their resignations. Several hundred persons assembled accordingly ; the consignees not appearing, a committee was sent to wait upon them ; but this committee they treated with contempt. Two days after, by a call of the selectmen, a legal town meeting was held, at which Hancock presided. After a pre- amble of their own, this meeting adopted the eight Phila- delphia resolutions, with a supplement, acknowledging some remissness hitherto, in the matter of the agreement' not to import or consume tea, but insisting for the future upon strict observance. A committee, appointed in the terms of one of the resolutions, waited upon the consignees to request them to resign. After some little delay and evasion, they replied that, being as yet without any definite advices from England, they could give no decisive answer a reply, voted by the meeting, " unsatisfactory" and " daringly affront! ve." News presently arriving that the tea ships had sailed, and might be daily expected, another town meeting was summoned for the next day, to consult " what further appli cation shall be made to the consignees, or otherwise to act as the town shall think fit at the present dangerous crisis." In the evening, the house of Clarke, one of the consignees, was surrounded by a crowd, making many offensive noises, and a pistol having been fired at them, they retorted by smashing in the windows. IP 206 HlSTOKICAL AND The town meeting, the next day, sent a committee to the the consignees, to inquire definitely, whether or not they in- tended to resign. Upon receipt of an answer in the nega- tive, the meeting dissolved without a word. This evidence of a determination to act instead of resolving, struck terror into the consignees. They presented a petition the next day, to the governor and council, asking to resign themselves and the property committed to their care, into the hands " of his excellency and their honors," and praying them to take measures for landing and securing the teas. The council, led by Bowdoin, were very little inclined to interfere. They deprecated the late riot at Clarke's house, at least in words, and advised that the rioters be prosecuted ; but they asked further time to consider the petition. Several adjourn- ments accordingly took place, and before any decision was reached, one of the tea ships arrived. The council having met next day, presented a paper to the governor, declining to become parties to an unconstitutional attempt to levy taxes, against which the General Court had so repeatedly protested, or to make themselves chargeable for the tea, by interfering to receive it. Meetings in all the neighboring towns had resolved to sustain Boston ; and while the council was thus declining to intermeddle with the matter, a mass meeting, or " body/ 7 as they called themselves, of the people of Boston and the neighboring towns, assembled in Faneuil Hall, sent for the owner of the tea ship, ordered her to be moored at a certain wharf, and appointed a watch of twenty- five volunteers to watch her. It was resolved to send her back with her cargo, and the master and the owner were charged not to attempt, at their peril, to unlade her. The consignees, among whom were two of the governor's sons, frightened at these demonstrations, took refuge at the castle, where was a regiment of British regulars. The " body " having met again the next day, the governor sent the sheriff of the county with a proclamation, declaring the meeting ille- gal, and ordering the people to disperse. They heard the message, hissed it, and voted unanimously not to regard it. The governor was powerless. He had ordered the Cadets, his guard of honor, to be in readiness ; but what could he expect of a company commanded by Hancock ? The troops at the castle, and the ships of war in the harbor, had no KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 207 warrant to interfere in a purely municipal matter ; nor was there any ground for the governor to call upon them, till something in the nature of riot, if not rebellion, had actually occurred. The consignees offered, if the tea might be landed, to keep it in store till orders came from England ; but this was rejected, and the master and the owner of the vessel, were both constrained to promise to carry it back. The owners of two other vessels on the way, were required to make a similar promise. Tea was denounced as a "perni- cious weed," and all persons who might henceforward be concerned in its importation, were declared enemies of their country. After a resolution to carry the matter through, at the risk of their lives and property, the "body" dissolved, leaving matters in the hands of a committee. The owner of the vessel was very little disposed to carry out the agreement extorted from him. The governor was resolved that no clearance should be granted till the cargo was landed. At the end of thirty days from her arrival, the vessel would be liable to seizure, for non-payment of duties. Two other tea ships presently arrived, and were placed in custody like the other. Provoked and alarmed at the non- departure of the first vessel, the "body" re-assembled. The owner was sent for, and a committee was appointed to go with him to demand a clearance, which the collector, after taking time to consider, refused to give till the cargo was landed. The owner was then sent anew to the governor, at his country-house at Milton, to request a permit, without which the vessel could not pass the fort and the ships-of-war in the harbor. He returned late in the afternoon, and an- nounced the governor's refusal ; he had no power, he said, to grant the permit till a clearance was first exhibited. This had been anticipated and prepared for. A band of some fifty men, "very dark-complexioned persons, dressed like Mohawks, of very grotesque appearance," so says the Massachusetts Gazette of that day, " approached the hall with an imitation of the war-whoop, and, while Josiah Quin- cy harangued the people on the necessity of adhering to their resolutions, whatever might be the consequences, the pretended Mohawks proceeded to the wharf, and boarded the tea vessels. It was now six oclock ; the evening dusk had set in; the 'body' was dissolved, and the people, hastening 208 HlSTOKICAL AND to the wharf, looked on in silent anxiety, while in the course of two hours, three hundred and forty-two chests of tea were drawn up from the holds of the vessels and emptied into the water." There have been some doubts concerning the destruc- tion of the tea, on the 16th of December, 1773. The number of the ships, and the place where they were situated, is not quite certain. One gentleman, now living, over seventy years of age, thinks they were at Hubbard's Wharf, as it was then called, about half way between Griffin's (now Liverpool) and Foster's Wharf, and that the number of ships were four or five. Another gentleman, who is seventy-five years of age, and who was one of the guard detached from the new grena- dier company, says that he spent the night, but one, before the destruction of the tea, in company with General Knox, then a private in that company, on board one of the tea ships ; that this ship lay on the south side of Eussell's Wharf ; and and that there were two more on the north side of the same wharf, and he thinks one or two at Griffin's Wharf. A gen- tleman now living, who came from England in one of the tea ships, thinks there were but two, but is uncertain where they lay. A song, written soon after the time, tells of " Three ill-fated ships at Griffin's wharf." The whole evidence seems to result in this : there were three ships but whether at Kussell's or Griffin's wharf, or one or more at each, is not certain. The number of chests destroyed was, according to the newspapers of the times, 342. There was a "body-meeting" on the 16th of December, 1773. This matter of the tea was the occasion of the meeting. The meeting began at Fanueil Hall, but that place not being large enough, it was adjourned to the Old South, and even that place could not contain all who came. Jonathan Williams was moderator. Among the spectators was John Eowe, who lived in Pond street, where Mr. Pres- cott now lives ; among other things, he said : " Who knows how tea will mingle with salt water?" and this suggestion was received with great applause. Governor Hutchinson was at this time at the house on Milton Hill, where Barney Smith, Esq., lives. A committee was sent from the meeting to request him to order the ships to depart. While they were gone, speeches were made, for the purpose of keeping the EEVOLUTIOXARY INCIDENTS. 209 people together. The committee returned ahout sunset, with his answer, that he could not interfere. At this moment the Indian yell was heard from the street. Mr. Samuel Adams cried out that it was a trick of their enemies to disturb the meeting, and requested the people to keep their places hut the people rushed out, and accompanied the Indians to the ships. The number of persons disguised as Indians is va- riously stated none put it lower than sixty, none higher than eighty. It is said by persons who were present, that nothing was destroyed but the tea and this was not done with noise and tumult, little or nothing being said either by the agents or the multitude who looked on. The impression was that of solemnity rather than that of riot and confusion. The destruction was effected by the disguised persons, and some young men who volunteered ; one of the latter collected the tea which fell into the shoes of himself and companions, and put it into a vial and sealed it up which vial is now in his possession, containing the same tea. The contrivers of this measure, and those who carried it into effect, will never be known ; some few persons have been mentioned as being among the disguised, but there are many and obvious reasons why secresy then, and concealment since, were necessary. None of the persons who were confidently said to have been of the party (except some who were then mi- nors or very young men) have ever admitted that they were so. The person who appeared to know more than any one I ever spoke with, refused to mention names. Mr. Samuel Adams is thought to have been in the counseling of this exploit, and many other men, who were leaders in the political affairs of the times ; and the hall of council is said to have been in the back-room of Edes & Gill's printing-office, at the corner of the alley leading to Battle street church, from Court street. There are very few a^ive now who helped to empty the chests of tea, and these few will probably be as prudent as those who have gone before them. At length, after great delays, the New York tea ship arrived at Sandy Hook. The pilots, under instructions from the city committee, refused to bring her up, and a " Com- mittee of Vigilance" soon took possession of her. Brought to town, the captain was informed by a deputation from the city committee that he must take back ship and cargo. He 18* 210 HISTORICAL AND desired to see the consignee, and was escorted to him ; but the consignee declined to give any orders. Meanwhile, another ship, commanded by a New York Captain, arrived at the Hook, and, on assurance that she had no tea on board, was allowed to come to town. Bat a report to the contrary soon spread, and the captain was obliged to acknowledge that he had eighteen chests, not belonging to the East India Com- pany, but a private adventure. The indignant populace seized the tea and emptied it into the river. A day or two after, with great parade, headed by a band playing, " God save the King/' the bells ringing, and colors flying from the liberty pole and the shipping, the captain of the East India tea ship was escorted from the custom-house to a pilot boat, which took him to the Hook, where, under directions of the Committee of Vigilance, the anchors were weighed, and the vessel started on her homeward voyage. The Charleston tea ship reached that city the same day that the New York tea ship reached the Hook. The teas were landed, but were stored in damp cellars, where they soon became worthless. We give here a very rare copy of the resolutions entered upon, at a great meeting of the citi- zens of Philadelphia, commending the course of the Boston tea rioters. A. public meeting of the inhabitants was held at the State House, on the 18th of October, at which great numbers attended, and the sense of the city was expressed in the fol- lowing resolutions : 1. That the disposal of their own property is the inherent right of freemen; that there can be no property in that which another can, of right, take from us without our con- sent ; that the claim of Parliament to tax America, is, in other words, a claim of right to levy contributions on us at pleasure. 2. That the duty imposed by Parliament upon tea landed in America, is a tax on the Americans, or levying contribu- tions on them without their consent. 3. That the express purpose for which the tax is levied on the Americans, namely, for the support of government, admin- istration of justice, and defense of his Majesty's dominions in America, has a direct tendency to render Assemblies useless, and to introduce arbitrary government and slavery. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 211 4. That a virtuous and steady opposition to this ministe- rial plan of governing America, is absolutely necessary to preserve even the shadow of liberty, and it is a duty which every freeman in America owes to his country, to himself, and posterity. 5. That the resolution lately entered into by the East India Company, to send out their tea to America, subject to the payment of duties on its being landed here, is an open attempt to enforce the ministerial plan, and a violent attack upon the liberties of America. 6. That it is the duty of every American to oppose this attempt. 7. That whoever shall directly or indirectly countenance this attempt, or in anywise aid or abet in unloading, receiv- ing, or vending the tea sent, or to be sent out by the East India Company, while it remains subject to the payment of a duty here, is an enemy to his country. 8. That a committee be immediately chosen to wait on those gentlemen who, it is reported, are appointed by the East India Company, to receive and sell the said tea, and request them, from a regard to their own character, and the peace and good order of the city and province, immediately to resign their appointment. Upon an hour's notice, on Monday morning, a public meet- ing was called, and the State House not being sufficient to hold the numbers assembled, they adjourned into the Square. This meeting is allowed by all to be the most respectable, both in the numbers and rank of those who attended it, that has been known in this city. After a short introduction, the following resolutions were not only agreed to, but the public approbation testified in the warmest manner. 1. That the tea, on board the ship Polly, Captain Ayres, shall not be landed. 2. That Captain Ayres shall neither enter nor report his vessel at the custom-house. 3. That Captain Ayres shall carry back the tea immediately. 4. That Captain Ayres shall immediately send a pilot on board his vessel, to take charge of her, and proceed to Eeedy Island, next high water. 5. That the captain shall be allowed to stay in town till to-morrow, to provide necessaries for his voyage. 212 IllSTOKICAL AND 6. That he shall then be obliged to leave the town and proceed to his vessel, and make the best of his way out of our river and bay. 7. That a committee of four gentlemen be appointed to see these resolves carried into execution. The Assembly was then informed of the spirit and resolu- tion of New York, and Charleston, S. C., and the conduct of the people of Boston, whereupon it was unanimously resolved That this assembly highly approve the conduct and spirit of the people of New York, Charleston, and Boston, and return their hearty thanks to the people of Boston for their resolution in destroying the tea, rather than suffering it to be landed. CHAPTER XVII. The troubles thicken Gage re-inforced Assembly of the first Continental Congress at Philadelphia. The unscrupulous and brutal Gage had now resumed com- mand of the British forces, as well as entered upon his ap- pointment as governor of Massachusetts. Boston Neck had been fortified by him, and seven regiments been added to his command. The " non-importation and consumption bill," re- commended by the General Court, had been agreed to by many of the colonies, and the general aspect of affairs be- came threatening for the young Sam. The Congress, which had now assembled, by agreement, to consider the affairs of the country, commenced their session at Philadelphia, in defiance of the strenuous opposition of Gage. This Congress consisted of fifty-three delegates, the Leading men of twelve provinces, Georgia, alone, of the originally British colonies, being unrepresented. Beside others of less note, there were present in this assembly the two Adamses, of Massachusetts ; Sherman and Deane, of Connecticut ; Philip Livingston, Jay, and Duane, of New York ; William Livingston, of New Jersey ; Galloway, of Pennsylvania; Eodney, Road, and M'Kean, of Delaware; Chase, of Maryland ; Randolph, Richard Henry Lee, Wash- ington, and Henry, of Virginia; the two Rutledges, and Gadsden, of South Carolina. The post of honor was freely conceded to Virginia, by the choice of the now aged Peyton Randolph as president. Charles Thompson, late master of the Quaker academy at Philadelphia, was chosen secretary. Samuel Adams, himself a stiff Congregationalist, moved the appointment of an Episcopal chaplain, and Jacob Duche% a 213 214 HISTORICAL AND popular preacher of Philadelphia, was accordingly appointed. As no means were at hand to estimate the relative import- ance of the colonies, it was agreed that each province should have a single vote. All proceedings were to he with closed doors, and nothing was to be published except by order. A committee of two from each province reported, in the form of a series of resolves, accepted and adopted by the Congress, a " Declaration of Colonial Eights." The enjoy- ment of life, liberty, and property were claimed in this Declaration as natural rights. The privilege of being bound by no law, to which they had not consented by their repres- entatives, was claimed for the colonists in their character of British subjects. The sole and exclusive power of legislation for the colonies was declared to reside in their respective Assemblies, reserving to Parliament the enactment of such laws only as might be essential to the bona fide regulation of trade, but excluding all taxation, internal or external. The common law of England was claimed as the birthright of the colonists, including the right of trial by a jury of the vicinage, the right of public meetings, and of petition. A protest was made against standing armies maintained in the colonies without their consent ; and a similar protest against . legislation by councils dependent on the crown this last in allusion to the Quebec Act. All immunities hitherto enjoyed in the colonies, whether by charter or custom, were claimed as established rights, beyond the power of the mother country to abrogate. Eleven acts of Parliament, passed since the accession of George III. the Sugar Act, the Stamp Act, the two Quartering Acts, the Tea Act, the Act Suspending the New York Legislature, the two Acts for the Trial in Great Britain for offenses committed in America, the Boston Port Bill, the Act for Eegulating the Government of Massachu- setts, and the Quebec Act were enumerated, in conclusion, as having been passed in derogation of the rights of the colonies. (1774.) As means for enforcing this claim of rights, fourteen articles were agreed to, as the basis of an " American Asso- ciation," pledging the associators to an entire commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain, Ireland, and the West Indies, and the non-consumption of tea and .British goods : this non-intercourse to be extended to such provinces of North BEVOLUTTONARY INCIDENTS. 215 America as should decline to come into the Association, and to last till the obnoxious acts of Parliament were repealed. The non-importation clauses were to commence in December, hut the non-exportation clauses were postponed for nine months longer. The slave trade was specially denounced, and en- tire abstinence from it, and from any trade with those con- cerned with it, formed a part of the Association. The associators were also pledged to encourage the breeding of sheep, and the disuse of mourning. Traders were not to be allowed to enhance the price of goods in consequence of this agreement. Committees were to be appointed in every county, city, and town, to detect and to publish the names of all violators of it; and all dealings with such " enemies of American liberty " were to be immediately broken off. Patrick Henry, who had electrified the Congress by his eloquence, was selected by the committee, to which that business was intrusted, to draft the petition to the king. But this draft, when received, did not give satisfaction. Dickinson, lately added to the Pennsylvania delegation, was added also to the committee, and a new draft was prepared by him, which the Congress approved. While the Continental Congress was still in session, mat- ters in Massachusetts were fast verging to a crisis. Gage had summoned a House of Representatives to meet him at Salem, to proceed to business under the late act of Parlia- ment ; but the spirit evinced in the resolutions of the town meetings and county conventions induced him to issue a proclamation countermanding the Assembly. It was denied, however, that the Governor could prorogue the Court till it had first met; and, notwithstanding the countermand, most of the members elect assembled at Salem on the day appoint- ed. As nobody appeared to open the session and administer the oaths, they adopted the advice already given by the Essex county Convention, resolved themselves into a Provincial Con- gress, adjourned to Concord, and there organized by choosing John Hancock as president, and for secretary Benjamin Lin- coln, a farmer of Hingham, afterward a major-general in the revolutionary army. A large committee, appointed to consider the state of the province, reported an address to Gage, which the Congress adopted; after which they adjourned to Cam- bridge, whence a committee was sent to present the address 216 HISTORICAL AND to tlie governor. The Congress, in this address, protested their attachment to Great Britain, their loyalty to the king, and their love of peace and order, but complained of the recent acts of Paliament, the employment of the powers of govern- ment to harass and enslave them, the military force concen- trated in Boston, and the fortifications erecting there. The people, they declared, would never be satisfied till these mili- tary preparations were discontinued and those fortifications demolished. Gage replied that his military preparations were only in self-defense, and justified by threats everywhere uttered. He disavowed, on behalf of Great Britain, any design to harass or enslave ; expressed a wish for harmony ; begged them to consider, while complaining of violations of their charter, whether their present assembly was not a violation of it ; and required them, in conclusion, to desist from their illegal proceedings. So far from desisting, the Congress appointed a Committee of Safety, at the head of which was John Hancock, with pow- er to call out the militia. A committee was also raised tc take measures for the defense of the province, and another to procure military stores and provisions, towards which the sum of 20,000, $66,666, was appropriated. Constables and other collectors of taxes were ordered to pay no more money to the late Treasurer of the province, but to hand over all future collections to a new Treasurer appointed by the Con- gress. Preble, of Falmouth, an old militia officer, Artemus Ward, a colleague of Haggles on the bench of the Worcester Common Pleas, and Pomeroy, who led a regiment at the battle of Lake George, were commissioned as generals. The militia were called upon to choose company and regimental officers of their own, and to perfect themselves in military discipline. The Congress disavowed any intention to attack the British troops ; but, as their Capital was occupied by a large force, as the military stores of the province had been seized, and as there was too much reason to apprehend a still more direct invasion of their rights, they declared these measures necessary for defense. Gage issued a proclamation denouncing their proceedings, to which no attention was paid, while the recommendations of the Provincial Congress had all the force of law. Gage had no support except in his KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 217 troops and a few trembling officials, while the zealous co- operation of an intelligent, firm, energetic, and overwhelm- ing majority of the people gave to the Congress all the strength of an established government. While the colonies were thus busy in defense of their rights, the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia had been again visited by Indian war. Surveyors, sent under the royal authority, at the request of the Assembly of Virginia, to ex- tend the western limits of that province, had pushed their explorations to a great distance westward. Some of these surveyors had descended the Ohio as far as the Falls, and had traced up the Kentucky a considerable distance from its mouth. Collisions took place between these explorers and the Indians on the Ohio. Under the impulse of a false rumor of previous hostilities on the part of the Indians, nine per- sons, the family of Logan, a chief distinguished for friendship to the whites, were murdered in cold blood. This and other similar attrocities excited the Indians to revenge. The juris- diction "of the region about Pittsburgh was still disputed between Virginia and Pennsylvania. St. Clair and others, who recognized the authority of Pennsylvania, endeavored to conciliate matters, and an appeal was made to Sir William Johnson, by the Pennsylvania authorities, to induce the Six Nations to act as mediators. Just at this time Sir William died, but the business was undertaken by his son-in-law, Guy Johnson, soon appointed his successor as superintendent of the Northern Indians. While these efforts for peace were made by Pennsylvania, Conolly and others in the Virginia interest were bent on war, in which they were fully supported by Governor Dunmore. Daniel Boone was sent to guide back by land the surveyors employed on the Lower Ohio ; after which he was placed in command of a frontier fort. Volun- teers to march against the Indians were easily obtained. Major M'Donald, with four hundred men, having assembled at Fish Creek, on the Ohio, just below Wheeling, marched against and destroyed the Shawanese village on the Mus- kingum, some fifteen miles below the present Coshocton ; but the Indians made their escape. Dunmore himself, with fifteen hundred men, presently moved against the Indian villages on the Scioto, while Colonel Lewis, with another divi- sion of twelve hundred men, descended the Kanawha. Near 19 218 HISTORICAL AND the mouth of that river, Lewis found the Indians in force, under Logan, Cornstalk, and other chiefs. A very hard- fought battle ensued ; the Virginians finally carried the day, but not without the loss of sixty or seventy killed, and a large number wounded. Shelby, afterwards first governor of Ken- tucky, led a company in this battle. Alarmed at Dunmore's approach toward their villages, the Indians had already entered into negotiations, and Dunrnore sent word to Lewis to put a stop to hostilities orders which the backwoodsmen were somewhat reluctant to obey. Logan was not present at the treaty, but he sent the following speech : "I appeal to any white man to say if ever he enter- ed Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him not meat ; if ever he came cold and naked, and he clothed him not. During the last' long and bloody war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate, for peace. Such was my love for the whites, that my countrymen pointed as they passed, and said, ' Logan is the friend of white men !' I had even thought to have lived with you, but for the injuries of one man. Colo- nel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood, and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not even sparing women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge ! I have sought ifc ; I have killed many ; I have fully glutted my vengeance ! For my people, I rejoice at the beams of peace ; but do not harbor a thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life ! Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not one !" At Fort Gower, at the junction of the Hocking with the Ohio, the officers of Dunmore's army, on their homeward march, held a meeting, at which they complimented the fovernor, and resolved to bear faithful allegiance to the ing, but also to maintain the just rights of America, by every means in their power. At the same time with these difficulties on the Virginia frontier, some collisions took place in Georgia, between the settlers on the recently ceded lands, and the Creeks and Cherokees, who seemed disposed to support each other in case of hostilities. But, instead of having recourse to arms, Governor Wright proclaimed a suspension of trade. The KEVOLUTTONARY INCIDENTS. 219 Indians, by this means, were soon brougnt to terms, and a new treaty of peace was arranged. Two successive cargoes of tea which arrived at Portsmouth, had been reshipped. A quantity brought to Annapolis was burned, and the ship with it ; the owner himself, to soothe the excitement, setting fire to it with his own hand. The Assembly of Connecticut gave orders to the towns to lay in a double supply of ammunition. They 'directed the cannon at New London to be mounted, and the militia to be fre- quently trained. The proceedings of the Continental Con- gress were approved, and the same delegates were re-appointed. Measures, meanwhile, were everywhere on foot, by the appointment of committees of inspection, to enforce the American Association. Philadelphia set the example. New York followed, by appointing a city committee of sixty, with full powers for that purpose. At a third session of the Massachusetts Congress, held after a short adjournment, the delegates to the late Continental Congress made a report of the doings of that body, all of which were fully approved. It was voted to enroll twelve thousand " minute men " vol- unteers, that is, from among the militia, pledged to be ready for service at a minute's notice ; and negotiations were ordered with the other New England colonies, to make up this force to twenty thousand. John Thomas, of Plymouth county, who had led a regiment in the late war, and William Heath, a Roxbury farmer, were commissioned as generals. Domestic manufactures were strongly urged upon the atten- tion of the people. The same delegates as before were appointed to the Continental Congress, to be held in the Spring. Directions were also issued for the election of a new Provincial Congress, to meet early in the year, at which time, the members of the last elected Council were requested to be present. The Congress then adjourned, to attend the annual thanksgiving, of which they had assumed the appoint- ment. Their authority was zealously seconded in every town, by a Committee of Safety, vested with general executive powers, a Committee of Correspondence, and a Committee of Inspection, appointed to look after the observance of the American Association. In the absence of the ships-of-war, usually stationed in Narraganset Bay, forty-four pieces of cannon were 220 HISTORICAL AND taken from the batteries at Newport, and conveyed to Provi deuce. When called upon by the British naval commander for an explanation, Governor Wanton bluntly avowed that these cannon had been taken away to prevent their falling into his hands, and were intended for use against any power that might offer to molest the colony. This movement in Ehode Island, was induced by a royal proclamation prohibit- ing the export of military stores to America. It was soon followed up in New Hampshire. Instigated by Paul Revere, from Boston, and led by John Sullivan, a leading lawyer, late a delegate to the Continental Congress, and by John Langdon, a principal merchant of Portsmouth, a large party entered the fort at that place, which was only guarded by four or five men, and carried off a hundred barrels of pow- der, some cannon and small arms. The doings of the Continental Congress were approved by a Convention in Maryland, and the several counties took measures for enforcing the Association. The Convention of Maryland assumed, in fact, the powers of government ; they ordered the militia to be enrolled, .and voted <10,000 to pur- chase arms. The Assembly of Pennsylvania also approved the doings- of Congress, and appointed delegates to the new one. In South Carolina, delegates to the new Congress, and Committees of Inspection to enforce the Association, were appointed by a Provincial Convention, of which Charles Pinckney was president, called together by the committee of ninety-nine. (1775.) A general election had recently taken place in Great Britain, but the result boded no good to the colonies. Par- ties in the new House of Commons stood very much as before. Lord North, and his colleagues in the ministry, had an over- whelming majority. Ministers not only were sure of sup- port from Parliament, and from the personal feelings of the king, strongly bent upon bringing the colonies to uncondi- tional submission : they were also sustained by the general sentiment of the British people, by whom the stigma of rebellion was already affixed to the conduct of the colonists. Yet there was not wanting, both in and out of Parliament, a very respectable minority, opposed to subduing the colonists by force, and anxious to promote an amicable adjustment. The merchants trading to America, were very averse KEVOLUTrONARY INCIDENTS. 221 that any occasion should be given to their debtors for post- poning or refusing the payment of their debts, or that actual war should put a final stop to a profitable trade, already so seriously threatened by the American Association, compared with which, all former non-importation agreements had been limited and inefficient. The English Dissenters were inclined by religious sympathies to favor the colonists. Such frag- ments of the old Whig party as had not coalesced with the "king's friends, 7 ' headed by the Marquis of Rockingham and the Earl of Chatham, supported by the colonial experi- ence of Pownall and Johnstone, and sustained by the elo- quence of Burke, Barre, Dunning, and the youthful Fox, few, but able, maintained with zeal those principles of lib- erty, which had descended, to them from the times of the English civil wars, and which the threatened civil war in America seemed now again to arouse to new life. After a long absence, Chatham re-appeared in the House of Lords, and proposed an address to the king, advising the recall of the troops from Boston ; but this motion, though supported by Lord Camden, after a warm debate, was rejected by a very decisive majority. In the Commons, the papers relating to America were referred to a committee of the whole. The petitions for conciliation, which flowed in from all the great trading and manufacturing towns of the king- dom, ought properly to have gone to the same committee ; but the ministers procured their reference to another com- mittee for a subsequent day, which the opposition derided as a "committee of oblivion." Among the papers laid before Parliament, was the petition from the Continental Congress to the king. Three of the colonial agents, Franklin, Bol- lan, and Arthur Lee, to whose care this petition had been intrusted, asked to be heard upon it by counsel, at the bar of the House. But their request was refused, on the ground that the Congress was an illegal assembly, and the alleged grievances only pretended. Still persevering in his schemes for conciliation, Chatham brought forward, in the Lords, a bill for settling the troubles in America. It required a full acknowledgement on the part of the colonists, of the supremacy and superintending power of Parliament, but provided that no tax should ever be levied, except by colonial Assemblies. It contained, also, 19* 222 HISTORICAL AND a provision for a Congress of the colonies to make the re- quired acknowledgement, and to vote, at the same time, a free grant to the king of a certain perpetual revenue, to be placed at the disposal of Parliament. Chatham exerted him- self, on this occasion, with renewed and remarkable vigor; but, in spite of all his efforts, after a warm and very pointed debate, his bill was refused the courtesy of lying on the table, and, contrary to the usual course, was rejected by a vote of two to one, at the first reading. Agreeably to the scheme foreshadowed in his speech on the address, Lord North, in the House of Commons, brought in a bill for cutting off the trade of New England elsewhere than to Great Britain, Ireland, and the British West Indies intended as an offset to the American Association and suspending the prosecution from those colonies of the New- foundland fishery, a principal branch at that time of their trade and industry. An address to the throne, proposed by the ministers, and carried after great debates, declared that a rebellion already existed in Massachusetts, countenanced and fomented by unlawful combinations in other colonies. Effectual measures were recommended for suppressing this rebellion ; and the support of Parliament was pledged to the king, in the maintenance of the just authority of the crown and the nation. Burke, as representative of the Rockingham section of the opposition, brought forward a series of resolutions proposing the abandonment of all attempts at parliamentary taxation, and a return to the old method of raising American supplies by the free grant of the colonial Assemblies. He supported these resolutions in an elaborate speech ; but his motion was voted down, as was a similar one, introduced a few days after, by David Hartley, on behalf of the Chatham section of the opposition. We give here the most important portions of this famous speech of Burke, which, from the direct light it sheds upon questions at issue, between Sam and the old country, is of great importance. The Speech of Edmund Burke, Esq., on moving his resolu- tions for conciliation with the colonies, March 22, 1775. " I have in my hand two accounts ; one a comparative state- ment of the export trade of England to its colonies, as it stood KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 223 in the year 1704, and as it stood in the year 1772. The other, a statement of the export trade of this country to its colonies alone, as it stood in 1772, compared with the whole trade of England to all parts of the world (the colonies included,) in the year 1704. They are from good vouchers: the latter period, from the accounts on your tahle ; the earlier, from an original manuscript of Davenant, who first established the inspector general's office, which has been, ever since his time, so abundant a source of Parliamentary information. The export trade to the colonies consists of three great branches. The African, which, terminating almost wholly in the colonies, must be put to the account of their commerce, the West Indies and the North American. All these are so interwoven, that the attempt to separate them would tear to pieces the contexture of the whole ; and, if not entirely des- troy, would very much depreciate the value of all the parts. I therefore consider these three denominations to be, what in effect they are, one trade. The trade to the colonies, taken on the export side, at the beginning of this century, that is, in the year 1704, stood thus : Exports to North America and the West Indies, 483,265 To Africa 86,665 569,930 In the year 1772, which I take as a middle year between the highest and and the lowest of those lately laid on your table, the accounts were as follows.: To North America and the West Indies 4,791,734 To Africa 866,398 To which, if you add the export trade to and from Scotland, which had, in 1704, no existence 364,000 6,022,132 From five hundred and odd thousands, it has grown to six million ; it has increased no less than twelve-fold. This is the state of the colony trade as compared with itself at these two periods, within this century ; and this is matter for medi- tation. But this is not all. Examine my second account. See how the export trade to the colonies alone, in 1772, stood in the other point of view, that is, as compared with the whole trade of England, in 1704: The whole export 224 HISTORICAL AND trade of England, including that to the colonies, in 1704, vas 6,509,000; the exports to the colonies alone, in 1772, amounted to 6,024,000. Thus the trade with America alone is now within less than 500,000 of being equal to what this great commercial nation, England, carried on at the beginning of this century with the whole world ! If I had taken the largest year of those on your table, it would rather have exceeded. But it will be said, is not this American trade an unnatural protu- berance, that has drawn the juices from the rest of the body ? The reverse ; it is the very food that has nourished every other part into its present magnitude. Our general trade has been greatly augmented ; and augmented more or less in almost every part to which it ever extended; but with this material difference, that of the six millions, which, in the beginning of the century, constituted the whole mass of our export commerce, the colony trade was but one-twelfth part ; it is now (as a part of seventeen million) considerably more than a third of the whole. This is the relative proportion of the importance of the colonies at these two periods ; and all reason concerning our mode of treating them, must have this proportion as its basis, or it is a reasoning, weak, rotten, and sophistical. Mr. Speaker, I can not prevail upon myself to hurry over this great consideration. It is good for us to be here. We stand where we have an immense view of what is, and what is past. Clouds indeed, and darkness rest upon the future. Let us, however, before we descend from this noble eminence, reflect that this growth of our national prosperity, has hap- pened within the short peribd of the life of man it has happened within sixty-eight years. There are those alive, whose memory might touch the two extremities ! For instance, my Lord Bathurst, might remember all the stages of the pro- gress. He was, in 1704, of age at least be made to compre- hend such things ; he was then old enough, acta parentum jam legere, et quce sit proterit cognoscere virtus. Suppose, sir, that the angel of this auspicious youth, foreseeing the many virtues, which made him one of the most amiable, as he is one of the most fortunate men of his age, had opened to him in vision that when, in the fourth generation, the third prince of the house of Brunswick had sat twelve years on the throne EE VOLUTION ART INCIDENTS. 225 of that nation which (by the happy issue of moderate and healing councils) was to be made Great Britain, he should see his son, Lord Chancellor of England, turn back the current of hereditary dignity to its fountain, and raise him to a higher rank of peerage, while we enriched the family with a new one ; if, amid these bright and happy scenes of domestic honor and prosperity, that angel should have drawn up the curtain, and unfolded the rising glories of his country, and while he was gazing with admiration on the then commercial grandeur of England, the genius should point out to him a little speck, scarce visible in the mass of the national interest, a small seminal principle, rather than a formed body, and should tell him " Young man, there is America, which at this day serves for little more than to amuse you with stories of savage men, and uncouth manners ; yet shall, before you taste death, show itself equal to the whole of that commerce which now attracts tfie envy of the world. Whatever England has been growing to by a progressive increase of improvements, brought in by variety of people, by successsion of civilizing conquests and civilizing settlements, in a series of seventeen hundred years, you shall see as much added to her by America, in the course of a single life." If this state of his country had been foretold to him, would it not require all the sanguine cre- dulity of youth, and all the fervid glow of enthusiasm, to make him believe it? Fortunate man, he has lived to see it ! For- tunate indeed, if he lives to see nothing that shall vary the prospect, and cloud the setting of his day ! This noble effort at conciliation, seems, however, to have fallen upon deaf ears. The new provincial Congress of Massachusetts, consisting of upward of three hundred members, having met at Cain- bridge, Elbridge Gerry, a merchant of Marblehead, for two or three years past prominent in the General Court, was placed at the head of the Committee of Supplies. Active measures were taken for arming and drilling the militia, and especially for procuring powder ; and magazines of provisions and military stores began to be laid up at Concord, Worces- ter, and other places. An appeal to the people was put forth, and a day of fasting and prayer appointed ; after which the Congress took a short adjournment. 226 HISTORICAL AND Aware of what was going on, Gage sent a detachment to Salem, whence the British troops had been withdrawn for concentration at Boston, to seize some cannon said to be deposited there. A hundred and fifty regulars, sent from Boston by water, landed at Salem on this business. Not finding the cannon there, they marched in search of them toward the adjoining town of Danvers. At a bridge between the towns they encountered a party of militia, under Colonel Pickering, who claimed the bridge as private property, and proposed to dispute the passage. It was Sunday ; one of the Salem ministers interfered, and, taking advantage of rever- ence for the day, with much difficulty prevented a collision. The soldiers were allowed to pass the bridge, but soon returned without finding the cannon. About the same time, two officers were sent in disguise to examine the country and the roads towards Worcester. The Connecticut Assembly, in a special session, though they declined to take immediate steps for enlisting troops, yet commissioned David Wooster as major-general, and Joseph Spencer and Israel Putnam as brigadiers. The Massachusetts Congress shortly after voted to raise an army for the defense of the province. They sent committees to the other New England colonies to solicit their aid and con- currence, and meanwhile took another recess. Gage's force at this time amounted to twenty-eight hundred and fifty men. As the spring opened, he determined by active movements to nip these rebellious preparations in the bud. Two officers, sent from Boston to make a reconnoissance, reported that some cannon and a quantity of provisions and military stores had been collected at Concord, an interior town, about twenty miles from Boston. To destroy these stores, eight hundred British troops, light infantry and gren- adiers, left Boston, under Colonel Smith, with great secresy, shortly after midnight, and reached Lexington, within six miles of Concord, before sunrise. But the alarm had been given it was supposed their object might be to arrest Han- cock and Samuel Adams, who were lodging at Lexington and the minute men of the neighborhood, about a hundred in number, had assembled on the green in front of the meet- ing-house. The head of the British column came suddenly REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 227 upon w them, led by two or three officers, who called upon the minute men to throw down their arms and disperse. When these orders were not instantly obeyed, a volley was fired, by which eight of the minute men were killed, and several wounded. The British alleged, however, that the minute men fired first. The survivors scattered at once, and the regulars marched on to Concord. As they approached that village, another body of minute men was seen assembled on a hill in front of the meeting-house ; but, as the regulars advanced, they retired across a bridge to another hill back of the town. The bridge was taken possession of by the regu- lars, a guard of three companies was stationed at it, and three other companies were sent across to destroy some stores at a distance. The main body halted near the meeting- house, and commenced destroying the stores found there. The minute men on the hill, increased by constant accessions, presently advanced toward the bridge. The guard of regu- lars having retired across it, began to take up the planks, and, as the minute men continued to approach, they fired. The fire was returned, and several* regulars were killed ; yet such was the hesitation at this first shedding of blood, that the three British companies beyond the bridge were suffered to re-cross without molestation. They' fell back to the village, and the whole detachment commenced a speedy retreat. It was time. The alarm had spread ; the country was up. The minute men, hurrying in from every side, threatened the rear, the flanks, the front of the retreating column, and from behind trees, fences and stone walls, poured in an irregular but galling and fatal fire. The British suffered very severely ; the commanding officer was wounded ; the retreat was fast turning into a rout ; the whole party would have fallen into the hands of the provincials but for seasonable aid found at Lexington, whither Gage, with wise caution, had dispatched Lord Percy, with a supporting column of nine hundred men and two pieces of cannon. The artillery kept the minute men at bay ; Percy's men received their exhausted compan- ions within a hollow square, and the retreat, after a short halt, was again re-commenced. By throwing out strong flanking parties, Percy covered his main body, and by sun- set the regulars reached Charlestown, worn out with fatigue, and with a loss in killed and wounded of near three hundred 228 HISTORICAL AND men. The provincial loss was about eighty-five. The ex- hausted regulars encamped on Bunker Hill, under cover of the ships of war in the river. The next day they crossed the ferry to Boston. From all parts of New England volunteers marched at once, and within a day or two after the fight, Boston was beleaguered by a considerable but irregular army. The news, forwarded by express, spread fast through the colonies. Yet, with the hottest haste which could then be made, it took twenty days to reach Charleston, in South Carolina. The re-assembled Congress of Massachusetts voted to raise thirteen thousand six hundred men, arranged presently into twenty-seven regiments. The other New England colonies were called upon to make up the army to thirty thousand men. Ward was appointed captain general, Thomas lieu- tenant general. A regiment of artillery was authorized, the command being given to Gridley, appointed also chief engi- neer. A captain's commission was promised to any person who would enlist fifty-nine men ; any person who could procure the enlistment of" ten companies was to be made a colonel. This method facilitated raising the men, but brought many incompetent officers into the service. The issue of paper money, one of the greatest miseries of war, disused in Massachusetts for the last quarter of a cen- tury, was now revived. Provincial notes were issued to the amount of 100,000, $333,333, in sums small enough to circulate as a currency. Depositions to show that the regulars had fired first at Lexington, without provocation, were dispatched to England by a special packet, with a short but energetic address to the inhabitants of Great Britain, expressing the resolution " to die or be free." Franklin, to whom this address and the depositions were inclosed, was requested to have them printed and distributed, and to communicate them especially to the city of London. But Franklin had sailed for America, leaving the Massachusetts agency in the hands of Arthur Lee. The appeal to the other New England colonies was not made in vain. The Rhode Island Assembly voted an army of observation of fifteen hundred men a measure opposed, however, by Governor Wanton and two or three of the assis- tants, who entered a protest against it as dangerous to their KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 229 charter privileges, likely to involve the colony in a war, and contrary to their oath of allegiance. Stephen Hopkins and Samuel Ward, former governors and political rivals, were re-appointed delegates to the Continental Congress. Wanton was re-chosen governor at the election shortly after; but, as ho. did not appear to take the oaths, the Assembly directed that the duties of the office should be performed by Deputy Governor Cooke, who continued for the next three years at the head of affairs. A body of Rhode Island volunteers had appeared before Boston, led by Nathaniel Greene, a young iron-master, educated a Quaker, but now disowned by that communion on account of his military propensities. He was appointed by the Assembly commander-in-chief of the army of observation, with the rank of brigadier. The Connecticut Assembly voted to raise six regiments of a thousand men each, four of them to serve with the army before Boston. Wooster, Spencer, and Putnam, already com- missioned as generals, were each to have a regiment ; the other three were to be commanded by Hinman, Waterbury, and Parsons. Putnam was already in the camp before Bos- ton. Old man of sixty, as he was, on hearing the news of the battle of Lexington, he had left his plow in the furrow to put himself at the head of the Connecticut volunteers. A special convention of delegates from the nearest towns, called together by the New Hampshire Committee of Safety, on hearing the news of the battle of Lexington, did not think it best to anticipate the action of a Provincial Con- gress, already summoned for the seventeenth of May, by taking steps for organizing an army ; but the several towns were requested to forward supplies to the volunteers who had followed Stark to Boston. Meanwhile, the Massachusetts Congress directed enlistments among the New Hampshire soldiers in camp. As the new regiments began to be formed, the volunteers returned home. For some weeks, the force before Boston was very small, amounting to only two or three thousand men. In hopes that matters might possibly be reconciled, Gov- ernor Trumbull and the Connecticut Assembly sent a depu- tation to Gage, to act as mediators a step which excited much alarm in Massachusetts. The Provincial Congress remonstrated against any separate negotiations ; and they 20 230 HISTORICAL AND voted Gage a public enemy, an instrument in the hands of tyrants, whom there was no further obligation to obey. Some correspondence took place between Gage and Trumbull, but nothing came of the Connecticut mediation. The Assembly of New York having refused to appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, an ardent strug- gle had taken place in the city, not altogether unaccompanied with violence, on the question of electing members to a Provincial Convention, for the purpose of choosing such delegates. ' The popular party carried the day ; and by the Convention presently held, twelve delegates were appointed, any five of whom were authorized to represent the province in the Congress. The Corresponding Committee of New York, on receiving news of the battle of Lexington, drew up an Association for the Defense of Colonial Bights, which everybody was called upon to sign an expedient presently adopted in several other of the colonies, those especially, in which considerable differences of opinion existed. The same committee also issued a circular to the several county committees, recom- mending the speedy meeting of a Provincial Congress, " to deliberate on, and direct such measures as may be expedient for our common safety." News having arrived of the fight at Lexington, a great public meeting was held in Philadelphia, at which measures were taken for entering into a volunteer military association, which soon pervaded the whole province. In spite of the admonitions of their elders, many of the young Quakers took a part in this organization. Mifflin was the moving spirit of the whole. John Dickinson accepted the command of a regiment, as did Thomas M'Kean and James Wilson, leading lawyers in the city. M'Kean was a native of Penn- sylvania, of Scotch-Irish descent ; Wilson was born in Scot- land, but he had studied law, and for the last eight years had been a resident in Philadelphia, where his talents had raised him to conspicuous notice. The Assembly, which met shortly after, appropriated 1,800 toward the expenses of the volunteers. They also appointed a Committee of Safety, of which Franklin, just returned from England, was made chairman. This committee took measures for the defense of Philadelphia, and in a short time assumed the whole REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 231 executive author tity. Franklin, Wilson, and Willing were added to the congressional delegation ; Galloway, at his own earnest request, was excused from serving. Governor Penn laid Lord North's conciliatory proposition before the Assem- bly, but it did not meet with much favor. The Delaware Assembly had already approved the doings of the late Continental Congress, and had appointed dele- fates to the new one, in which they were presently imitated y the Assembly of Maryland. The Virginia Convention, which met at Kichmond to appoint delegates to the new Continental Congress, had been persuaded, by the energy and eloquence of Patrick Henry, to take measures for enrolling a company of volunteers in each county. Before news had arrived of the battle of Lex- ington, Governor Dunmore had ordered the powder belonging to fhe province, to be taken from the public store at Wil- liamsburg, and placed on board an armed vessel in the river. This proceeding caused a great excitement, increased by news of the Lexington fight. Having collected some companies of the new volunteers, Henry marched toward Williamsburg, and compelled the king's receiver to give bills for the value of the powder taken away. Dunmore sent his family on board a ship in the river, fortified his palace, and issued a proclamation declaring Henry and his coadjutors guilty of rebellion ; but their conduct was sustained and approved by numerous county conventions. In spite of all Martin's efforts to prevent it, a Provincial Congress met in North Carolina, simultaneously with the Assembly, and, for the most part, composed of the same members. Both bodies concurred in approving the proceed- ings of the late Continental Congress, and in appointing delegates to the new one. News arriving of the battle of Lexington, an Association was entered into by the friends of colonial rights, pledging the associators to defend those rights by force, if necessary. The citizens of Mechlenburg county carried their zeal so far, as to resolve, at a public meeting, to throw off the British connection, and they framed a formal Declaration of Independence. We append here, an authentic copy of these famous Mechlenburg Kesolutions, which should be sacredly preserved in any record of the early acts of Sam. 232 HISTORICAL AND MECHLENBUBG KESOLUTIONS. The citizens of Mechlenburg county, in this State, made a declaration of independence more than a year before Con- gress made theirs. NORTH CAROLINA, \ Mechlenburg County, May 20, 1775. In the spring of 1775, the leading characters of Mechlen- burg county, stimulated by the enthusiastic patriotism which elevates the mind above considerations of individual aggran- dizement, and scorning to shelter themselves from the impend- ing storm by submission to lawless power, etc., held several detached meetings, in each of which the individual senti- ments were " that the cause of Boston was the cause of all ; that their destinies were undoubtedly connected with those of their Eastern fellow-citizens and that they must either submit to all the impositions which an unprincipled, and to them an unrepresented Parliament might impose or sup- port their brethren who were doomed to sustain the first shock of that power which, if successful there, would ultimately overwhelm all in the common calamity. Conformably to these principles, Col. Adam Alexander, through solicitations, issued an order to each captain's company in the county of Mechlenburg (then comprising the present county of Cabanus), directing each militia company to elect two persons, and dele- gate to them ample power to devise ways and means to aid and assist their suffering brethren in Boston, and also gen- erally to adopt measures to extricate themselves from the impending storm, and to secure, unimpaired, their inalienable rights, privileges and liberties, from the dominant grasp of British imposition and tyranny. In conforming to said order, on the 19th of May, 1775, the said delegation met in Charlotte, vested with unlimited powers ; at which time official news, by express, arrived of the battle of Lexington on that day of the preceding month. Every delegate felt the value and importance of the prize, and the awful and solemn crisis which had arrived every bosom swelled with indignation at the malice, inveteracy, and insatiable revenge developed in the late attack upon Lexing- ton. The universal sentiment was let us not flatter our- selves that popular harangues, or resolves that popular vapor KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 233 will avert the storm, or vanquish our common enemy lot us deliberate, let us calculate the issue the probable results, and then let us act with energy, as brethren, leagued to preserve our property, our lives and what is still more endearing the liberties of America. ADAM ALEXANDER was then elected chairman, and JOHN McKNiTT ALEXANDER, clerk. After a free and full discussion of the various objects for which the delegation had been convened, it was unani- mously ordained 1. That whoever directly or indirectly abetted, or in any way, form, or manner, countenanced the unchartered and dangerous invasion of our rights, as claimed by Great Britain, is an enemy to this country to America and to the inhe- rent and inalienable rights of man. 2. That we, the citizens of Mechlenburg county, do hereby dissolve the political bands which have connected us to the mother country, and hereby absolve ourselves from allegiance to the British crown, and abjure all political connection, contract, association, with that nation, which has wantonly trampled on our rights and liberties and inhumanly shed the innocent blood of American patriots at Lexington. 3. That we do hereby declare ourselves a free and independ- ent people, which is, 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 government of the Congress to the maintenance of which independence, we solemnly pledge to each other our mutual co-operation, our lives, our fortunes, and our most sacred honor. 4. That, as we now acknowledge the existence and control of no law, or legal office, civil or military, within this county, we do hereby ordain and adopt, as a rule of .life, all, each, and every of our former laws wherein, nevertheless, the crown of Great Britain never can be considered as holding rights, privileges, immunities, or authorities. 5. That it is also further decreed, that all, each, and every military officer in this county, is hereby reinstitated to his former command and authority, he acting conformably to these regulations. And that every member present of this delegation, shall henceforth be a civil officer viz : a justice of the peace, in the character of a " Committee man," to 20* 234 HISTORICAL AND issue process, hear and determine all matters of controversy, according to said adopted laws, and to preserve peace, and union, and. harmony in said county, and to use every exer- tion to spread the love of country and fire of freedom, through- out America, until a more general and organized government be established in this province. A number of bylaws were also added, merely to protect the Association from confusion, and to regulate their general conduct as citizens. After sitting in the Court-house all night, neither sleepy, hungry, nor fatigued, and after dis- cussing every paragraph, they were all passed, sanctioned, and decreed, unanimously, about 2 o'clock, A. M., May 20. In a few days, a deputation of said delegation convened, when Captain James Jack, of Charlotte, was deputed as express to the Congress at Philadelphia, with a copy of said resolves and proceedings, together with a letter addressed to our three representatives, viz.: Eichard Caswell, Wm. Hooper, and Joseph Hughes, under express injunction, personally, and through the State representation, to use all possible means to have said proceedings sanctioned and approved by the Gen- eral Congress. On the return of Captain Jack, the delega- tion learned that their proceedings were individually approved by the members of Congress, but that it was deemed prema- ture to lay them before the House. A. joint letter from said th'ree members of Congress was also received, of the zeal in the common cause, and recommending perseverance, order, and energy. The subsequent harmony, unanimity, and exertion in the cause of liberty and independence, evidently resulting from these regulations, and the continued exertion of said delega- tion, apparently tranquilized this section of the State, and met with the concurrence and high approbation of the Coun- cil of Safety, who held their sessions at Newbern and Wil- mingtoL, alternately, and who confirmed the nomination and acts of the delegation in their official capacity. From this delegation originated the Court of Enquiry of this county, who constituted and held their first session in Charlotte ; they then held their meetings regularly at Char- lotte, at Colonel James Harris 7 , and at Colonel Phifer's, alternately, one week at each place. It was a civil court, ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 235 founded on military process. Before this judicature all sus- picious persons were made to appear, who were formally tried, and banished, or continued under guard. Its jurisdiction was as unlimited as toryism, and its decrees as final as the con- fidence and patriotism of the country. Several were arrested and brought before them from Lincoln, Kowan, and the adjacent counties. In addition to this instrument, is another, claimed to be even of prior date ; in which it will be seen that the form which the final Declaration assumed under the hand of Jefferson, was very clearly sketched out for him by the sagacious brain of George Mason. It is the only copy of this singular and valuable document which we have seen, and we shall, there- fore, lay it before the readers of Sam without hesitation, as it at least demonstrates, in connection with the Mechlenburgh Resolutions, how general and spontaneous were the sentiments of the final Declaration. That Jefferson had this document before him, there can be no shadow of doubt : DECLARATION OF RIGHTS. (Copy of the first Draught, by George Mason.) A declaration of rights, made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free con- vention ; which rights do pertain to them and to their pos- terity, as the basis and foundation of government. 1. That all men are created equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural rights, of which they can not, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity. Among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. 2. That all power is, ly God and nature, vested in, and consequently derived from the people ; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them. 3. That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection and security of the people, nation or community. Of all the various modes and forms of 236 HISTORICAL AND government, that is best which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectu- ally secured against the danger of mal-ad ministration ; and that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the public weal. 4. That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of public services ; which not being- descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legisla- tor, or judge to be hereditary. 5. That the legislative and executive powers of the State should be separate and distinct from the judicial; and, that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating in the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, and return unto that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections. 6. That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people in the legislature, ought to be free, and that all men having sufficient evidence of permanent common inter- est with, and attachment to the community, have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed, or deprived of their prop- erty for public uses, without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented for the common good. 7. That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority, without consent of the representa- tives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised. 8. That in all capital or criminal prosecutions, a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusa- tion, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favor, and to a speedy trial by an impar- tial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 237 he can not be found guilty, nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself ; and, that no man be deprived of his liberty, except by the law of the land, or the judgment of his peers. 9. That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor exces- sive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 10. (This article was inserted by the Convention.) 11. That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. 12. That the freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments. 13. That a well-regulated militia, composed of the body of the people trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defense of a free State ; that standing armies in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty ; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subor- dination to, and governed by the civil power. 14. (This article was also inserted by the Convention.) 15. That no free government, or the blessing of liberty, can be preserved to any people, but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles. 16. That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Crea- tor, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and there- fore, that all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exer- cises of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, unpunished and unrestrained by the magistrate ; unless, under cover of religion, any man disturb the peace, the happiness, or the safety of society. And that it is the mutual duty of all, to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity, toward each other. This Declaration of Rights was the first in America ; it received a few alterations or additions in the Virginia Conven- tion, (some of them not for the better,) and was afterward closely imitated by the other United States. 238 HISTORICAL AND The foregoing was copied verbatim, from the original, in the hand-writing of the author, Col. George Mason, of Vir- ginia, left in the possession of his son, Gen. John Mason, of Georgetown. In order to facilitate the comparison of it, with that which was adopted by the Convention, and is still in force, it has been thought proper to number the articles as in the adopted Declaration, omitting the tenth and four- teenth, which were inserted entire by the Convention, and to place those words in italics which were either expunged or altered, and put an asterisk where others were added. CHAPTER XYIII. Arnold's Defeat before Ticonderoga and Crown Point Gage's Procla- mation exempting from pardon John Hancock and Adams Battle of Bunker Hill. Previous to the battle of Lexington, the expediency of seizing Ticonderoga and Crown Point had heen suggested to the Massachusetts Committee of Safety. Their attention was now re-called to the subject by Benedict Arnold, a New Haven trader and shipmaster, who commanded a company of volunteers in the camp before Boston. Arnold received a commission as colonel, with authority to raise men in Ver- mont to attempt the surprise of these fortresses. The attention of Connecticut had been called to the same subject, and, about the time of Arnold's departure, some persons deputed for that purpose had induced Ethan Allen and Seth Warner, the two most active leaders among the Green Mountain Boys, to raise a force for the same enterprise. Arnold, as yet without men, joined Allen's party and claimed the command, but, being refused, agreed to serve as a volunteer. Allen approached Ticonderoga with eighty men, penetrated undiscovered into the center of the fort, surprised the commanding officer in his bed, and summoned him to surrender " in the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress !" Crown Point was taken by Warner with equal ease. The total garrisons of both points were only sixty men. Upward of two hundred pieces of artillery, and a large and precious supply of powder, of which there was a great scarcity in the camp before Boston, fell into the hands of the captors. Arnold was presently joined by some fifty recruits, who had seized a schooner, and 239 240 HISTORICAL AND taken several prisoners and some pieces of cannon, at Skenes- borough, a new settlement, (now Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain,) founded by Colonel Skene, a British officer, who had gone to England to solicit an appointment as Gov ernor of Ticonderoga. In this captured vessel Arnold proceeded down the lake, entered the Sorel, surprised the post of St. John's, where the navigation terminates, captured an armed vessel there, and carried off some valuable stores. Allen proposed to hold St. John's, but was obliged to retire by a superior force from Montreal. Arnold, with his vessels, returned to Crown Point. The Continental Congress proceeded, meanwhile, to the delicate task of appointing a commander-in-chief. Unan- imity on this important occasion was much promoted by John Adams, very anxious to conciliate the good-will and support of the southern colonies. George Washington, present as a member of Congress from Virginia, was nominated by John- son, of Maryland, and unanimously chosen. It has been freely insinuated that " Sam " zm-personally had a hand in this nomination, which took every body by surprise, as the accomplished soldier of fortune Lee, or the English renegade Gates, had been more generally looked to as the nominee. See our plate on next page for explanation. He accepted the appointment in a modest speech, in which he declined any compensation beyond payment of expenses. Artemas Ward, Charles Lee, Phillip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam, were chosen major generals ; Horatio Gates, adjutant general, with the rank of brigadier. Ward and Putnam were already in the camp before Boston, the one as captain general, under a Massachusetts commission, the other as a Connecticut brigadier. Schuyler had been recommended as a major general by the New York Provincial Congress. Gates, an Englishman by birth, formerly a captain in the British service, had recently sold out his commission and settled in Virginia. Lee was a person of very eccentric habits, a mere soldier of fortune, but possessing a high reputation for military experience and science, having served with distinction both in Europe and America. He held, at the time of his election, a* lieutenant colonel's commission in the British service. During the last eighteen months he had been traveling through America, and had recently beeu induced by Gates to KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 241 purchase lands in Virginia. For some unknown private cause, he was bitterly hostile to the British ministry. Con- gress undertook to indemnify him for any pecuniary loss he might sustain by entering into their service, and subsequently advanced him $30,000 for that purpose. Before accepting this American appointment, he resigned his British commis- sion in a formal letter to the Secretary of War. A strenuous opposition was made in Congress to the appointment of both Lee and Gates. Washington urged it on account of their military knowledge and experience, but they both occasioned him afterward a great deal of trouble. Pomeroy, Heath, and Thomas, of Massachusetts ; Wooster and Spencer, of Connecticut ; and Greene, of Ehode Island, already holding colony commissions as general officers, were commissioned as brigadiers. To these were added Sullivan, a member of Congress from New Hampshire, and Mont- gomery, of New York, a native of the north of Ireland. Though bred a lawyer, and without military experience, Sullivan soon proved himself an able officer. Montgomery had served with credit in a subaltern rank at the siege of Louisburg, and under Wolfe at Quebec. Within two or three years past he had disposed of his commission, had married into the Livingston family, and settled in New York, and, along with Schuyler, had been recommended for military rank by the New York Provincial Congress, of which he was a member. The colonels and other inferior officers in the camp before Boston were confirmed in their commands, and presently received continental commissions. The selection of general officers by Congress occasioned a good deal of heart-burning, particularly the Connecticut appointments. Wooster and Spencer, who had led regiments in the last French war, complained loudly at being superseded by Put- nam, who had not risen in that service beyond the rank of a lieutenant colonel. A representation on this subject was made to Congress by the Connecticut officers and the Connec- ticut Assembly. Pomeroy, from some disgust, had already retired, nor did he accept his continental commission. Before these new arrangements were completed, an import- ant battle had been already fought. Largely reinforced by the arrival of additional troops, under Generals Howe, Bur- goyne, and Clinton, distinguished arid accomplished officers, 21 242 HISTORICAL AND the British Army in Boston had been increased to twenty regular regiments, amounting to upward of ten thousand men. Thus strengthened, Gage had issued a proclamation of martial law, offering pardon, however, to all who would forthwith return to their allegiance, John Hancock and Samuel Adams excepted, whose guilt was too flagitious to he overlooked. We here insert a copy of this famous Proclamation of the English Gates, who was no renegade : The minds of men having heen gradually prepared for the worst extremities, a number of armed persons, to the amount of many thousands, assembled on the 19th of April last, and from behind walls and lurking holes, attacked a detachment of the king's troops, who, not expecting so con- summate an act of frenzy, unprepared for vengeance, and willing to decline, made use of their arms only in their own defense. Since that period the rebels, deriving confidence from impunity, have added insult to outrage ; have repeat- edly fired upon the king's ships and subjects, with cannon and small arms ; have possessed the roads and other commu- nications by which the town of Boston was supplied with pro- visions ; and, with a preposterous parade of military arrange- ment they affect to hold the army besieged ; while part of their body make daily and indiscriminate invasions upon private property, and with a wantonness of cruelty ever inci- dent to lawless tumult, carry depredation and distress wherever they turn their steps. The actions of the 19th of April are of such notoriety, as must baffle all attempts to contradict them, and the flames of buildings and other pro- perty, from the islands, and adjacent country, for some weeks past, spread a melancholy comfirmation of the subsequent assertions. In this exigency of complicated calamities, I avail myself of the last effort within the bounds of my duty to spare the effusion of blood; to offer, and I do hereby in his Majesty's name, offer and promise his most gracious pardon, to all per- sons who shall forthwith lay down their arms, and return to the duties of peaceable subjects, excepting only from the benefits of such pardon, SAMUEL ADAMS and JOHN HANCOCK, whose offenses are of too flagitious a nature to admit of any other consideration than that of condign punishment. ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. . 243 And to the end that no person within the limits of this proffered mercy may plead ignorance of the consequences of refusing it, I, hy these presents proclaim, not only the per- sons above named and excepted but also all their adherents, associates and abettors meaning to comprehend in those terms, all and every person, and persons, of what class, denomination or description, soever, who have appeared in arms against the king's government, and shall not lay down the same as afore mentioned ; and likewise all such as shall so take up arms after the date hereof, or who shall in anywise protect or conceal such offenders, or assist them with money, provision, cattle, arms, ammunition, carriages, or any other necessary for subsistence or offense, or shall hold secret cor- respondence with them by letter, message, signal, or other- wise, to be rebels and traitors, and as such to be treated. And whereas, during the continuance of the present unnat- ural rebellion, justice can not be administered by the common law of the land, the course whereof has, for a long time past, been violently impeded, and wholly interrupted, from whence results a necessity for using and exercising the law martial ; I have therefore thought fit, by the authority vested in me, by the royal charter to this province, to publish, and I do hereby publish, and proclaim, and order the use and exercise of the law martial, within and throughout this province, for so long time as the present unhappy occasion shall necessa- rily require ; whereof all persons are hereby required to take notice, and govern themselves as well to maintain order and regularity among the peaceable inhabitants of the province, as to resist, encounter, and subdue the rebels and traitors above described, by such as shall be called upon for those purposes. The New England army, before Boston, sixteen thousand strong, consisted of thirty-six regiments, twenty-seven from Massachusetts, and three from each of the other colonies. John Whitcombe, who had led a regiment in the French war, and Dr. Joseph Warren, president of the Congress, and chair- man of the Committee of Safety, had been appointed first and second major-generals of the Massachusetts forces. To make the blockade of Boston more complete, by order of the Committee of Safety, Colonel Prescott, with about a 244 HISTORICAL AND thousand men, including a company of artillery, with two field-pieces, marched at nightfall to take possession of Bunker Hill, a considerable eminence just within the peninsula of Charlestown, and commanding the great northern road to Bos- ton By some mistake, Prescott passed Bunker Hill and advanced to Breed's Hill, at the southern end of the penin- sula, and much nearer Boston. Before morning the troops had thrown up a considerable redoubt, greatly to the surprise of the British, who opened immediately a fire upon them, from the ships in the harbor and the batteries in Boston. Under the direction of Gridley and of Knox, late commander of a Boston artillery militia company, the provincials labored on, undisturbed by the fire. By noon they had thrown up a breastwork extending from the redoubt down the northern slope of the hill, toward the water. Cannon mounted in the redoubt would command the harbor, and might make Boston itself untenable. To avert this threatened danger, three thousand men, picked corps of the British army, led by Gen- erals Howe and Pigot, embarked in boats from the wharves in Boston, and landed at the eastern foot of Breed's Hill. Such was the want of order and system in the provincial camp, and so little was the apprehension of immediate attack, that the same troops who had been working all night, still occupied the intrenchments. General Putnam was on the field, but he appears to have had no troops, and no command. The same was the case with General Warren, whom the rumor of attack had drawn from Cambridge. Two New Hampshire regiments, under Stark, arrived on the ground just before the action began, and took up a position on the left of the unfinished breastwork, but some two hundred yards in the rear, under an imperfect cover, made by pulling up the rail fences, placing them in parallel lines a few feet apart, and filling the intervening space with the new-mown hay which lay scattered on the hill. Other troops had been ordered to Charlestown ; but, owing to some misapprehension, they did not arrive in season to take part in the battle. The supply of ammunition was very short. Here is Washington Irving's description of this important battle, contained in his new "Life of Washington." He here takes up the word from Hildreth. KE VOLUTION ARY INCIDENTS. 245 THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL. The sound of drum and trumpet, the clatter of hoofs, the rattling of gun carriages, and all the other military din and bustle in the streets of Boston, soon apprised the Americans, on their rudely fortified hight, of an impending attack. They were ill-fitted to withstand it, "being jaded by the night's labor and want of sleep, hungry and thirsty, having brought but scanty supplies, and oppressed by the heat of the weather. Prescott sent repeated messages to General Ward, asking reinforcements and provisions. Putnam seconded the request in person, urging the exigencies of the case. Ward hesitated. He feared to weaken his main body at Cambridge, as his military stores were deposited there, and it might have to sustain the principal attack. At length, having taken advice of the Council of Safety, he issued orders to Colonels Stark and Read, then at Medford, to march to the relief of Prescott, with their New Hampshire regi- ments. The order reached Medford about eleven o'clock. Ammunition was distributed in all haste two flints, a gill of powder, and fifteen balls to each man. The balls had to be suited to the different calibres of the guns ; the powder to be carried in powder-horns, or loose in the pocket, for there were no cartridges prepared. It was the rude turn-out of yeoman soldiery, destitute of regular accoutrements. In the meanwhile, the Americans on Breed's Hill were sustaining the fire from the ships and from the battery on Copp's Hill, which opened upon them about ten o'clock. They returned an occasional shot from one corner of the re- doubt, without much harm to the enemy, and. continued strengthening their position until about eleven o'clock, when they ceased to work, piled up their intrenching tools in the rear, and looked out anxiously and impatiently for the anti- cipated reinforcements and supplies. About this time, General Putnam, who had been to head- quarters, arrived at the redoubt, on horseback. Some words passed between him and Prescott with regard to the intrench- ing tools, which have been variously reported. The most probable version is, that he urged to have them taken from their present place, where they might fall into 246 HISTORICAL AND the hands of the enemy, and be carried to Bunker Hill, to be employed in throwing up a redoubt, which was part of the original plan, and which would be very important, should the troops be obliged to retreat from Breed's Hill. To this, Prescott demurred that those employed to convey them, and who were already jaded with toil, might not return to his redoubt. A large part of the tools were ultimately carried to Bunker Hill, and a breastwork commenced, by order of General Putnam. The importance of such a work was after- ward made apparent. About rioon, the Americans, descried twenty-eight barges crossing from Boston in parallel lines. They contained a large detachment of grenadiers, rangers and light infantry, admirably equipped, and commanded by Major General Howe. They made a splendid and formidable appearance with their scarlet uniforms, and the sun flashing upon muskets and bayonets, and brass field pieces. A heavy fire from the ships and batteries covered their advance, but no attempt was made to oppose them, and they landed about one o'clock at Moul- ton's point, a little to the north of Breed's Hill. Here General Howe made a pause. On reconnoitering the works from this point, the Americans appeared to be much more strongly posted than he had imagined. He descried the troops also hastening to their assistance. These were the New Hampshire troops, led on by Stark. Howe imme- diately sent over to General Gage for more forces and a supply of cannon-balls, those brought by him being found, through some egregious oversight, too large for the ordnance. While awaiting their arrival, refreshments were served out to the troops, with " grog" by the bucketful ; and tantalizing it was to the hungry and thirsty Provincials to look down from their ramparts of earth and see their invaders seated in groups upon the grass, eating and drinking, and preparing themselves by a hearty meal for the coming encounter. The only consolation was to take advantage of the delay, while the enemy were carousing, to strengthen their position. The breastwork on the left of the position extended to what was called the Slough, but beyond this, the ridge of the hill and the slope toward the Mystic Eiver, were undefended, leaving a pass by which the enemy might turn the left flank of the position, and seize upon Bunker Hill. Putnam ordered ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 247 his chosen officer, Captain Knowlton, to cover this pass with the Connecticut troops under his command. A novel kind of rampart, savoring of rural device, was suggested "by the rustic General. About six hundred feet in the rear of the redoubt, and about one hundred feet to the left of the breastwork, was a post-and-rail fence, set in a low foot-wall of stone, and ex- tending down to Mystic Eiver. The posts and rails of another fence were hastily pulled up and set a few feet in behind this, and the intermediate space was filled up with new-mown hay, from the adjacent meadows. The double fence, it will bo found, proved an important protection to the redoubt, although there still remained an unprotected interval of about seven hundred feet. While Knowlton and his men were putting up this fence, Putnam proceeded with other of his troops to throw up the works on Bunker Hill, dispatching his son, Captain Putnam, on horseback, to hurry up the remainder of his men from Cambridge. By this time, his compeer in French and Indian warfare, the veteran Stark, made his appearance with the New Hampshire troops, five hundred strong. He had grown cool and wary with age, and his march from Medford, a dis- tance of five or six miles, had been in character. He led his men at a moderate pace, to bring them into action fresh and vigorous. In crossing the Neck, which was enfiladed by the enemy's ships and batteries, Captain Dearborn, who was by his side, suggested a quick step. The veteran shook his head. " One fresh man in action is worth ten tired ones," replied he, and marched steadily on. Putnam detained some of Stark's men, to aid in throwing up the works on Bunker Hill, and directed him to reinforce Knowlton with the rest. Stark made a short speech to his men, now that they were likely to have warm work. He then pushed on, and did good service that day at the rustic bulwark. About two o'clock, Warren arrived on the hights, ready to engage in their perilous defense, although he had opposed the scheme of their occupation. He had recently been elected a Major General, but had not received his commission ; like Pomeroy, he came to serve in the ranks, with a musket on his shoulder. 248 HISTORICAL AND Putnam offered him the command at the fence ; he declined it, and merely asked where he could be of most service as a volunteer. Putnam pointed to the redoubt, observing that he would be under cover. " Don't think I seek a place of safety/ 7 replied Warren quickly; " where will the attack be hottest?" Putnam still pointed to the redoubt. "That is the enemy's object ; if that can be maintained, the day is ours." Warren was cheered by the troops as he entered the redoubt. Colonel Prescott tendered him the command. He again declined. " I have come to serve only as a volunteer, and shall be happy to learn from a soldier of your experi- ence." Such were the spirits assembled on these perilous hights. The British now prepared for a general assault. An easy victory was anticipated; the main thought was, how to make it most effectual. The left wing, commanded by General Pigot, was to mount the hill and force the redoubt, while General Howe, with the right wing, was to push on between the fort and Mystic Eiver, turn the left flank of the Amer- icans, and cut off their retreat. General Pigot accordingly advanced up the hill, under cover of a fire from field-pieces and howitzers, planted on a small hight, near the landing-place on Moulton's Point. His troops commenced a discharge of musketry, while yet at a long distance from the redoubts. The Americans within the works, obedient to strict com- mand, retained their fire until the enemy were within thirty or forty paces, when they opened upon them with a tremen- dous volley. Being all marksmen, accustomed to take deliberate aim, the slaughter was immense, and especially fatal to officers. The assailants fell back in some confusion, but, rallied on by their officers, advanced within pistol-shot. Another volley, more effective than the first, made them again recoil. To add to their confusion, they were galled by a flanking fire from the handful of Provincials posted in Charlestown. Shocked at the carnage, and seeing the con- fusion of his troops, General Pigot was urged to give the word for a retreat. In the meanwhile, General Howe, with the left wing, advanced along the Mystic Kiver, toward the fence where Stark, Rea 1, and Knowlton were stationed, thinking to carry KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 249 this slight breastwork with ease, and so get in the rear of the fortress. His artillery proved of little avail, being stopped by a swampy piece of ground, while his columns suffered from two or three field-pieces, with which Putnam had fortified the fence. Howe's men kept up a fire of mus- ketry as they advanced; but not taking aim, their shot passed over the heads of the Americans. The latter had received the same orders with those in the redoubt not to fire until the enemy should be within thirty paces. Some few transgressed the command. Putnam rode up, and swore he would cut down the next man that fired contrary to orders. When the British arrived within the stated distance, a sheeted fire opened upon them from rifles, muskets, and fowling-pieces, all leveled with deadly aim. The carnage, as in the other instance, was horrible. The British were thrown into confusion, and fell back ; some even retreated to the boats. There was a general pause on the part of the British. The American officers availed themselves of it, to prepare for another attack, which must soon be made. Prescott mingled among his men in the redoubt, who were all * a high spirits at the severe check they had given the " regulars." He praised them for their steadfastness in maintaining their post, and their good conduct in reserving their fire until the word of command, and exhorted them to do the same in the next attack. Putnam rode about Bunker Hill and its skirts, to rally and bring on reinforcements, which had been checked or scattered in crossing Charlestown Neck, by the raking fire from the ships and batteries. Before many could be brought to the scene of action, the British had commenced their second attack. They again ascended the hill to storm the redoubt ; their advance was covered, as before, by discharges of artillery. Charlestown, which had annoyed them on the first attack by a flanking fire, was in flames by shells thrown from Copp's Hill, and by marines from the ships. Being built of wood, the place was soon wrapped in a general con- flagration. The thunder of artillery from the batteries and ships, the bursting of bombshells, the sharp discharges of musketry, 250 HISTORICAL AND the sh juts and yells of the combatants, the crash of burning buildings, and the dense volumes of smoke which obscured the summer sun, all formed a tremendous spectacle. " Sure I am," said Burgoyne, in one of his letters " Sure I am, nothing ever has or ever can be more dreadfully terrible than what was to be seen or heard at this time. The most incessant discharge of guns that ever was heard by mortal ears." The American troops, though unused to war, stood undis- mayed amidst a scene where it was bursting upon them with all its horrors. Reserving their fire as before, until the enemy was close at hand, they again poured forth repeated volleys, with the fatal aim of sharpshooters. The British stood the first shock, and continued to advance ; but the incessant stream of fire staggered them. Their officers remonstrated, threatened, and even attempted to goad them on with their swords ; but the havoc was too deadly ; whole ranks were mowed down ; many of the officers were either slain or wounded, and among them several of the staff of General Howe. The troops again gave way, and retreated down the hill. All this passed under the eyes of thousands of spectators of both sexes and all ages, w r atching from afar, every turn of the battle in which the lives of those most dear to them, were at hazard. The British soldiery in Boston, gazed with astonishment and incredulity at the resolute and protracted stand of the raw militia, whom they had been taught to despise, and at the havoc made among their own veteran troops. Every convoy of wounded brought over to the town, increased their consternation ; and General Clinton, who had watched the action from Copp's Hill, embarking in a boat, hurried over as a volunteer, taking with him reinforcements. A third attack was now determined on, though some of Howe's officers remonstrated, declaring it would be downright butchery. A different plan was adopted. Instead of advanc- ing in front of the redoubt, it was to be taken in flank on the left, where the open space between the breastwork and the fortified fence, presented a weak point. It having been accidentally discovered that the ammunition of the Amer- icans was nearly expended, preparations were made to carry the works at the point of the bayonet ; and the soldiery KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 251 threw off their knapsacks, and some even their coats, to be more light for action. G-eneral Howe, with the main body, now made a feint attack on the fortified fence ; but while a part of his force was thus engaged, the rest brought some field-pieces to enfilade the breastwork on the left of the redoubt. A raking fire soon drove the Americans out of this exposed place into the inclosure. Much damage, too, was done in the latter by balls which entered the sallyport. The troops were now led on to assail the works ; those who flinched, were, as before, goaded on by the swords of the officers. The Americans again reserved their fire until their assailants were close at hand, then made a murderous volley, by which several officers were laid low, and General Howe himself was wounded in the foot. The British soldiery this time likewise reserved their fire, and rushed on with fixed bayonets. Clinton and Pigot had reached the southern and eastern sides of the redoubt, and it was now assailed on three sides at once. Prescott ordered those who had no bayonets, to retire to the back part of the redoubt, and fire on the enemy as they showed themselves on the parapet. The first who mounted, exclaimed in tri- umph, " The day is ours !" He was instantly shot down, and so were several others who mounted about the same time. The Americans, however, had fired their last round, their ammunition was exhausted ; and now succeeded a desperate and deadly struggle, hand to hand, with bayonets, stones, and the stocks of their muskets. At length, as the British continued to pour in, Prescott gave the order to retreat. His men had to cut their way through two divisions of the enemy, who were getting in the rear of the redoubt, and they received a destructive volley from those who had formed on thp captured works. By that volley fell the patriot Warren, who had distinguished him- self throughout the action. He was among the last to leave the redoubt, and had scarce done so, when he was shot through the head with a musket ball, and fell dead on the ground. While the Americans were thus slowly dislodged from the redoubt, Stark, Eead, and Knowlton maintained their ground at the fortified fence, which indeed, had been nobly defended throughout the action. Pomeroy distinguished himself here 252 HISTORICAL AND by liis sharpshooting, until his musket was shattered by a hall. The resistance, at this hastily constructed work, was kept up after the troops in the redouht had given way, and until Colonel Prescott had left the hill, thus defeating Gen- eral Howe's design of cutting off the retreat of the main hody, which would have produced a scene of direful confusion and slaughter. Having effected their purpose, the hrave associates of the fence abandoned their weak outpost, retiring slowly, and disputing the ground inch by inch, with a regu- larity remarkable in troops, many of whom had never before been in action. The main retreat was across Bunker Hill, where Putnam had endeavored to throw up a breastwork. The veteran, sword in hand, rode to the rear of the retreating troops, regardless of the balls whistling about him. His only thought was to rally them at the unfinished works. " Halt ! make a stand here!" cried he, "we can check them yet. In God's name, form, and give them one shot more." Pomeroy, wielding his shattered musket as a truncheon, seconded him in his efforts to stay the torrent. It was impossible, however, to bring the troops to a stand. They continued on down the hill to the Neck, and across to Cam- bridge, exposed to a raking fire from the ships and batteries, and only protected by a single piece of ordnance. The British were too exhausted to pursue them ; they contented themselves with taking possession of Bunker Hill, were reinforced from Boston, and threw up additional works during the night. The provincials might consider such a defeat as little less than victory. Out of three thousand British troops engaged, over one thousand were killed or wounded a loss, such as few battles can show. The ministry were so little satisfied with the accounts sent them of this transaction, that Gage was superseded in command. The provincial loss was four hundred and fifty ; but among the slain was General War- ren. Ardent, sincere, disinterested, and indefatigable, his death was deeply deplored. He left an infant family with small means of support ; for whom, by the zeal and perse- verance of Arnold, the Continental Congress was at last pushed to make some provision. The battle of Bunker Hill, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 253 in history, as having tested the ability of the provin- cials to meet a British army in the field. That, however, was a point, on which the provincials themselves never had any doubts, and the battle, at the moment, was less thought of than now. Nor were the men engaged in it, all heroes. The conduct of several officers on that day, was investigated by court-martial, and one, at least, was cashiered for cow- ardice. In contrast with the dastardly conduct of a few animals known as men, at the battle of Bunker Hill, we give the following letter from one of the daughters of " Sam," written about this period, which exhibits the true sentiment of that momentous time, and coming even from the hearts of the Women of America. From the Richmond Enquirer. FEMALE PATRIOTISM. The manuscript of the following interesting letter was politely forwarded to us by a gentleman of Baltimore, and was found among some old papers of a distinguished lady of Philadelphia. It is a copy of a letter from a lady of Phila- delphia to a British officer at Boston, written immediately after the battle of Lexington, and previous to the declaration of Independence. It fully exhibits the feelings of those times. A finer spirit never animated the breasts of the .Roman matrons, than the following letter breathes : SIR : We received a letter from you wherein you let Mr. S. know that you had written directly after the battle of Lexington, particularly to me, knowing my martial spirit, and that I would delight to read the exploits of heroes. Surely, my friend, you must mean the New England heroes, as they alone performed exploits worthy of fame while the regulars, vastly superior in numbers, were obliged to retreat with a rapidity unequalled except by the French at the battle of Minden. Indeed, General Gage gives them their due credit, in his letter home, where he says Lord Percy was remarkable for his activity. You will not, I hope, take offense at any expression that, in the warmth of my heart, shall escape me, when I assure you that, though we consider you a public enemy, we regard you as a private friend ; and while we detest the 22 254 HISTORICAL AND cause you are fighting for, we wish well to your own personal interest and safety. Thus far by way of apology. As to the martial spirit you suppose me to possess, you are greatly mistaken. I tremhle at the thought of war, and of all wars, a civil one ; our all is at stake, and we are called upon by every tie that is dear and sacred, to exert the spirit that Heaven has given to us in this righteous struggle for liberty. I will tell you what I have done. My only brother I have sent to the camp, with my prayers and blessings ; I hope he will not disgrace me ; I am confident he will behave with honor, and emulate the great examples he has before him ; and had I twenty sons and brothers, they should go. I have retrenched every superfluous expense in my table and family ; tea I have not drank since last Christmas, nor bought a new cap or gown since your defeat at Lexington ; and, what I never did before, have learned to knit, and am now making stockings of American wool for my servants, and this way do I throw in my mite for the public good. I know this, that as free I can die but once, but as a slave I shall not be worthy of life. I have the pleasure to assure you that these are the sentiments of all my sister Americans. They have sacrificed both assemblies, parties of pleasure, tea drinking, and finery, to that great spirit of patriotism that actuates all ranks and degrees of people throughout this extensive conti- nent. If these are the sentiments of females, what must flow in the breasts of our husbands, brothers and sons ? hey are, as with one heart, determined to die or be free. It is not a quibble in politics, a science which few understand, which we are contending for ; it is this plain truth, which the most ignorant peasant knows, and is clear to the weakest capacity, that no man has a right to take their money without their consent. The supposition is ridiculous and absurd, as none but highwaymen and robbers attempt it. Can you, my friend, reconcile it with your own good sense, that a body of men in Great Britain, who have little intercourse with America, and, of course, know nothing of us, nor are sup- posed to see or feel the misery they would inflict upon us, shall invest themselves with a power to command our lives and properties, at all times and in all cases whatsoever ? You say you are no politician. Oh, sir, it requires no Machia- REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 255 velian head to develope this, and to discover this tyranny and oppression. It is written with a sunbeam. Every one will see and know it, because it will make them feel, and we shall be unworthy of the blessing of Heaven if we ever submit to it. All ranks of men among us are in arms. Nothing is heard now in our streets but the trumpet and the drum ; and the universal cry is "Americans to arms." All your friends are officers; there are Captain S. B., Lieutenant B., and Captain J. S. We have five regiments in the city and county of Philadelphia, complete in arms and uniform, and very expert in their military manoeuvres. We have companies of light horse, light infantry, grenadiers, riflemen, and Indians, several companies of artillery, and some excellent brass cannon and field pieces. Add to this, that every county in Pennsylvania, and the Delaware government, can send two thousand men to the field. Heaven seems to smile on us, for in the memory of man never were known such quan- tities of flax, and sheep without number. We are making powder fast, and do not want for ammunition. In short, we want for nothing but ships of war to defend us, which we could procure by making alliances ; but such is our attachment to Great Britain, that we sincerely wish for reconciliation, and cannot bear the thought of throwing off all dependence upon her, which such a step would assuredly lead to. The God of Mercy will, I hope, open the eyes of our king, that he may see that in seeking our destruction, he will go near to com- plete his own. It is my ardent prayer that the effusion of blood may be stopped. We hope yet to see you in this city, a friend to the liberties of America, which will give infinite satisfaction to Your sincere friend, C. L. To CAPTAIN S., in Boston. But here is a still more touching incident, which, though at first glance Amazonian in aspect, reveals truthfully the true sentiment of the mothers of the heroes of an heroic period : From the Dedham (Mass.) Register, of December, 1820. FEMALE PEKSEVEKANCE. We were much gratified to learn that during the sitting of the Court in this town, the last week, Mrs. Gannett, of 256 HISTORICAL AND Sharon, in this county, presented for renewal, her claims for services rendered her country, as a soldier in the revolution- ary army. The following brief sketch, it is presumed, will not be uninteresting : This extraordinary woman is now in the sixty-second year of her age. She possesses a clear understanding, and a general knowledge of passing events fluent in speech, and delivers her sentiments in correct language, with deliberate and measured accents easy in her deportment, affable in her manners, robust and masculine in her appearance. She was about eighteen years of age when our revolutionary struggle commenced. The patriotic sentiments which in- spired the heroes of those days, and urged them to battle, found their way to a female bosom. The news of the carnage which had taken place on the plains of Lexington, had reached her dwelling the sound of the cannon at Bunker Hill had vibrated on her ears yet, instead of diminishing her ardor, it only served to increase her enthusiasm in the sacred cause of liberty, in which cause she beheld her country engaged. She privately quitted her peaceful home, and the habiliments of her sex, and appeared at the headquarters of the American army as a young man, anxious to join his efforts to, those of his countrymen, in their endeavors to oppose the inroads and encroachments of the common enemy. She was received and enrolled in the army by the name of Robert Shurtliffe. For the space of three years she performed the duties, and endured the hardships and fatigues, of a soldier, during which time she gained the confidence of her officers by her expertness and precision in the manual exer- cise, and by her exemplary conduct. She was a volunteer in several hazardous enterprises, and was twice wounded by musket balls. So well did she contrive to conceal her sex, that her companions in arms had not the least suspicion that .this " blooming soldier " fighting by their sides was a female, till at length, a severe wound which she had received in battle, and which had well nigh closed her earthly campaign, occasioned the discovery. On her discovery, she quitted the army, and became intimate in the families of General Wash- ington and other distinguished officers of the revolution. A few years afterward she was married to her present husband, and is now the mother of several children. Of these facts REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 257 there can be no doubt. There are many living witnesses in this county, who recognized her on her appearance at the court, and were ready to attest to her services. We often hear of such heroines in other countries, but this is an instance in our own country, and within the circle of our acquaintance. Heath was appointed major-general in Warren's place, and a similar commission was given to Frye, both colonels in the Masachusetts army, and Frye, commander-in-chief of the Massachusetts forces at the unfortunate capture of Fort Wil- liam Henry. But these commissions, and the other previous ones, were soon superseded by the new continental appoint- ments. About a fortnight after the battle of Bunker Hill, Washington, attended by several ardent young men from the southern provinces, arrived in the camp, and assumed the command. He found there, excellent materials for an army, but great deficiencies of arms and ammunition, and some great defects of discipline and organization. To pre- vent the British, not greatly inferior in numbers, and perfectly armed, equipped, and disciplined, from penetrating into the country, it was necessary to guard a circuit of eight or nine miles. Washington established his head-quarters at Cambridge. Ward, in command of the right wing,' was stationed at Eoxbury; and Lee, with the left, on Prospect Hill. Joseph Trumbull, a son of the governor of Connecti- cut, and commissary for the troops of that province, was appointed commissary-general of the consolidated army. The post of quartermaster-general was given by Washing- ton, under authority from Congress, to Mifflin, who had fol- lowed him from Philadelphia as an aid-de-camp. The post of secretary to the commander-in-chief was bestowed on Joseph Reed, another Philadelphian ; but, on Reed's return to Philadelphia a few months afterward, Washington selected for that important and confidential duty, Robert H. Harri- son, a lawyer of Maryland, with whom he had formerly had business relations, and who continued for several years to discharge its responsible duties, very much to the general's satisfaction. Edmund Randolph, a nephew of Peyton Ran- dolph, but whose father, the attorney-general of Virginia, 22* 258 HISTORICAL AND was a decided Hoyalist, had accompanied the commander-in- chief to Boston, and acted for a while as aid-de-camp. But he was presently recalled to Virginia hy his uncle's sudden death. The camp was soon joined by some companies of riflemen from Maryland, Virginia, and Western Pennsylvania, enlisted under the orders of Congress. One of the Virginia companies was led by Daniel Morgan, formerly a wagoner, in which capacity he had been wounded at Braddock's defeat. A man of Herculean frame and indomitable energy, his qualities as a partisan soon made him distinguished. CHAPTER XIX. The first Sea Fight and origin of the U. S. Navy Ethan Allen taken captive and sent to England Capture of St. Johns and Montreal The expedition against Quebec Reorganization of the Army Lord Howe in Boston Movements of the British in Virginia. THE Gaspe*, an armed schooner in the revenue service, had given great and often unnecessary annoyance to the shipping employed in Narraganset Bay. A plan, in consequence, had been formed for her destruction. Enticed into shoal water by a schooner, to which she had been induced to give chase, she grounded, and was boarded and burned by a party from Providence. In consequence of this daring outrage, an act of Parliament had passed for sending to England for trial all persons concerned in the colonies in burning or destroying his Majesty's ships, dock-yards, or military stores. A reward of j600 sterling, and a free pardon to any accomplice, was offered for the discovery of the destroyers of the Gaspe* ; and a board was constituted to examine into the matter, com- posed of the governor of Eh ode Island, the chief justices of Massachusetts, New York, and New Jersey, and the judge of the Admiralty for the Northern District. But, though the perpetrators were well known, no legal evidence could be obtained against them. Hildreth speaks of this as the first sea fight, from which statement, however, the old records vary somewhat, as the following narrative will show : THE FIRST SEA FIGHT. The late Kev. Dr. Bentley, of Salem. Massachusetts, whose decease was equally deplored by the friends of religion, 259 260 HISTORICAL AND patriotism, and literature who for many years enriched the columns of the " Essex Register" with his remarks, when speaking of the revolutionary pension law, seized the oppor- tunity to give the following interesting scrap of history : " The following history may discover how a man may engage in the public service, and yet not he qualified accord ing to law, for the bounty of a term short of one year's service. Joshua Ward, who belonged to Salem, but who lived many years at Marblehead, a painter, marched on the 19th of April to Charlestown Neck, as a fifer of the first company in Colonel Timothy Pickering's regiment of militia, commanded by Captain William Pickman, and soon after entered the army under Captain Thomas Barnes. From Cambridge, he was ordered to Watertown to guard the public stores, and remained at this station till the battle of Bunker Hill. He then joined the regiment under Colonel Mansfield, on Pros- pect Hill, in Charlestown, in the Massachusetts line, and acted as fife-major till he joined General Sullivan's brigade, on Winter Hill, when he was promoted to fife-major-general. He continued in the service till the first day of January, 1776, when he was discharged having continued the time of his enlistment. He then entered Captain Benjamin Ward's company and performed garrison duty at Fort William and Mary, now Fort Pickering, till the 19th of June following. He then volunteered with the first Lieutenant Haraden, a well-known, brave and able officer, with others of his com- panions, on board the Tyrannicide, a public armed brig of fourteen guns and seventy-five men, commanded by Captain John Fiske, afterward a major-general in Massachusetts, and eminent by his public services. He was in this brig during three cruises, and was at the taking of eight prizes, the first of which was the king's armed schooner Dispatch, belonging to Lord Howe's fleet, then on their passage to New York, it being the 10th July. In the engagement one man was killed in the Tyrannicide, three wounded, and one died of his wounds. He continued in the vessel till the 14th of February, 1777, when he returned from a four and a half month's cruise in the West Indies, and all were discharged. He is now 72 years of age. In the action with the Dispatch, which lasted seven glasses, her commander, John Goodrich, 2d lieutenant of the Eenown, of fifty guns, then in the fleet, was killed, and EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 261 i .'veral men. Mr. Moore sailing master, was wounded, and his limb amputated. Mr. Collingsin, midshipman, had his limb amputated, but he died. The Dispatch was so disabled that they were obliged to take her in tow, and they brought her into Salem, after being out seventeen days. The Dis- patch had eight carriage guns, twelve swivels, and a comple- ment of forty-one picked men from different ships in the fleet. This was the first sea fight. The Tyrannicide was the first vessel that was built for the public service, and her com- mission was signed by John Hancock. The Dispatch was no prize to the crew, excepting a small bounty on her guns. And yet this worthy man in his poverty comes not within the letter of the law, and instead of his bounty, must accept a hearty recommendation to the generous care of his fellow- citizens. Our narrative carries us on to the period when the downfall of British authority in the colonies has become a fixed fact in history, and the United Thirteen Colonies a firm-rooted empire on the face of the New World ! " Sam," as we have- now perceived, is stretching his huge arm toward the sea. A constant alarm was kept up by British cruisers, which hovered on the coast of New England, and landed occasionally to obtain supplies. Lieutenant Mowatt, who commanded one of these cruisers, chased a vessel from the West Indies into Gloucester harbor. The boats sent to take her being repulsed by the townspeople, Mowatt fired upon the town, and attempt- ed to land. But he was again repulsed, with the loss of his boats, and thirty-five men taken prisoners. Narraganset Bay was much annoyed by a squadron of British cruisers, and Bristol was bombarded to frighten the inhabitants into furnishing a supply of provisions. Mowatt was presently sent to Falmouth, (now Portland,) where, a few months before, the loading of a royal mast ship had been obstructed and Mowatt himself arrested and treated with some rudeness. On the refusal of the inhabitants to give up their arms, after allowing two hours for the removal of the women and chil- dren, a bombardment was commenced, and that rising town of five hundred houses was presently in flames. The towns- people, not to be so frightened, stood to their arms, and defeated Mowatt's attempt to land. Such outrages did but exasperate feelings already sufficiently inflamed. 262 HISTORICAL AND It was not long before the colonists tried their hands also at maritime warfare. Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Connecticut equipped each an armed vessel or two. In Mas- sachusetts a law was passed to authorize and encourage the fitting out of privateers, and a court was established for the trial and condemnation of prizes. Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina each had their navy boards and armed vessels, and so did Pennsylvania for the defense of the Delaware. Five or six armed vessels, fitted out by Wash- ington, cruised to intercept the supplies received at Boston by sea. Most of the officers of these vessels proved incom- petent, and the men mutinous ; but Captain Manly, of the schooner Lee, furnished a brilliant exception. In the midst of storms he kept the hazardous station of Massachusetts Bay, and, among other prizes, captured an ordnance brig, laden with heavy guns, mortars, and working tools a most acceptable supply to the continental army. Under instructions from the Assembly of Ehode Island, the delegates of that colony called the attention of the Con- tinental Congress to the subject of a navy. A Marine Committee was appointed, and four armed vessels were ordered to be fitted out at continental expense. All ships of war employed in harassing the colonies, and all vessels bringing supplies to the British forces, were declared lawful prize. Privateering was authorized, and the colonies were requested to establish courts for the trial of captures, reserving an appeal to Congress. Eules and regulations for the navy were adopted ; and the Naval Committee were presently authorized to fit out thirteen frigates, of from twenty-four to thirty-two guns. The clergy and the seigneurs of Canada, well satisfied with the late Quebec Act, were inclined to sustain the British authority ; but some partisans of the American cause were hoped for among the cultivators and citizens, as well as among the immigrants since the conquest. The body of the Canadian people, notwithstanding a proclamation of martial law, paid very little attention to Governor Carleton's loud calls upon them to arm for the defense of the province. Hinman's Connecticut regiment, stationed at Ticonderoga, at the head of which Schuyler placed himself, descended the lake in boats, entered the Sorel, and occupied the Isle Aux KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 263 Noix. After an unsuccessful attempt on St. John's, where was a garrison of five or six hundred British troops, the principal regular force in Canada, leaving the command to Montgomery, Schuyler returned to the rear to hasten forward men and supplies. The equipment of the New York regi- ments was greatly delayed by the difficulty of finding arms, and Woostcr was ordered from Albany, to join Montgomery. Meanwhile Ethan Allen, with a small party, principally Canadians, was taken prisoner in a wild attempt, without orders, to surprise Montreal. Contrary to Carleton's usual conduct, Allen experienced very hard usage, being sent in irons to England, and treated rather as a leader of banditti than as a prisoner of war. Joined by Wooster and some Canadians, Montgomery renewed the siege of St. John's. By the surprise and cap- ture of Chambly, lower down the Sorel, against which he sent a detachment, he obtained a seasonable supply of ammu- nition, which enabled him to press the siege of St. John's with vigor. For the relief of that important post, Governor Carle ton exerted himself to raise the Canadian militia ; but, in attempting to cross from the island of Montreal to the south bank of the St. Lawrence, he was repulsed by an advanced division of Montgomery's army. Another party of Canadian militia, from the neighborhood of Quebec, advancing up the Sorel, was driven down that river to its junction with the St. Lawrence, at which point the Ameri- cans established a post and erected batteries. Belief thus cut off, the garrison of St. John's presently surrendered as prison- ers of war; after which Montgomery pushed forward to Montreal, a town at that time of but two or three thousand inhabitants, open, and without fortifications. Carleton passed down the river in a fast-sailing boat, and escaped to Quebec. General Prescott, with the feeble garrison, attempted to escape the same way, but was interrupted by the batteries at the Sorel, and taken prisoner. With the woolens found at Montreal the American general was enabled to clothe his troops, of which they stood in great need. A regiment of Canadians was organized under Col- onel Livingston ; but Montgomery encountered great dis- couragements in the lateness of the season and the insubor- dination of his soldiers, of whom many, disgusted with the 264 HISTORICAL AND hardships of the service, deserted and returned home. Still he pushed on for Quehec, in expectation of meeting there a co-operating force. When obliged to give up the command of Ticonderoga to Hinman, Arnold had behaved with a good deal of insubordi- nation; had disbanded his men, and returned in disgust to the camp before Boston. There, however, he presently obtained employment in an enterprise suggested some time before by Brewer, colonel of one of the Massachusetts regi- ments. Detached with eleven hundred men, including a company of artillery and Morgan's Virginia riflemen, to co-operate with the northern army, against Quebec, Arnold ascended in boats to the head of the Kennebec, and, guided in part by the journal of a British officer who had passed over that route some fifteen years before, struck across the wilderness to the head streams of the Chaudi^re, down which he descended toward the capital of Canada. In crossing these uninhabited wilds, the troop suffered severely, and the rear division, discouraged and short of provisions, turned about and gave over the enterprise. With the other divisions Arnold persevered ; and, after a six weeks' struggle, a few days before Montgomery entered Montreal, he reached the south bank of the St. Lawrence, opposite Quebec. He was kindly received by the Canadian peasantry, and his sudden appearance caused the greatest alarm. Quebec had but two hundred regular troops ; there was a good deal of discontent among the inhabitants. Could Arnold have crossed at once, he might, perhaps, in the absence of Carleton, have got pos- session of the city. But, on some intimation of his approach, the boats had all been removed or destroyed, and some days elapsed before he could collect birch-bark canoes in which to cross. Meanwhile Carleton made his appearance, having escaped down the river from Montreal. He sent all the non- combatants out of the city ; organized the traders and others into military companies , landed the sailors ; and, with his force thus increased to near twelve hundred men, put the town into a complete state of defense. Two armed vessels were stationed in the river to intercept Arnold; but lie crossed in the night ; and, ascending the same rugged preci pices which Wolfe had climbed before him, drew up his forces on the Plains of Abraham. His little army, hardly EEVOLUTIONAEY INCIDENTS. 265 five hundred and fifty effective men, approached the city; but the garrison did not come out to meet him ; and. as he had no means to undertake a siege, he retired some twenty miles up the river to wait for Montgomery, of whose approach he had notice. Leaving Wooster in command at Montreal, Montgomery advanced down the river ; but all his Connecticut troops be- came entitled to their discharge on the tenth of December, and his ranks were so thinned by desertions and the detach- ments he was obliged to leave behind him, that, when he joined Arnold, their united force did not exceed a thousand men. They returned, however, to Quebec, and opened bat- teries against it ; but their artillery, only a few field pieces, was too light to take any effect. The works were extensive ; some weak point might perhaps be found ; an assault was resolved upon, as tn*e last desperate chance. While a snow- storm was waited for, to cover the movement, deserters carried into the town information of what was intended. To distract the enemy's attention, two feints were made against the upper town. It was against two opposite sides of the lower town that the real attacks were directed; the one led by Montgomery, the other by Arnold. Some rockets, thrown up as a signal, being seen by the enemy, they took the alarm and hastened to the ramparts. Montgomery, with the New York troops, approached the first barrier, on the south side of the lower town. The enemy fled ; not, however, without discharging a piece of artillecy, by which Montgomery and his two aids were slain. Discouraged by the loss of their leader, this division abandoned the attack. Arnold, on his side, pushed through the northern suburb, and approached a a two-gun battery, the advanced post of the enemy in that direction. While cheering on his men, the bone of his leg was shattered by a musket ball. He was borne from the field ; but Morgan, at the head of his riflemen, made a rush at the battery, carried it, and took the guard prisoners. Morgan had no guide ; the morning was dark ; totally ignorant of the situation of the town, he came to a halt. He was joined by some frag- ments of other companies, and, when the day dawned, found himself at the head of some two hundred men, who eagerly demanded to be led against the second barrier, a few paces in front, but concealed froin sight by a turn in the street. 23 266 HISTORICAL AND Morgan gave the order, and his- men advanced and planted their ladders ; but those who mounted saw on the. other side a double hedge of bayonets ready to receive them, while a fire, at the same time, was opened by parties of the enemy relieved from duty elsewhere by the failure of the other attack, and sent out of the gates to take them in the rear. Exposed in a narrow street to an incessant fire, Morgan's ranks were soon thinned. His men threw themselves into the store-houses on each side of the street ; but, overpowered by numbers, benumbed with cold, their muskets rendered unserviceable by the snow, they were obliged to surrender. Not less than four hundred men were lost in this unlucky assault, of whom three hundred became prisoners. Arnold retired with the remnant of his troops three miles up the river, and, covering his camp with ramparts of frozen snow, kept up the blockade of Quebec through the winter. While these operations were carried on in Canada, the term of service of the troops before Boston was rapidly ap- proaching its termination. The time of the Connecticut and Khode Island regiments expired early in December. None of the troops were engaged for a longer period than the first of April. A committee from Philadelphia had visited the camp, and, in consultation with Washington, and with committees from the New England colonies, had agreed upon a plan, presently sanctioned by Congress, for the reorganization of the besieg- ing army. It was to consist, according to this plan, of twenty-six regiments, beside riflemen and artillery : Massa- chusetts to furnish sixteen, Connecticut five, New Hampshire three, and Khode Island two in all, about twenty thousand men ; the officers to be selected by Washington, out of those already in service, willing and qualified to act. But this was a business much easier to plan than to execute. The selection of officers was a most delicate and embarrassing matter, in which, not qualifications only, but provincial and personal prejudices had to be consulted, for not a man would enlist till he knew the officers under whom he was to serve. Even then, enlistments, though only for a year, were obtained with difficulty. The first effervescence of patriotism was over. The barracks were cold and comfortless, and the supply of fuel scanty. A short experience of military life had damped BE VOLUTION" ARY INCIDENTS. 267 the ardor of many. All the new recruits required a furlough to visit their families. Those who did not re-enlist refused to serve a moment heyond their time. One or two of the Connecticut regiments marched off some days beforehand. The camp was in danger of heing left bare, and, to supply the deficiency in the Continental regiments, five thousand militia had to be called in, who answered much better than Washington had feared. Surrounded with difficulties, the commander-in-chief exhi- bited a fortitude, assiduity, discrimination, and patience abso- lutely essential for the station which he held, and amply vindicating the judgment of Congress. In his private cor- respondence he could not wholly suppress his feelings. He complained bitterly of " an egregious want of public spirit," and of " fertility in all the low arts of obtaining advantage." Here is one precious example which we have to offer, of the metal and character of the foe with whom "Sam" in these early times was compelled, against his will, to contend, in the first agonies of separation from the Primal Stock. We have other instances of the sort in reservation. Parliament promptly voted twenty-five thousand men to be eniplo3 r ed in America. As it was difficult to obtain enlist- ments in Great Britain, Hanoverian troops were hired to garrison the fortresses in the Mediterranean, in order to set free an equivalent number of British soldiers, for service in America. This employment of foreign mercenaries was very much stigmatized by the Opposition ; but the same policy was presently carried much further. In the course of the session, treaties were laid before Parliament, by which the Duke of Brunswick, and the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel agreed to hire out seventeen thousand of their subjects to serve as mercenaries in America. The employment of German troops had been suggested by Lord Howe, who expressed, in his correspondence with the ministry, a great dislike of Irish Catholic soldiers, as not at all to be depended on. These treaties, after violent debates, were sanctioned by Parlia- ment, and the necessary funds were voted. The forces to be employed in America were thus raised to upward of forty thousand men. General Howe, who had now replaced Gage in the com- mand of the British army, was well satisfied that Boston was 268 HISTORICAL AND ". not a point from which military operations could be advan- tageously carried on, and, hut for the deficiency of shipping, would have evacuated that place before the setting in of winter. Abundant supplies were sent from England at very great expense, but many ships were wrecked, and others were captured ; and the British troops felt the want, during the winter, of fuel and fresh provisions. Fuel was supplied by pulling down houses. To diminish the consumption of provisions, numbers of the poorer people were sent out of the town. The troops on Bunker Hill remained under canvas the whole winter, and suffered severely from the cold. The British officers amused themselves as they could. They got up balls and a theater. The Old South, the largest meeting-house in the town, was turned into a riding- school. Lord Dunmore, after his departure from Williamsburg, being joined by several British armed vessels in the Chesa- peake, began to threaten Lower Virginia. The settlers west of the Laurel Ridge had met at Pittsburg, had agreed tc support the American Association, and had chosen delegates to the Virginia Convention. Dunmore, however, not without hopes of making some impression in that quarter, gave to Conolly, formerly his agent in that region, a lieutenant- colonels commission, and sent him to visit Gage at Boston. After his return, Conolly proceeded up the Chesapeake, landed near its head, and set off with several companions on his way across the mountains, in hopes, by his personal influ- ence with the western settlers, to raise a regiment, and, in conjunction with some regulars from Detroit, to operate against the back part of Virginia. It' was even said to be a part of his plan to stimulate the Indians to hostilities. But the whole, scheme was cut short by Conolly's arrest at Fred- ericton, in Maryland, whence he and his companions were sent prisoners to Philadelphia. Meanwhile Dunmore landed at Norfolk, and seized and carried off a printing-press, on which he printed a proclama- tion, which he dispersed abroad, declaring martial law, calling upon all persons able to bear arms, to join him, and offering freedom to all slaves and indented servants of rebels, who would enlist under his banner. We furnish a copy of this infamous Proclamation : REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 269 Since the 19th of May last I have not received a single line from any one in administration, though I have written volumes to them, in each of which 1 have prayed* to he instructed, but to no purpose. I am therefore determined to go on, doing the hest of my power for his Majesty's service. I have accordingly ordered a regiment, called the Queen's own royal regiment, of five hundred men, to be raised immedi- ately, consisting of a lieutenant-colonel, commandant, a major, and ten companies, each of which is to consist of one captain, two lieutenants, one ensign, and fifty privates, with non- commissioned officers in proportion. You may observe by my proclamation, that I offer freedom to the blacks of all rebels, that join me, in consequence of which there are between two and three hundred already come in, and those I form into a corps, as fast as they come in, giving them white officers and non-commissioners in proportion and from these two plans, I make no doubt of getting men enough to reduce this colony to a proper sense of their duty. My next distress will be the want of arms, accoutrements and money, all of which you may be able to relieve me from. The latter I am sure you caa, as there are many merchants here who .are ready to supply me, on my giving them bills on you, which you will have to withdraw, and give your own in their room. I hope this mode will be agreeable to you; it is the same that General Gage proposed. Having drawn together a considerable force, Dunmore ascended Elizabeth river to the Great Bridge, the only pass by which Norfolk can be approached from the land side ; dis- persed some North Carolina militia collected there ; made several prisoners; and then, descending the river, took pos- session of Norfolk. The rise of that town had been very rapid. Within a short time past it had become the principal shipping port of Virginia. Its population amounted to several thousands, among whom were many Scotch traders, not well disposed to the American cause. Fugitive slaves and others began now to flock to Dun- more's standard. A movement was now made in his favor on the east shore of Maryland, which it required a thousand militia to suppress. The Convention of Virginia, not a little alarmed, voted four additional regiments, afterward increased 23* 270 HISTORICAL AND to seven, all of which were presently taken into continental pay. Among the colonels of the new regiments, were Mer- cer, Stephen, and Muhlenberg, the latter a clergyman, who laid aside the surplice to put on a uniform. The Committee of Safety were authorized to imprison all persons guilty of taking up arms against the colony, and to appropriate the produce of their estates to the public service. Woodford, with the second Virginia regiment, took possession of the causeway leading to the Great Bridge, which was still held by Dunmore's troops. An attempt to dislodge the Virginians having failed, with loss, Dunmore abandoned the bridge and the town, and again embarked. Norfolk was immediately occupied by Woodford, who was promptly joined by Howe's regiment from North Carolina. After a descent on the eastern shore of Virginia, to whose aid marched two companies of Maryland minute men, being reinforced by the arrival of a British frigate, Dunmore bombarded Norfolk. A party landed and set it on fire. The town was mostly built of wood, and that part of it nearest the water was rapidly consumed. The part which escaped, was presently burned by the provincials, to prevent it from becoming a shelter to the enemy. Thus perished, a prey to civil war, the largest and richest of the rising towns of Vir- ginia. Dunmore continued, during the whole summer, a predatory warfare along the rivers, of which his naval supe- riority gave him the command, burning houses and plunder- ing plantations, from which he carried off upward of a thousand slaves. He was constantly changing his place to elude attack ; but watched, pursued, and harassed, he finally found it necessary to retire to St. Augustine with his adher- ents and his plunder. (1776.) The draft of a Declaration, prepared by Jefferson, smd reported by the Committee, was then taken up. Not to offend the friends of America in Great Britain, it was agreed to strike out several paragraphs especially severe upon the British government. An emphatic denunciation of the slave trade, and a charge against the king, of having pros- tituted his negative for the defeat of all legislative attempts to prohibit or restrain " that execrable traffic," was also . KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 271 omitted. It would have been going too far to ask Georgia to vote for that clause. Thus amended, the Declaration was adopted, and signed by most of the members present. The new Provincial Congress of New York, which met a few days after, at White Plains, with* authority to form a government, gave their sanction to the Declaration, which thus became the unanimous act of the Thirteen UNITED STATES. It was presently ordered to be engrossed on parch- ment, and was subsequently signed by all the delegates then present, including several who were not members at the time of its adoption. The proclamation of Independence was signalized at New York, by destroying a picture of the king, which had decorated the City Hall. The king's leaden statue, which stood in the Bowling Green, was also thrown down and run into bullets. This feeling of exultation was, however, far from unanimous. A large number of the wealthier citizens looked on with distrust; and the Episcopal clergy showed their dissatisfaction by shutting up the churches. Meanwhile, by reinforcements from Europe, including a part of the German mercenaries, to whom were added the forces lately employed against Charleston, and some regi- ments from Florida and the West Indies, Howe's army, encamped on Staten Island, was raised to twenty-four thou- sand men. The obstructions placed by General Putnam, with vast labor and expense, in the Hudson and East Rivers, were not found to answer the purpose intended. In spite of the artil- lery of Forts Washington and Lee, several British vessels ascended the Hudson. An attempt was made to burn them with fire ships ; but, having reconnoitered and taken sound- ings, they descended again without material injury. It was, however, by way of Long Island, that Howe pro- posed to approach the city. Washington had expected as much; and a corps of the American army, nine thousand strong, lay at Brooklyn, opposite New York, behind intrench- ments thrown up under the direction of Greene. Between this camp and the bay at the southwest corner of Long Island, where the British army presently landed, there stretched a range of thickly-wooded hills, crossed by two roads ; a third road followed the shore round the western 272 HISTORICAL AND base of these hills ; a fourth, penetrating inland, turned them on the east. Intrenchments had been thrown up to guard the passes over these hills and around their western base, and troops had been detailed for that service. A severe attack of sickness haa obliged Greene to give up the com- mand; Putnam, from his recent transfer to it, was yet imperfectly acquainted with the situation of the works and passes in front of the camp ; and in the confusion and want of discipline which prevailed, the orders to watch and guard those passes were imperfectly obeyed. Two British columns advancing by night, one by the shore road and the other over the hills, captured or evaded the patrols, forced the defiles without difficulty, and early the next morning came in contact with two American corps, one under Sterling, sent forward by Putnam, on news of the approach of the British, to guard the shore road, the other under Sullivan, who advanced hastily, with such troops as he could collect, to prevent the passage over the hills. Mean- while, a third British column, led by Clinton, proceeded along the eastern road, which had been left unguarded, turned the hills, and pushed in between Sullivan's corps and the Ameri- can camp. Driven backward and forward between a double fire, a few of that corps took advantage of the broken and wooded ground to escape ; but the greater part were taken prisoners, and Sullivan along with them. The corps under Sterling made a steady resistance to the troops in their front, and when Clinton threatened to gain their rear, by great exertions they got back to the camp, not, however, without losing their commander, who was taken prisoner while covering the retreat. For this important vic- tory, in which he lost less than four hundred men, Howe was rewarded by the Order of the Bath. The American loss was never very accurately ascertained ; but, beside several hun- dreds killed or missing, about a thousand remained prisoners in the hands of the enemy. Some five thousand men had been engaged in the battle, principally from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Smallwood's Mary- land regiment, forming a part of Sterling's division, behaved with great gallantry, and suffered very severely. The victorious forces, fifteen thousand strong, encamped directly in front of the American lines, which a vigorous KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 273 assault might probably have carried. But, with the caution fashionable at that day in military operations, and not dimin- ished by the experiment at Bunker Hill, preparations were made for regular approaches. The camp at Brooklyn had been re-enforced ; but Washington would not risk the loss of so considerable a part of his army ; and, after holding a council of war, he determined to withdraw the troops. The command of the boats was given to Colonel Glover, of Massachusetts, and they were manned with the men of his regiment, mostly fishermen of Marblehead. M'Dougall, who was not without some experience in marine affairs, superin- tended the embarkation, and, in the course of the night, favored by a thick fog, a masterly retreat was effected across the East Kiver. As a consequence of this movement, the whole of Long Island fell into the hands of the British. Woodhull, late president of the Provincial Congress, employed on Long Island, with a small body of militia, in driving off cattle, was surprised the day after the battle by a party of light horse, under Oliver Delancey, wounded after his cap- ture, and treated with such cruel neglect that his wounds mortified, and he died in consequence. The Long Island Tories, who had experienced considerable harshess, had now an opportunity to retort on their opponents. Washington left a considerable force in the city, but his main body was encamped on Harlem Hights, very strong ground toward the northern end of York Island. That all things might be ready for instant retreat, the surplus stores and baggage were sent across Harlem River, on the east side of which, at Morrisania, Washington's head quarters were established. It was very desirable, at this moment, to obtain correct information of the force and position of the British troops at Brooklyn ; and, at Washington's desire, and the request of Colonel Knowlton, Nathan Hale, a captain in one of the Connecticut regiments, a young man of education and en- thusiasm, volunteered on that hazardous service. He crossed to Brooklyn, obtained the necessary information, and was about to return, when he was arrested on some suspicion, and being betrayed by his embarrassment, was carried before General Howe, tried and convicted as a spy, and hanged the next morning. (1776.) 274 HISTORICAL AND Washington's army, by this time, was greatly reduced. The term of service of the militia was fast expiring. The whole flying camp soon claimed their discharge ; and no in- ducements could procure a moment's delay. Some of the New York militia refused to do duty. Howe, they said, offered " peace, liberty, and safety" so they understood his proclamation and what more could they ask? The Con- tinentals were enlisted only for a year, and their term of service was fast drawing to a close ; nor did they always wait to complete it, desertions being very numerous. Exclusive of Heath's division in the Highlands, and the corps under Lee, on the east side of the Hudson, Washington's army did exceed four thousand men. The ground which he occupied was a level plain between the Hackensack and the Passaic ; the army had no intrenching tools ; and a British Column, led by Cornwallis, was rapidly approaching. Obliged to retreat, .but anxious riot to be cut off from Philadelphia, Washington crossed the Passaic to Newark, his troops exposed to all the severity of approaching winter, without tents, badly supplied with blankets, and very imper- fectly clad. The British, well furnished with every neces- sary, pressed upon him with a much superior force ; and Washington again retired, first across the Raritan to Bruns- wick, and thence to Princeton, where a corps was left, under Stirling, to check the enemy's advance, while Washington continued his retreat to Trenton, where he transported his remaining stores and baggage across the Delaware. The news of Washington's retreat produced the greatest commotion in Philadelphia ; fears on one side, and hopes on the other. Putnam had been sent to take the command in that city. Mifflin was also there, endeavoring to raise the spirits of the people. Some fifteen hundred city militia, sent forward through the active agency of Mifflin, joined Wash- ington at Trenton, and he advanced again upon Princeton. But Cornwallis approached with a superior force, and the American army was obliged to cross the Delaware. As the rear guard left the Jersey shore, the advance of the British came in sight ; indeed, during the whole course of the re treat, the American rear guard, employed in pulling up bridges, was constantly within sight and shot of the British pioneers sent forward to rebuild them. Washington had KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 275 secured all the boats on the Delaware, and he placed his forces so as to guard the principal fords. The enemy, finding no means to cross, occupied the eastern bank, above and below Trenton. A body of fifteen hundred Hessians, stationed at Trenton, was selected by Washington as the object of attack. On the evening of Christmas, with two thousand five hundred men and six pieces of artillery, including the New York company under Alexander Hamilton, he commenced crossing the Delaware about nine miles above Trenton. Two corps of militia, one opposite Trenton, the other lower down, at Bristol, under General Cadwallader, were to have crossed at the same time ; but the quantity of floating ice made the passage impossible. It was only with great difficulty, and after struggling all night, that Washington's troops got over at last. About four o'clock in the morning, in the midst of a snow-storm, they commenced their march for Trenton, in two columns, one led by Greene, the other by Sullivan, Stark's New Hampshire regiment heading Sullivan's advance. The two columns took different roads Sullivan along the bank of the river, the other some distance inland. It was eight o'clock before they reached the town ; but the Hessians, sleepy with the night's debauch, were completely surprised. Some little resistance was made by the guard of the artil- lery, but they were soon overpowered, and the pieces taken. Washington's artillery was planted to sweep the streets of the town. The Hessian commander, while attempting to form his troops, was mortally wounded. The light horse and a portion of the infantry, who fled on the first alarm, escaped to Bordentown. The main body attempted to retreat by the Princeton road, but found it already occupied by Colonel Hand and his regiment of Pennsylvania riflemen. Thus cut off, ignorant of the force opposed to them, and without enthu- siasm for the cause, they threw down their arms and surren- dered. About a thousand prisoners were taken, and six cannon. The Americans had two frozen to death, two killed, and a few wounded in assaulting the artillery, among them James Monroe, then a lieutenant, afterward President of the United States. Had the milita, lower down, been able to cross the success might have been still more complete. 276 HISTORICAL AND Washington re-crossed the Delaware with his prisoners, who were sent to Philadelphia, and paraded through the streets in a sort of triumph. The British, astonished at such a stroke from an enemy whom they reckoned already sub- dued, broke up their encampments along the Delaware, and retired to Princeton. Washington thereupon re-occupied Trenton, where he was speedily joined by three thousand six hundred Pennsylvania militia, relieved, by the withdrawal of the enemy, from their late duty of guarding the Delaware. At this moment the term of service of the New England regiments expired ; but the persuasions of their officers, and a bounty of ten dollars, induced them to remain for six weeks longer. Alarmed by the surprise at Trenton, and the. signs of new activity in the American army, Howe detained Cornwallis, then just on the point of embarking for England, and sent him to take the command at Princeton. Reinforcements now came up from Brunswick, and Cornwallis advanced in force upon Trenton. Washington occupied the high ground on the eastern bank of a small river which enters the Dela- ware at that town. The bridge and the ford above it were guarded by artillery. After a sharp cannonade, the British kindled their fires and encamped for the night. (1777.) Washington was now in a dangerous predicament. He had about five thousand men, half of them militia, but a few days in camp. Could such an army stand the attack of Brit- ish regulars, equal in numbers, and far superior in discipline and equipments? To attempt to cross the Delaware in the face of the enemy would be more hazardous than a battle. Washington, according to his custom, called a council of war. The large force which Cornwallis evidently had with him led to the inference that the corps in the rear could not be very strong. The bold plan was adopted of gaining that rear, beating up the enemy's quarters at Princeton, and, if fortune favored, falling on his stores and aggage at Brunswick. In execution of this plan, the American baggago was silently sent off* down the river to Burlington ; and, after replenishing the camp fires, and leaving small parties to throw up intrench- ments within hearing of the enemy's sentinels, the army inarched off about midnight, by a circuitous route toward REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 277 Princeton. Three British regiments had spent the night in j^hafc town ; arid by sunrise, when the Americans entered it, two of them were already on their march for Trenton. The leading regiment was attacked and broken ; but it presently rallied, regained the Trenton road, and continued its march to join Lord Cornwallis. General Mercer, who had led this attack with a column of militia, was not very well supported ; he fell mortally wounded while attempting to bring his men up to the charge, and was taken prisoner. The marching regiment in the rear, after a sharp action, gave way and fled toward Brunswick. The regiment in the town occupied the college, and made some show of resistance ; but some pieces of artillery being brought to bear upon them, they soon sur- rendered. Three hundred prisoners fell into the hands of the Americans, besides a severe loss to the enemy in killed and wounded. The American loss was about a hundred, including several valuable officers. When Cornwallis heard the roar of the cannon at Prince- ton, he penetrated at once the whole of Washington's plan. Alarmed for his magazines at Brunswick, he hastily put his troops in motion, and by the time the Americans were ready to leave Princeton, he was again close upon them. Again Washington was in great danger. His troops were exhausted ; all had been one night without sleep, and some of them longer ; many had no blankets ; others were barefoot ; all were very thinly clad. It was necessary to give over the attack upon Brunswick, and to occupy some more defensible ground, where the troops could be put under cover. At Morristown, on the American right, were the skeletons of three regi- ments, detached, as already mentioned, from the northern army ; also the troops sent forward by Heath, but stopped on the reception of Washington's countermand. Some mili- tia had also joined them. The high ground in that vicinity offered many strong positions. As Cornwallis would hardly venture to cross the Delaware with an enemy in his rear, Washington concluded to march for Morristown, where he intrenched himself. Not anxious to continue this winter campaign, Cornwallis retired to New Brunswick. The parties sent out by Wash- ington to assail and harass the British quarters, we re eagerly joined by the inhabitants, incensed by the plunder and ravage 24 278 HISTORICAL AND of the British and Hessians, against whom, even Howe'b protections had proved a very uncertain defense. Plundej- ing, into which soldiers very easily fall, was by no means confined to the British. Washington was again obliged to issue stern orders against " the infamous practice of plunder- ing the inhabitants, under pretense that they are Tories." Another proclamation was presently issued, requiring all those who had taken British protections, either to remove within the enemy's lines, or else to repair to the nearest general officer, give up their protections, and take an oath of allegiance to the United States. Objections were made to this proclamation, and one of the New Jersey delegates in Congress, raised some question about it, on the ground that it was an interference with State rights, allegiance being due to the State, and not to the confederacy ; but Congress sustained Washington in the course he had taken. Huts were erected at Morristown, and there the main body of the American army remained during the winter. The right was at Princeton, under Putnam ; the left in the High- lands, under Heath ; cantonments were established at vari- ous places along this extended line. Skirmishes occasionally took place between advanced parties, but for six months, no important movement was made upon either side. Washing- ton, busy in organizing the new army, was, in fact, very weak. Kecruits came in but slowly; and detachments of militia, principally from the eastern States, had to be called out for temporary service. These were judiciously posted, so as to make the best possible show ; but, for several months, there was little more than the shadow of an army. The enemy, made cautious by their losses, fortunately were ignorant of Washington's real situation. The strong ground occupied by the Americans, and the winter, which had now fairly set in, seemed to forbid the hope of successful attack. In skirmishes, the Americans were generally successful ; the British quarters were straitened, their supplies were cut off, and they were reduced to great distress for forage and fresh provisions. The recovery of the Jerseys by the fragments of a defeated army, which had seemed just before on the point of dissolution, gained Washington a high reputation, not at home only, but in Europe .also, where the progress of the KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 279 campaign had been watched with great interest,, and where the disastrous loss of New York, and the retreat through the Jerseys, had given a general impression that the Americans would not be able to maintain their Independence. The recovery of the Jerseys produced a reaction. The American general was extolled as a Fabius, whose prudence availed his country not less than his valor. At home, also, these suc- cesses had the best effect. The recruiting service, which before had been almost at a stand, began now to revive, and considerable progress was presently made in organizing the new army. The extensive powers which Congress had intrusted to Washington, were exercised energetically indeed, but with the greatest circumspection, and a single eye to the public good. The State appointments of officers for the new army, too often the result of favoritism, were rectified, so far as prudence would justify; and, by commissions in the sixteen additional battalions, Washington was enabled to provide for such meritorious officers as had been overlooked in the new appointments. We give here a history of cotemporary events, by a cotem- porary, which conveys to us much of the realities of this period of trial, which nothing of the diction of the Eclectic historians of the events which now followed in such rapid succession, will ever be able to impress upon the genuine children of " Sam." It is a tedious history, compressed in a few paragraphs, by one of those truly patriotic souls, which were fired by the imminence of the events which they wit- nessed. THE POLITICAL PART OF THE CHARGE OF HIS HONOR, CHIEF JUS- TICE WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. At a Court of GENERAL SESSIONS OF THE PEACE, OYER AND TERMINER, ASSIZE, AND GENERAL GOAL DELIVERY, begun and holden at CHARLESTON, for the district of CHARLESTON, the 21st October, 1777, before the Hon. WILLIAM HENRY DRAYTON, Esq., chief justice, and his Associates, justices of said court. Human policy at best is but short-sighted ; nor is it to be wondered at, that the original formation of the continental '280 HlSTOKICAL AND army was upon an erroneous principle. Tho people of America are a people of property ; almost every man is a freeholder. Their superior rulers thought such men, living at ease on their farms, would not become soldiers, under long enlist- ments ; nor, as all that was then aimed at was redress of grievances, did they think there would be occasion for their military services, but for a few months. Hence the conti- nental army was formed upon short enlistments a policy that unexpectedly dragged America ^back to the door of slavery. As the time of enlistments expired the last year, the American army decreased in power, till it possessed scarce anything but its appellation. And Washington, a name which needs no title to adorn it, a freeman above all praise, having evacuated Long Island and New York to a far supe- rior force, having repeatedly baffled the enemy at the White Plains, they, quitting that scene of action, suddenly took Fort Washington (Nov. 16), and bending their course to Phila- delphia, he, with but a handful of men, boldly threw himself in their front, and opposed their progress. With a chosen body of veterans, who have no near prospect of discharge, it is a difficult operation to make, an orderly, leisurely, and effectual retreat before a superior enemy ; but with Wash- ington's little army, not exceeding four thousand men, raw troops, who had but a few weeks to serve, to make such a retreat, for eighty miles, and through a populous country, without being joined by a single neighbor a most discour- aging circumstance nothing in the whole science of war could be more difficult ; yet it was most completely performed. Washington caused the Delaware to bound the enemy's advance. He summoned General Lee with the corps under his command, to join him. That veteran, disobeying his repeated orders, for which I presume rigid inquisition is yet to be made, loitering where he should have bounded forward, allowed himself to be surprised and made a prisoner (Dec. 13), at a distance from his troops. Washingtcn in the. abyss of distress, seemed to be abandoned by the officer next in command by the Americans themselves, who seemed appalled by the rapid progress of the enemy. Kape and massacre, ruin and devastation indiscriminately overwhelmed whigs and tories, and marked the advance of the British forces. The enemy being but a day's march from Philadelphia, [REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 281 the Quakers of that city, by a public instrument, dated the 20th of December, declared their attachment to the British domination a general defection was feared the Congress removed to Baltimore American liberty evidently appeared as in the last convulsion ! Washington was now at the head of about two thousand five hundred men ; their time of service was to expire in a few days, nor was there any prospect that they could be induced to stay longer. This, such as it was, appeared the only force that could be opposed to the British, which seemed to halt only to give time to the American vigor to dissolve of itself, and display us to the world as an inconstant people, noisy, void of public virtue, and even shame. But it was in this extremity of affairs, when no human resource appeared in their favor, that the Almighty chose to manifest his power, to show the Americans that he had not forsaken them ; and to convince the States that it was by him alone they were to be maintained in their Independence, if they deserved to pos- sess it. Like Henry IV. of France, one of the greatest men who ever lived, Washington, laying aside the generalissimo, assumed the partisan. He had but a choice of difficulties. He was even in a more desperate situation than that in which the king of Prussia was before the battle of Torgau ; when there was no step which rashness dictated, but prudence advised him to attempt. The enemy was now in full posses- sion of the Jerseys. A principal body of them were posted at Trenton, on the Delaware. Washington occupied the opposite bank. His army, our only apparent hope, now somewhat short of two thousand five hundred men, was to be disbanded in a very few days ; he resolved to lead it to battle before that fatal period, and at least afford it an opportunity of separating with honor. He prepared to attack the enemy at the dawn of day, on the 26th of December. The weather was severe. The ice on the river prevented the passage of a part even of his small force. But with those (one thousand five hundred men) that he transported across the river, through a violent storm of snow and hail, he marched against the enemy. The unavoidable difficulties in passing the river, delayed his arrival at their advanced posts, till eight in the morning. The conflict was short. About thirty of the British 24* 282 HlSTOEICAL AND troops were killed. Six hundred fled. Nine hundred and nine officers and privates surrendered themselves prisoners, with six pieces of brass artillery, and four pair of colors. This brilliant success was obtained at a very small price- only two officers and one or two privates wounded. In a word, the victory in effect re-established the American affairs. The consent of the victors to continue six weeks longer under their leader, and the elevation of the spirits of the people, were its immediate consequences most important acquisitions at that crisis. The enemy roused from their inactivity, and with the view of allowing Washington as little time as pos- sible to reap other advantages, they, in a hurry, collected in force and marched against him. He was posted at Tren- ton. On the second of January, in the afternoon, the front appeared ; they halted, with design to make an attack in the morning, and in the meantime a cannonade was begun, and continued by both parties till dark. Sanpinck creek, which runs through Trenton, parted the two armies. Our forces occupied the south bank, and at night fires were lighted on both sides. At twelve, Washington having renewed his fires, and leaving guards on the passages over the creek, and about five hundred men to amuse the enemy, with the remainder of his army, about one in the morning, marched to Prince- ton to cut off a re-inforcement that was advancing. He arrived at his destination by sunrise, and dislodged them ; they left upward of one hundred men dead on the spot, and near three hundred more as prisoners to the victors. It was by such decisive conduct that the King of Prussia avoided being overwhelmed by a combined attack upon his camp at Lignitz, on the morning of the 15th of August, 1760, by three armies led by Dann, Londohn, and Czer- nicheue, who were advancing against him from different quarters. In the night the king marched, and in the morn- ing, by the time Dann arrived at his empty camp, he had defeated Londohn in his advance. So the Roman consul, C. Claudius Nero, dreading the junction of Hannibal and his brother Asdrubal, who was in full inarch to him with a powerful re-inforcement, left his camp before Hannibal, with such an appearance as to persuade him he was present, and with the nerves and sinews of his army privately quitting it, he rapidly marched almost the whole length of Italy, while REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 288 Rome trembled at his steps, and, joining the other consul, he defeated Asdrubal, who, had he with his forces joined his brother, had made them in all probability an over match for the Roman. Thus equal geniuses prove their equality by wisely adapting their conduct to their circumstances. The action at Trenton was as the making of the flood. From that period success rolled in upon us with a spring tide. That victory gave us an army ; the affair of Princeton procured us a force and the re-possession of all the Jerseys but Brunswick and Amboy for the enemy, astonished at Washington's vivacity, dreaded the loss of those posts, in which they had deposited their stores, and ran back to hide themselves behind the works they had thrown up around them. Washington pursued, and by the fifth of January those forces which, but a few days before, were in full posses- sion of the Jerseys, he had closely confined to the environs of Brunswick and Amboy. In this situation both armies continued until the 13th of June last, when General Howe made an attempt to proceed to Philadelphia; but, being baffled, he suddenly abandoned Brunswick, (June 22d,) and in a day or two after, Amboy, and retired to Staten Island. In the meantime General Burgoyne was advancing from Canada against Ticonderoga. He appeared before the place on the 28th of June a day glorious to this country and General St. Glair, who commanded in that important post, without waiting till the enemy had completed their works, or given an assault, to sustain which, without doubt, he had been sent there, suddenly abandoned the fortress and its stores to the enemy, (July 6th.) The public have loudly condemned this evacuation, and the Congress have ordered strict inquiry to be made into the cause of it. General Burgoyne having thus easily possessed himself of Ticonderoga, immediately- began to measure the distance to New York. But being destitute of horses for his dragoons, wagons for the conveyance of his baggage, and in urgent want of provisions, he halted near Saratoga, to give time for the operation of the proclamation he had issued (June 23d) to assure the inhabitants of security, and to induce them to continue at home with their effects. But, regardless of public engagements, (August 9th,) he suddenly detached lieutenant 284: HISTORICAL AND colonel Baum with fifteen hundred men, and private instruo tions to strip the people of their horses, wagons, and provi- sions ; and gave " stretch " to his Indians to scalp those whom he had exhorted to " REMAIN QUIETLY AT THEIR HOUSES !" Things now wore a dreadful aspect in that part of America, but General Stark soon changed the countenance of affairs. With. a body of two thousand men, principally militia, he attacked (August 16th) Lieutenant Colonel Baum, at Ben- nington, stormed his w"brks, killed about two hundred of his men, took six hundred and fifty-six prisoners, together with four brass field pieces and a considerable quantity of baggage, losing only about thirty men killed and fifty wounded. This successful attack at once rescued the country from massacre and ruin, and deprived General Burgoyne of those supplies which alone could enable him to advance ; nor was it less important in respect to the time at which it was made. For at this juncture, Fort Stanwix was hard pressed by General St. Ledger, who, having advanced from Lake Ontario, had laid siege to it on the 2d of August. General Arnold had been preparing to march to its relief, and he had now full liberty to continue his route. His near approach compelled the enemy with precipitation to raise the siege, (August 22,) leaving their tents, and a large part of their ammunition, stores, provisions and baggage, nor did he lose any time in setting out in pursuit of them. Such unexpected strokes utterly discouraged General Bur- goyne. Our militia began to assemble in considerable numbers. He now anxiously cast his eyes behind to Ticon- deroga, and wished to trace back his steps; but, while General Gates was advancing against his front, at Stillwater, with considerable force, the front of Bennington and Stanwix, a part of the American troops had occupied posts in his rear, and even penetrated to Ticonderoga. In their advance they took two hundred batteaux and two hundred and ninety-three prisoners ; and having seized the old French lines near that fortress, on the 18th of September they summoned the place to surrender. Later advices, which, though not indisputable, yet well authenticated, say General Burgoyne is totally defeated and taken prisoner, and that Ticonderoga, with all KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 285 its stores, is in our possession. Indeed, from the events ive already know, we have every reason to believe that the Ameri- can arms are decisively triumphant in that quarter. As to General Howe, at the head of the grand British army, even when the campaign was far advanced, he had not done anything in aid of his master's promise, in June last, to his Parliament, that his forces would " effectually crush " America in the course of " the present campaign." Driven from the Jerseys, and having embarked his troops, on the 23d of July, he put to sea from Sandy Hook, with two hundred and twenty-six sail, and having entered the Chesa- peake, he landed his army (about twelve thousand strong) the 30th of August, on Turkey Point, at the head of the bay. Skirmishing with the American light troops, he pushed on to Brandywine Creek, behind which Washington was posted to obstruct his passage. By a double onset, on the llth of September, at Chad's Ford and Jones', six miles above, when, because of uncertain and contradictory intelli- gence, Washington had not made a disposition, adequate to the force with which the enemy attacked, they crossed, first at Jones' and then at Chad's. The engagement was long and obstinate. The highest account does not make our whole loss exceed one thousand men and nine field-pieces ; the lowest statement of the enemy is not so low as one thou- sand killed a slaughter, from which we may form some idea of the proportion of their wounded. Not having made good the defense of the Brandywine, the American army fell back twenty-six miles, to the Schuylkill ; nor did General Howe derive any advantage from the possession of the field of battle. This is the fortieth day since the engagement, and we have heard from Philadelphia, in less than half the time, circumstances furnishing reasonable ground to conclude, that for at least three weeks after his victory, General Howe made no impression upon the army of the United States ; and that he purchased his passage of the Brandywine at no small price. He carried Bunker Hill ; but he lost Boston. I trust he has passed the Brandywine but to sacrifice his army as it were, in presence of our illustrious Congress, as an atonement for his ravages and conflagrations in America. Having thus taken a general and concise view of the pro- gress of the war in the north, let us now turn our attention 28(> HISTORICAL AND to our situation at home. In respect of our government, it is affectionately obeyed. With regard to cannon, arms and ammunition, we are in a truly respectable condition. As to trade, we are the grand emporium for the continent. Oh ! that I could but give as good an account of the public vigor of the people. Alas ! it seems to have been exported in the same bottoms with the growth of their lands. What ? are we sensible that we are yet at war with Great Britain ? We proceed as if we had totally vanquished the enemy. Are we aware, that to continue such a conduct is to allure them to enact in this State, that tragedy they performed the last winter in the Jerseys? Do we intend to acquire an experimental know- ledge of the horrors of war ? Do we desire to be driven from this beautiful town to be. dispossessed of this valuable seat of trade to see ourselves flying we know not whither our heirs uselessly sacrificed in our sight, and their bodies mangled with repeated stabs of bayonets ? Tell me, do you mean that your ears shall be pierced with the unavailing shrieks of your wives, and the agonizing screams of your daughters, under the brutal violence of British or Brunswick ruffians? Bouse, rouse yourselves into an activity capable of securing you against such horrors. In every quarter the enemy are vanquished or baffled. They are at a stand. Cease, my beloved countrymen, cease, by your languor in public defense, and youii ardor after private gain, to invite them to turn their steps this way and seize your country as a rich and easy prey. The States of America are attacked by Britain. They ought to consider themselves as an army drawn up to receive the shock of assault, and from the nature of their ground, occupying thirteen towns and villages in the extent of their line. Common prudence dictates that the several corps, in their respective stations, during the whole time they are in battalia, should use the utmost vigi- lance and diligence in being on their guard, and in adding strength to strength for their security. We are in the right wing of the American line, and at a distance from the main "body are we doing our duty ? No fc we have in a manner laid up our arms nay, even prizes are prepared for the horse-race ! We can spare no laborers to the public, because we are employing them to collect, on all sides, articles of KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 287 private emolument. We amuse ourselves with enquiries into the conduct of those who permitted the loss of Ticonderoga, nor do we appear to have an idea that others will, in their turn, scrutinize our conduct at this juncture a crisis when we know that the enemy have collected their force, and are actually advanced against the main battle of the Americans ; where, if they find they can make no impression and we have now a flattering prospect that they will find their efforts abortive it is but reasonable to imagine they will recoil upon upon our post. They will sail faster against, than aid can be marched to us. Their arrival will be sudden shall they find us shamefully occupied in the amusements and business of peace ? Why has the Almighty endowed us with a recollection of events, but that we may be enabled to prepare against dangers, by avoiding the errors and follies, the negligence and supineness by which others have been ruined. If a sense of our duty to our country, or of safety to posterity, is too weak to rouse us to action, if the noble passions of the mind have not force to elevate us to glory the meaner ones, perhaps, may drive us into a state of security. The miser, amidst all his anxiety to add to his heap, is yet careful to provide a strong box for its safety. Shall we neglect such an example of prudence ? Pride raised Cassius' dagger against Caesar, and procured for him the glorious title of the last of the Romans. We were the first in America who pub- licly pronounced Lord North's famous conciliatory motion inadmissible we raised the first regular forces upon the continent, and for a term of three years we first declared the causes of taking up arms we originated councils of safety we were among the first who led the way to Inde- pendence, by establishing a constitution of government we were the first who made a law authorizing the capture of British vessels, without distinction we alone have defeated a British fleet we alone have victoriously pierced through, and reduced a powerful nation of Indians, who, urged by Britain, had attacked the United States. But such brilliant proceed- ings, unless supported with propriety, will cover us with infamy. They will appear as the productions of faction, folly and temerity, not of patriotism, wisdom and valor. What a contrast ! how humiliating the one how glorious 288 HISTORICAL AND the other ! Will not pride spur us on to add to the catalogue? Will you not strive to rival the vigor of the North? Do we admire the great names of antiquity ? Do we wish for an opportunity to be equally celebrated by posterity ? Then the present there never was a more inviting or certain opportunity of acquiring an immortal name. A world to be converted into an Empire, is the work now in hand a work wherein the names of the workmen will be engraved in indelible characters. Shall we not exert our- selves to be ranked in this most illustrious list ? Nor is it so difficult a thing to acquire place in it as may be imagined ; it is in every man's power to exert himself with vigor and constancy. My dear countrymen, trifle not with an opportunity unex- ampled, and not to be recalled it is passing with rapidity. Let us put our hands to our breasts, and examine what we have done in forwarding this imperial structure. How many must say, I have youth, strength, activity, an abundant for- tune, learning, sense or some of these blessings ; but 1 have shown my attachment to America, only by a moment- ary vigor, to mark my inconstancy scrutinizing the conduct of others good wishes and inquiring the news of the day. Such men must be sensible of a disgraceful inferiority, when they hear those American names, which the trumpet of fame now sounds through the world a blast that will reach the ears of the latest posterity. Surely, such men may have a desire to be relieved from so oppressive a sensation? The remedy is within their own power ; and if they will use it, while it throws off their dis- grace, it will operate for the benefit of their country. Let them inquire of the President, WHAT SERVICE THEY CAN REN- DER THE STATE ? To a rich planter he would say, if you will send twenty, thirty, or forty laborers to the public works, and for whom you shall be paid, you will do an essential service in a critical time. To another, if you will diligently over- look, and push on the construction of such a battery, or line, you will merit the thanks of your fellow-citizens. To & third, if instead of hunting, you will ride about your neigh- borhood, or a little beyond, and endeavor to instruct .those KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 289 who are ignorant, of the importance of the public contest reclaim the deluded animate the timid rouse the lan- guid and raise a spirit of emulation as to who shall exert himself most in the cause of freedom and America, you will deserve the applause of the continent. How many opportu nities are there for a man to distinguish himself, and to he beneficial to his country ! 25 CHAPTER XX The Settlements in the West Biography of Boone, by Himself Biogra- phy of Simon Kenton. Since the peace with the Indians on the western frontier, various projects had heen started for settlements heyond the mountains. In a treaty held at Fort Stanwix, the Six Nations, in consideration of the payment of 10,460, had ceded to the crown all the country south of the Ohio, as far as the Cherokee or Tennessee river. So much of this region as lay south of the Great Kanawha was claimed, however, by the Cherokees as a part of their hunting-grounds. The banks of the Kanawha, or New river, flowing north into the Ohio, across the foot of the great central Allegheny ridge, already began to be occupied by individual settlers. Appli- cation was soon made to the British government, by a company of which Franklin, Sir William Johnson, Walpole, a wealthy London banker, and others, were members for that part of this newly-ceded territory north of the Kana- wha, and thence to the Upper Ohio. They offered to refund the whole amount paid to the Indians, and proposed to estab- lish on the ceded lands a new and separate colony. This grant, though opposed by Lord Hillsborough, was finally agreed to by the ministry; but the increasing troubles between the colonies and the mother country prevented its final completion. Other grants solicited and ceded north of the Ohio were defeated by the same cause. Such was the origin of the Walpole or Ohio Company, the Vandalia Company, the Indiana Company founded on a cession said to have been made to certain traders at the treaty of Fort Stanwix and other land companies, not without a marked influence on the 290 . -# I KEVOLUTIONABY INCIDENTS. 291 politics of a future period. Even the distant regions on the shores of Lake Superior attracted the attention of some adventurous speculators, by whom attempts were made to work the mines ; hut the expenses attendant upon so remote an undertaking, caused it to be speedily abandoned. The first settlement within the limits of the present State of Tennessee was made hy emigrants from North Carolina, under the leadership of James Robinson, who settled on the Wataga, one of the head streams of the Tennessee river, on lands of the Cherokees, from whom, however, these settlers presently obtained an eight years 7 lease. As in the early settlements of New England, these emigrants organized themselves into a body politic. A code of laws was assented to, and signed by each individual of the colony. Others who joined them soon extended the settlement down the Valley of the Houlston, and, crossing the intervening ridges, occu- pied the banks of the Nolichucky and Clinch rivers, while others yet passed into Powell's Valley, the south-western corner of the present State of Virginia. John Firiley, an Indian trader, returning to North Caro- lina from the still more distant regions beyond the western- ( most mountains, brought back glowing accounts of that fertile country. He persuaded Daniel Boone, a native of Maryland, and four other settlers on the Yadkin, to go with him to explore it. Having reached the head waters of the Ken- tucky, these adventurers saw from the hills fertile plains stretching toward the Ohio, covered with magnificent forests, ranged over by numerous herds of buffalo, and abounding with other game. They had several encounters with Indians. But we furnish here an account of Boone's own life, taken down from his own lips, by a cotemporary : ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN DANIEL BOONE. Comprising an Account of the Wars with the Indians on the Ohio, from 1769 to 1782. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. It was on the 1st of May, 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness, and left my family and peaceable habi- tation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country 292 HISTORICAL AND of Kentucky, in company with John Finley, John Stuart, Joseph Holden, James Monay, and William Cool. On the 7th of June, after travelling in a western direction, we found ourselves on Red river, where John Finley had for- merly been trading with the Indians, and from the top of an eminence saw with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky. For some time we had experienced the most uncomfortable weather. We now encamped, made a shelter to defend us from the inclement season, and began to hunt, and reconnoiter the country. We found abundance of wild beasts in this vast forest. The buffaloes were more numerous than cattle in the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the herbage on these extensive plains. We saw hundreds in a drove, and the numbers about the salt-springs were amazing. In this forest, the habitation of beasts of every American kind, we hunted with great success until December. On the 22d of December, John Stuart and I had a pleas- ing ramble ; but fortune changed the day at the close of it. We passed through a great forest, in which stood myriads of trees, some gay with blossoms, others rich with fruits. Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, and charmingly flavored ; and we were favored with number- less animals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. In the decline of the day, near Kentucky river, as we ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a canebreak and made us prisoners. The Indians plundered us, and kept us in confinement seven days. During this time, we discovered no uneasiness or desire to escape, which made them less suspicious ; but in the dead of night, as we lay by a large fire in a thick canebrake, when sleep had locked up their senses, my situation not disposing me to rest, I gently awoke my companion. We seized this favorable opportunity and departed, directing our course toward the old camp, but found it plundered, and our com- pany destroyed cr dispersed. About this time, my brother with another adventurer, who came tc explore the country shortly after us, were wandering through the forest, and accidentally came upon our cainp. KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 293 Notwithstanding our unfortunate circumstances, and our dan- ' gerous situation, surrounded with hostile savages, our meeting fortunately in the wilderness gave us the most sensible satisfaction. Soon after this my companion in captivity, John Stuart, was killed by the savages, and the man who came with my brother, while on a private excursion was soon after attacked and killed by the wolves. We were now in a dangerous and helpless situation, exposed daily to perils and death, among savages and wild beasts, not a white man in the country but ourselves. Although many hundred miles from our families, in the howling wilderness, we did not continue in a state of indolence, but hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend us from the winter. On the 1st of May, 1770, my brother returned home for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving me alone, without bread, salt, or sugar, or even a horse or a dog. I passed a few days uncomfortably. The idea of a beloved wife and family, and their anxiety on my account, would have disposed me to melancholy if I had fur ther indulged the thought. One day I undertook a tour through the country, when the diversities and beauties of nature I met with in this charming season expelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of the day, the gentle gales ceased ; a profound calm ensued ; not a breath shook the tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and looking around with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains and beauteous tracts below. On one hand, I surveyed the famous Ohio rolling in silent dignity, and marking the western boundary of Kentucky with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance, I beheld the mountains lift their venerable brows and penetrate vhe clouds. All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buck which I had killed a few hours before. The shades of night soon over- spread the hemisphere, and the earth seemed to gasp after the hovering moisture. At a distance I frequently heard the hideous yells of savages. My excursion had fatigued my body and amused my mind. I laid me down to sleep, and awoke not until the sun had chased away the night. I con- t nued this tour, and in a few days explored a considerable 25* 294 HISTORICAL AND part of the country, each day equally pleasing as the first ; after which I returned to my old camp, which had not heen disturbed in my ahsence. I could not confine my lodging to it, but often reposed in thick canebrakes to avoid the savages, who I believe frequently visited my camp, but, fortunately for me, in my absence. No populous city, with all its varie- ties of commerce and stately structures, could afford such pleasure to my mind, as the beauties of nature I found in this country. Until the 27th of July, I spent my time in an uninter- rupted scene of sylvan pleasures, when my brother, to my great felicity, met me according to appointment, at our old camp. Soon after, we left the place, and proceeded to Cum- berland river, reconnoitering that part of the country, and giving names to the different rivers. In March, 1771, I returned home to my family, being determined to bring them as soon as possible, at the risk of my life and fortune, to reside in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second Paradise. On my return, I found my family in happy circumstances. I sold my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not carry with us, and on the 25th of September, 1773, we took leave of our friends and proceeded on our journey to Ken- tucky, in company with five more families, and forty men that joined us in Powell's Valley, which is one hundred and fifty miles from the new settled parts of Kentucky. But this promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of adversity. On the 10th of October the rear of our company was attacked by a party of Indians, who killed six, and wounded one man. Of these my oldest son was one that fell in the action. Though we repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered our cattle and brought us into extreme diffi- culty. We returned forty miles, to the settlement on Clench river. We had passed over two mountains, Powell and Wai- den's, and were approaching Cumberland mountain, when this adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the wilderness, in passing from the old settlement in Virginia to Kentucky ; they range in a southwest and northeast direc- tion ; are of great length and breadth, and not far distant from each other. Over them Nature has formed passes less KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 295 difficult than might be expected from the view of such huge piles. The aspect of these cliffs is so wild and horrid, that it is impossible to behold them without horror. Until the 6th of June, 1774, I remained with my family on the Clench, when myself and another person were solicited by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of surveyors to the falls of Ohio. This was a tour of eight hundred miles, and took sixty-two days. On my return, G-ov. Dunmore gave me the command of three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawnese. In March, 1765, at the solicitation of a number of gentle- men of North Carolina, I attended their treaty at Wataga with the Cherokee Indians, to purchase the lands on the south side of Kentucky river. After this, I undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements through the wilderness to Kentucky. Having collected a number of enterprising men, well armed, I soon began this work. We proceeded until we came within fifteen miles of where Boonsborough now stands, where the Indians attacked us, and killed two, and wounded two more of our party. This was on the 22d of March, 1775. Two days after we were again attacked by them, when we had two more killed, and three wounded. After this, we proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition. On the 1st of April, we began to erect the fort of Boons- borough, at a salt lick sixty yards from the river, on the south side. On the 4th the Indians killed one of our men. On the 14th of June, having completed the fort, I returned to my family on the Clench, and whom I soon afterward removed to the fort. My wife and daughter were supposed to be the first white women that ever stood on the banks of Kentucky river. On the 24th of December, the Indians killed one of our men, and wounded another; and on the 15th of July, 1776, they took my daughter prisoner. I immediately pursued them with eight men, and on the 16th overtook and engaged them. 1 killed two of them and recovered my daughter. The Indians, having divided themselves into several par- ties, attacked in one day all our infant settlements and forts, doing a great deal of damage. The husbandmen were ambushed and unexpectedly attacked while toiling in the 296 HISTORICAL AND field. They continued this kind of warfare until the 15th of AprU, 1777, when nearly one hundred of them attacked the village of Boonsborough, and killed a number of its inhabitants. On the 16th Colonel Logan's fort was attacked by two hundred Indians. There were only thirteen men in the fort, of whom the enemy killed two, and wounded one. On the 20th of August, Colonel Bowman arrived with one hundred men from Virginia, with which additional force we had almost daily skirmishes with the Indians, who began now to learn the superiority of the " long knife," as they termed the Virginians ; being out-generalled in almost every action. Our affairs began now to wear a better aspect ; the Indians no longer daring to face us in open field, but sought private opportunities to destroy us. On the 7th of February, 1778, while on a hunting excur- sion alone, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians, and two Frenchmen, marching to attack Boonsborough. They pursued and took me prisoner, and conveyed me to Old Chili- cothe, the principal Indian town on Little Miami, where we arrived on the 18th of February, after an uncomfortable journey. On the 10th of March I was conducted to Detroit, and while there, was treated with great humanity by Gov. Hamilton, the British commmander at that port, and Intendant for Indian affairs. The Indians had such an affection for me, that they refused one hundred pounds sterling, offered them by the Governor, if they would consent to leave me with him, that he might be enabled to liberate me on my parole. Several English gentlemen then at Detroit, sensible of my adverse fortune, and touched with sympathy, generously offered to supply my wants, which I declined with many thanks, adding that I never expected it would be in my power to recompense such unmerited generosity. On the 10th of April, the Indians returned with me to Old Chilicothe, where we arrived on the 25th. This wa8 a long and fatiguing march, although through an exceeding fertile country, remarkable for springs and streams of water. At Chilicothe I spent my time as comfortably as I could expect ; was adopted, according to their custom, into a family where I became a son, and had a great share in the affection of my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. I was exceed- ^REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 297 ingly familiar and friendly with them, always appearing as cheerful and contented as possible, and they put great confi- dence in me. I often went a hunting with them, and fre- quently gained the applause for my activity at our shooting matches. I was careful not to exceed many of them in shoot- ing, for no people are more envious than they in this sport. I could observe in their countenances and gestures the great- est expressions of joy when they exceeded me, and when the reverse happened, of envy. The Shawanese king took great notice of me, and treated me with profound respect, and entire friendship, often intrusting me to hunt at my liberty. I frequently returned with the spoils of the woods, and as often presented some of what I had taken to him, expressive of duty to my sovereign. My food and lodging were in com- mon with them ; not so good, indeed, as I could desire, but necessity made everything acceptable. I now began to meditate an escape, and carefully avoided giving suspicion. I continued at Chilicothe until the 1st day of June, when I was taken to the salt springs on Sciotha, and there employed ten days in the manufacturing of salt. During this time, I hunted with my Indian masters, and found the land, for a great extent about this river, to exceed the soil of Kentucky. On my return to Chilicothe, one hundred and fifty of the choicest Indian warriors were ready to march against Boons- borough. They were painted and armed in a frightful man- ner. This alarmed me, and I determined to escape. ^ On the 26th of June, before sunrise, I went off sSetly, and reached Boonsborough on the 30th, a journey of one hundred and sixty miles, during which I had only one meal. I found our fortress in a bad state, but we immediately repaired our flanks, gates, posterns, and formed double bas- tions, which we completed in ten days. One of my fellow- prisoners escaped after me, and brought advice, that on account of my flight, the Indians had put off their expedition for three weeks. About the 1st of August, I set out with nineteen men, to surprise Point Creek-town, on Sciotha, within four miles of which we fell in with forty Indians going against Boons- borough. We attacked them, and they soon gave way, with- out any loss on our part. 298 HISTORICAL AND The enemy had one killed and two wounded. We took three horses and all their baggage. The Indians having evacuated their town, and gone altogether against Boons- borough, we returned, passed them on the 6th, and on the 7th, arrived safe at Boonsborough. On the 9th, the Indian army, consisting of four hundred and forty-four men, under the command of Captain Duquesne, and eleven other Frenchmen, and their chiefs, arrived and summoned the fort to surrender. I requested two days' consideration, which was granted. During this we brought in through the posterns all the horses and other cattle we could collect. On the 9th, in the evening, I informed their commander, that we were determined to defend the fort while a man was living. They then proposed a treaty : they would withdraw. The treaty was held within sixty yards of the fort, as we suspected the savages. The articles were agreed to and signed, when the Indians told us, as it was their custom for two Indians to shake hands with every white man in the treaty, as an evidence of friendship. We agreed to this also. They immediately grappled us to take us prisoners, but we cleared ourselves of them, though surrounded by hundreds, and gained the fort safe, except one man, who was wounded by a heavy fire from the enemy. The savages now began to undermine the fort, beginning at the watermark of Kentucky river, which is sixty yards from the fort ; this we discovered by the water being made muddy by the clay. We countermined them by cutting a trench across their subterraneous passage. The enemy dis- covering this by the clay we threw out of the fort, desisted. On the 20th of August, they raised the siege, during which we had two men killed, and four wounded. We lost a num- ber of cattle. The loss of the enemy was thirty-seven killed, and a much larger number wounded. We picked up one hundred and twenty-five pounds of their bullets, beside what stuck in the logs of the fort. In July, 1779, during my absence, Colonel Bowman, with one hundred and sixty men, went against the Shawanese of Old Chilicothe. He arrived undiscovered. A battle ensued, which lasted until ten in the morning, when Colonel Bow man retreated thirty miles. The Indians collected all then [REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 299 strength and pursued him, when another engagement ensued for two hours, not to Colonel Bowman's advantage. Colonel Harrod proposed to mount a number of horses, and break the enemy's line, who at this time fought with remarkable fury. This desperate measure had a happy effect, and the savages fled on all sides. In these two engagements we had nine men killed and one wounded. Enemy's loss uncertain. Only two scalps were taken. June 23d, 1780, five hundred Indians and Canadians under Colonel Bird, attacked Eiddle and Martain's station, and the forks of Licking Eiver, with six pieces of artillery. They took all the inhabitants captive, and killed one man and two women, loading the others with the heavy baggage, and such as failed in the journey were tomahawked. The hostile disposition of the savages caused General Clarke, the commandant at the falls of Ohio, to march with his regiment and the armed force of the country against Peccaway, the principal town of the Shawanese, on a branch the Great Miami, which he attacked with great success, took seventy scalps, and reduced the town to ashes, with the loss of seventeen men. About this time, I returned to Kentucky with my family ; for during my captivity, my wife, thinking me killed by the Indians, had transported my family and goods, on horses, through the wilderness, amidst great dangers, to her father's house in North Carolina. On the 6th of October, 1780, soon after my settling again at Boonesborough, I went with my brother to the Blue Licks, and on our return, he was shot by a party of Indians, who followed me by the scent of a dog, which I shot and escaped. The severity of the winter caused great distress in Kentucky, the .enemy, during the summer, having destroyed most of the corn. The inhabitants lived chiefly on buffalo's flesh. In the spring of 1702, the Indians harassed us. In May, they ravished, killed, and scalped a woman and her two daughters, near Ashton's station, and took a negro prisoner. Captain Ash ton pursued them with twenty-five men, and in an engagement which lasted two hours, his party were obliged to retreat, having eight killed, and four mortally wounded. Their brave commander fell in the action. On August 18th, two boys were carried off from Major 300 HlSTOKICAL AND Hoy's station. Captain Holder pursued the enemy with seventeen men, who were also defeated, with the loss of seven killed and two wounded. Our affairs became more and more alarming. The savages infested the country, and destroyed the whites as opportunity presented. In a field near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and running to scalp him, was himself shot from the fort, and fell dead upon the ground. All the Indian nations were now united against us. On August 15th, five hundred Indians and Canadians carne against Briat's station, five miles from Lexington. They assaulted the fort, and killed all the cattle round it ; but being repulsed, they retired the third day, having about eighty killed ; their wounded uncertain. The garrison had four killed, and nine wounded. On August 10th, Colonels Todd andTrigg, Major Harland and myself, speedily collected one hundred and seventy-six men, well-armed, and pursued the savages. They had marched beyond the Blue Licks, to a remarkable bend of the main fork of the Licking Kiver, about forty-three miles from Lexington, where we overtook them on the 19th. The savages observing us, gave way, and we, ignorant of their numbers, passed the river. When they saw our pro- ceedings, having greatly the advantage in situation, they formed their line of battle from one end of the Licking to the other, about a mile from the Blue Licks. The engage- ment was close and warm for about fifteen minutes, when we, being overpowered by numbers, were obliged to retreat, with a loss of sixty-seven men, seven of whom were taken prison- ers. The brave and much lamented colonels, Todd and Trigg, Major Harland, and my second son, were among the dead. We were afterward informed that the Indians, on numbering their dead, finding that they had four more killed than we, four of our people they had taken, wore given up to their young warriors, to be put to death after their barbarous manner. On our retreat, we were met by Colonel Logan, who was hastening to join us with a number of well-armed men. This powerful assistance we wanted on the day of the battle. The enemy said, one more fire from us would have made them give way. REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 301 I can not reflect upon this dreadful scene, without great sorrow. A zeal for the defense of their country, led these heroes to the scene of action, though with few men, to attack a powerful array of experienced warriors. When we gave way, they pursued us with the utmost eagerness, and in every quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult to cross, and many were killed in the fight, some just entering the river, some in the water, others after crossing, in ascend- ing the cliffs. Some escaped on horseback, a few on foot ; and being dispersed everywhere, in a few hours brought the melancholy news of this unfortunate battle to Lexington. Many widows were now made. The reader may guess what sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, exceeding any thing that I am able to describe. Being reinforced, we returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed everywhere, cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This mournful scene exhibited a horror almost unparalleled ; some torn and eaten by wild beasts ; those in the river by fishes ; all in such a putrid condition that one could not be distin- guished from another. When General Clarke, at the falls of the Ohio, heard of our disaster, he ordered an expedition to pursue the savages. We overtook them within two miles of their town, and we should have obtained a great victory, had riot some of them met us when about two hundred poles from their camp. The savages fled in the utmost disorder, and evacuated all their towns. We burned to ashes Old Chilicothe, Peccaway, New Chilicothe, and Willstown ; entirely destroyed their corn and other fruits, and spread desolation through their country. We took seven prisoners and fifteen scalps, and lost only four men, two of whom were accidentally killed by ourselves. This campaign damped the enemy, yet they made secret incursions. In October, a party attacked Crab Orchard, and one of them, being a good way before the others, boldly entered a house, in which were only a woman and her children, and a negro man. The savage used no violence, but attempted to carry off the negro, who happily proved too strong for him, and threw him on the ground, and in the struggle, the woman cut off his head with an ax, while her little daughter shut the door. The savages instantly came up, and applied their 26 302 HISTORICAL AND tomahawks to the door, when the mother putting an old rusty gun barrel through the crevice, the savages immedi- ately went off. From that time till the happy return of peace between the United States and Great Britain, the Indians did us no mischief. Soon after this, the Indians desired peace. Two darling sons and a brother, I have lost by savage hands, which have also taken from me forty valuable horses, and abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights have I spent, separated from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness. DANIEL BOONE. Fayette County, Kentucky. We will, while upon this subject, furnish also a biographi- cal sketch of Simon Kenton, the heroic cotemporary of Daniel Boone, and which is attributed to his own rude pen. Taking the two sketches together, they comprise a graphic sum- mary of Indian history in the West, at this period of the life of " Sam." Simon Kenton was a Virginian by birth, and emigrated to the wilds of the West in the year 1771. He was born, (according to a manuscript which he dictated to a gentleman of Kentucky, several years since,) in Fauquier county, on the 15th of May, 1755, of poor parents. His early life was passed principally on a farm. At the age of sixteen, having a quarrel with a rival in a love-affair, he left his antagonist upon the ground for dead, and made quick steps for the wil- derness. In the course of a few days, wandering to and fro, he arrived at a small settlement on Cheat Creek, one of the forks of the Monongahela, where he called himself Butler. Here, according to Mr. M'Clung, whose interesting account of Kenton, in the " Sketches of Western Adventure," we are following, he attached himself to a small company headed by John Mali on and Jacob Greathouse, which was about start- ing farther west, on an exploring expedition. He was soon induced, however, by a young adventurer of the name of Yager, who had been taken by the western Indians when a child, and spent many years among them, to detach himself from the company, and go with him to a land which the KEVOLUTIONAEY INCIDENTS. 303 Indians called Kan-tuc-kee, and which he represented as being a perfect elysium. Accompanied by another young man, named Strader, they set off for the backwoods paradise in high spirits : Keiiton not doubting that he should find a country flowing with milk and honey, where he would have little to do but to eat, drink, and be merry. Such, however, was not his luck. They continued wandering through the wilderness for some weeks, without finding the " promised land," and then retraced their steps, and successively ex- plored the land about Salt-Lick, Little and Big Sandy, and Guyandotte. At length, being totally wearied out, they turned their attention entirely to hunting and trapping, and thus spent nearly two years. Being discovered by the Indians, and losing one of his companions, (S'.rader,) Ken ton was com- pelled to abandon his trapping-waters, and hunting-grounds. After divers hardships, he succeeded in reaching the mouth of the Little Kenhawa, with his remaining companion, where he found and attached himself to another exploring party. This, however, was attacked by the Indians, soon after com- mencing the descent of the Ohio, compelled to abandon its canoes, and strike diagonally through the woods for Green- briar county. Its members suffered much in accomplishing this journey, from fatigue, sickness and famine; and on reaching the settlements, separated. Ken ton's rival of the love-affair had long since recovered from the castigation which he had given him. But of this, the young hero had not heard. He therefore did not think proper to venture home ; but, instead, built a canoe on the Monongahela, and once more sought the mouth of the Great Kenhawa, where he hunted till the spring of 1774. This year, he descended the Ohio as far as the mouth of Big Bone creek, and was engaged in various explorations till 1778, when he joined Daniel Boone in his expedition against the Indian town on Paint creek. Immediately on his return from this, he was despatched by Colonel Bowman, with two companions, to make observations upon the Indian towns on Little Miami, against which the colonel meditated an expedi- tion. He reached the towns in safety, and made the neces- sary surveys without being observed by the Indians; and the expedition might have terminated much to his credit, and been very useful tc the settlers in Kentucky, had he not, 304: HISTORICAL AND before leaving the towns, stolen a number of the Indians' horses. The animals were missed early on the following morning, the trail of the marauders was discovered, and pursuit instantly commenced. Kenton and his companions soon heard cries in their rear, knew that they had been dis- covered, and saw the necessity of riding for their lives. They therefore dashed through the woods at a furious rate, with the hue and cry after them, until their course was suddenly interrupted by an impenetrable swamp. Here they from necessity, paused for a few moments, and listened atten- tively. Hearing no sounds of pursuit, they resumed their course and skirting the swamp for some distance, in the vain hope of crossing it, they dashed off in a straight line for the Ohio. They continued their furious speed for forty- eight hours, halting but once or twice for a few minutes to take some refreshment, and reached the Ohio in safety. The river was high and rough, and they found it impossible to urge the jaded horses over. Various efforts were made, but all failed. Kenton was never remarkable for prudence ; and on this occasion, his better reason seems to have deserted him entirely. By abandoning the animals, he might yet have escaped, though several hours had been lost in en- deavoring to get them over. But this he could not make up his mind to do. He therefore called a council, when it was determined, as they felt satisfied they must be some twelve hours in advance of their pursuers, that they should conceal their horses in a neighboring ravine, and themselves take stations in an adjoining wood, in the hope that by sun- set, the high wind would abate, and the state of the river be such as to permit their crossing with the booty. At the hour waited for, however, the wind was higher, and the water rougher than ever. Still, as if completely infatuated, they remained in their dangerous position through the night. The next morning was mild, the Indians had not yet been heard in pursuit, and Kenton again urged the horses over. But, recollecting the difficulties of the preceding day, the affrighted animals could not now be induced to enter the water at all. Each of the three men therefore mounted a horse, abandoning the rest, (they had stolen quite a drove,) and started down the river, with the intention of keeping the Ohio and Indiana side till they should arrive opposite KB VOLUTION ARY INCIDENTS. 305 Louisville. But they were slow in making even this move- ment ; and they had not ridden over a hundred yards when they heard a loud halloo, proceeding apparently from the spot which they had just left. They were soon surrounded by the pursuers. One of Kenton's companions effected his escape, the other was killed. Kenton was made prisoner " falling a victim/ 7 says Mr. M'Clung, "to his excessive love of horseflesh." After the Indians had scalped his dead companion, and kicked and cuffed Kenton to their hearts 7 content, they com- pelled him to lie down upon his back, and stretch out his arms to their full length. They then passed a stout stick at right angles across his breast, to each extremity of which, his wrists were fastened by thongs of buffalo-hide. Stakes werejiext driven into the earth near his feet, to which they were fastened in like manner. A halter was then tied round his neck, and fastened to a sapling which grew near. And finally, a strong rope was passed under his body, and wound several times round his arms at the elbows thus lashing them to the stick which lay across his breast, and to which his wrists were fastened, in a manner peculiarly painful. He could move neither feet, arms, nor head ; and was kept in this position till the next morning. The Indians then wishing to commence their return-journey, unpinioned Ken- ton, and lashed him by the feet, to a wild, unbroken colt, (one of the animals he had. stolen from them,) with his hands tied behind him. In this manner he was driven into a captivity, as cruel, sin- gular, and remarkable in other respects, as any in the whole history of Indian warfare upon this continent. " A fatalist/ 7 says the author of the Sketches of Western Adventure, " would recognise the hand of destiny in every stage of its progress. InJ:he infatuation with which Kenton refused to adopt proper measures for his safety, while such were practicable ; in the persevering obstinacy with which he remained on the Ohio shore until flight became useless ; and afterward, in that remarkable succession of accidents, by which, without the least exertion on his part, he was so often at one hour tan- talized with a prospect of safety, and the next plunged into the deepest despair. He was eight times exposed to the gauntlet three times tied t0 the stake and as often 26* 306 HlSTOKICAL AND thought himself upon the eve of a terrible death. All the sentences passed upon him, whether of mercy or condemna- tion, seem to have been pronounced in one council only to be reversed in another. Every friend that Providence raised up in his favor, was immediately followed by some enemy, who unexpectedly interposed, and turned his short glimpse of sunshine into deeper darkness than ever. For three weeks he was constantly see-sawing between life and death ; and during the whole time, he was perfectly passive. No wisdom, or foresight, or exertion, could have saved him. Fortune fought his battle from first to last, and seemed determined to permit nothing else to interfere. He was eventually liberated from the Indians, when about to be bound to the stake for the fourth time and burnt, by an Indian agent of the name of Drewyer, who was anxious to obtain intelligence for the British commander at Detroit, of the strength and condition of the settlements in Kentucky. He got nothing important out of Kenton ; but the three weeks, Football of Fortune was sent to Detroit, from which place he effected his escape in about eight months, and returned to Kentucky. Fearless and active, he soon embarked in new enterprises ; and was with George Kogers Clarke, in. his celebrated expedition against Vincennes and Kaskaskia ; with Edwards, in his abortive expedition to the Indian towns in 1785 and with Wayne, in his decisive campaign of 1794. Simon Kenton, throughout the struggles of the pioneers, had the reputation of being a valuable scout, a hardy woods- man, and a brave Indian fighter; but in reviewing his event- ful career, he appears to have greatly lacked discretion, and to have evinced frequently a want of energy. In his after life he was much respected, and he continued to the last fond of regaling listeners with stories of the early times. A friend of ours, who about three years ago made a visit to he abode of the venerable patriarch, describes in the following terms his appearance at that time: " Kenton's form, even under the weight of seventy-nine years, is striking, and must have been a model of manly strength and agility. His eye is blue, mild, and yet penetrating in its glance. The forehead projects very much at the eyebrows which are well defined and then recedes, and is neither very high nor very broad. His hair, which in active life was light, is now quite REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 307 gray ; his nose is straight ; and his mouth, before he lost his teeth, must have been expressive and handsome. I observed that he had yet one tooth which, in connection with his character and manner of conversation, was continually remind- ing me of Leatherstocking. The whole face is remarkably expressive, not of turbulence or excitement, but rather of rumination and self-possession. Simplicity, frankness, honesty, and a strict regard to truth, appeared to be the prominent traits of his character. In giving an answer to a question which my friend asked him, I was particularly struck with his truthfulness and simplicity. The question was, whether the account of his life, given in the Sketches of Western Adventure, was true or not. " Well, I'll tell you," said he ; "not true. The book says that when Blackfish, the Injun warrior, asked me, when they had taken me prisoner, if Colonel Boone sent me to steal their horses, I said ' no, sir !' Here he looked indignant and rose from his chair. " I tell you I never said ' sir V to an Injun in my life ; I scarcely ever say it to a white man." Here Mrs. Kenton, who was engaged in some domestic occupation at the table, turned round and remarked, that when they were last in Kentucky, some one gave her the book to read to her husband ; and that when she came to that part, he would not let her read any further. "And I tell you," continued he, " I was never tied to a stake in my life to be burned. They had me painted black when I saw G-irty, but not tied to a stake." We are inclined to think, notwithstanding this, that the statement in the " Sketches," of his being three times tied to the stake, is correct ; for the author of that interesting work had before him a manuscript account of the pioneer's life, which had been dictated by Mr. Kenton, to a gentleman of Kentucky, a number of years before, when he had no motive to exaggerate, and his memory was comparatively unimpaired. But he is now beyond the reach of earthly toil, or trouble, or suffering. His old age was as exemplary as his youth and manhood had been active and useful. And though his last years were clouded by poverty, and his eyes closed in a miserable cabin to the light of life, yet shall he occupy a bright page in our border history, and his name soon open to the light of fame. CHAPTER XXI. interesting Sketch of the life of General Stark, the hero of Bennington The Battle of Bennington Boston a century ago Captain William Cunningham. OUR history, which must necessarily be somewhat episodi- cal in its character, since we could hardly pretend to give in a single volume, a detailed history of Sam, must now return to the more northern arena of his struggles with the great foe whom he has so daringly defied, and with whom he so pertinaciously struggles. We shall give only rapid sketches of the concluding scenes of the Revolution, with some char- acteristic specimens of the indomitable humor with which the "giant youngling" met all the difficulties of his new position of contention with the foremost Powers of all the world. The battle of Bennington, which has been referred to in a graphic summary of the events of this period, in a pre- vious chapter, and taken principally from Judge Drayton's charge, has found a worthy historian in Richard Everett, the brother of Edward, and we do not conceive, that the transfer of this noble sketch of the bluff and hardy hero, Stark, to our pages, does any discredit to the true history of " Sam" and his children. THE BATTLE OF BENNINGTON. BY RICHARD EVERETT. " When Yankees skilled in martial rule, First put the British troops to school ; Instructed them in warlike trade, And new maneuvers of parade, The true war dance of Yankee reels, And manual exercise of heels ; Made them give up like saints complete, The arm of flesh, and trust the feet, And work like Christians undissembling, Salvation out with fear and trembling." 308 [REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 309 John Stark, the hero of Bennington, was a native of New Hampshire. At an early age he enlisted in a company of rangers, participated in several conflicts with the savages, and at last fell into their hands, a prisoner of war. Eedeemed by his friends for one hundred and three dollars, he joined Rogers' rangers, and served with distinction through the French and Indian difficulty. When the news came to his quiet home, that American blood had been spilt upon the green at Lexington, he rallied his countrymen, and hurried on to Boston with eight hundred brave mountaineers. He presented himself before the American commander on the eve of the battle of Bunker Hill, and receiving a colonel's commission, instantly hurried to the intrenchments. Throughout the battle of Bunker Hill, Stark and his New Hampshire men nobly sustained the honor of the patriot cause, and no troops exceeded in bravery the militia regiment of Colonel John Stark. In the spring of 1776, he went to Canada, and at the battle of Trenton he commanded the right wing of Washington's army. He was at Princeton, Benning- ton, and several other severe battles, always sustaining his reputation, as a brave, honorable, sterling patriot, and an able general. He was a great favorite of General Washington, and very popular in the army. On the 8th of May, 1822, aged ninety-three years, he "was gathered to his fathers," and his remains repose upon the banks of the beautiful Merrimac, beneath a monument of granite, which bears the inscription " MAJOR-GENERAL STARK." Having given a very brief sketch of the celebrated officer who led our patriot militia upon the field of Bennington, we will proceed with the account of that battle. The magnificent army of General Burgoyne, which invaded the States in 1777, having become straightened for provisions and stores, the royal commander ordered a halt, and sent Colonel Baume, a Hessian officer, to scour the country for supplies. Baume took a strong force of British infantry, two pieces of artillery, and a squadron of heavy German dra- goons. A great body of Indians, hired and armed by the British, followed his force, or acted as scouts and flanking parties. Stark, on the intelligence of Burgoyne's invasion, was offered the command of one of two regiments of troops which H HISTORICAL AND were raised in New Hampshire, through the exertions, chiefly, of John Langdon, Speaker of the General Assem- bly. Stark had served for a long period as General, but at that time was at home, a private citizen. But at the call of his countrymen he again took the field. The two regiments were soon raised, and with them, as senior officer, Stark hastened to oppose the British army. At that time the Vermont militia were enrolled into an organization, called the " Berkshire llegiment," under Colonel Warner. On arriving near Bennington, Stark sent forward Colonel Gregg, with a small force to reconnoiter, but that officer soon returned with information that a strong force of British, Hessians, and Indians was rapidly approaching. Upon this intelligence, Stark resolved to stand his ground and give battle. Messengers were sent at once to the Berkshire mili- tia to hurry on, and the patriots were directed to see that their weapons were in good order. This was on the 14th of August, 1777. During the day, Baume and his army appeared, and learning that the militia were collecting in front of his route, the commander ordered his army to halt, and throw up intrenchments. An express was also sent to General Burgoyne, for reinforcements. The 15th was dull and rainy. Both armies continued their preparations, while waiting for reinforcements. Skir- mishing was kept up all day and night, between the militia and the Indians, and the latter suffered so severely, that a great portion of the savage force left the field, saying that " the woods were full of Yankees." About 12 o'clock on the night of the 15th, a party of Berkshire militia came into the American camp. At the head of one company, was the Eeverend Mr. Allen, of Pittsfield, and that worthy gen- tleman appeared full of zeal to meet the enemy. Sometime before daylight, he called on General Stark, and said: ''General, the people of Berkshire county have often been called out, without being allowed to fight, and if you don't give them a chance, they have resolved never to turn out again." " Very well," replied Stark, " do you want to go at it now, while it is dark and rainy ?" " No, not just at this moment," said the warlike minister. " Then," said the Gen- eral, " if the Lord shall once more give us sunshine, and I do not give you fighting- enough, I '11 never ask you to come KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 311 out again !" This satisfied the preacher, and he went -out to cheer up his flock with the good news. Day dawned, bright and warm, on the 16th. All nature, invigorated by the mild August rain, glared with beauty and freshness. Before sunrise, the Americans were in motion, while from, the British intrenchments, the sound of bugles and the roll of drums, told that Baume's forces were ready for action. Stark early arranged his plan of attack. Col- onel Nichols, with three hundred men, was sent out to attack the British rear; Colonel Herrick, with three hundred men, marched against the right flank, but was ordered to join Nichols before making his assault general. With about three hundred men, Colonels Hubbard and Stickney were sent against the entrenched front, while Stark, with a small reserve, waited to operate whenever occasion offered. It must be remembered that the American forces were militia, while Baume's army was made up of well-disciplined, well- armed, and experienced soldiers. Many of the patriots were armed with fowling-pieces, and there were whole companies without a bayonet. They had no artillery. General Stark waited impatiently until the roar of mus- ketry proclaimed that the different detachments had com- menced their attack, and then forming his small battalion, he made his memorable speech: "Boys! there's the enemy, and we must beat them, or Molly Stark sleeps a widow to-night Forward !" His soldiers, with enthusiastic shouts, rushed forward upon the Hessian defenses, and the battle became general. The Hessian dragoons, dismounted, met the Americans with stern bravery. The two cannons, loaded with grape and cannister, swept the hill-side with dreadful effect, Stark's white horse fell in less than ten minutes after his gallant rider came under fire, but on foot, with his hat in one hand, and his saber in the other, he kept at the head of his men, who, without flinching a single foot, urged their way up the little hill. Brave Parson Allen, with a clubbed musket, was seen amid the smoke, fighting in the front platoon of his company. The whole field was a volcano of fire. Stark, in his official report, says that the two forces were within a few yards of each other, and " the roaring of their guns was like a continuous clap of thunder !" The S12 HISTORICAL AND Hessian and British regulars, accustomed to hard-fought fields, held their ground stubbornly and bravely. For more than two hours the battle hung in even scale. At length, Baume ordered a charge ; at that instant he fell, mortally wounded, and his men charging forward, broke their ranks in such a manner, that the Americans succeeded, after a fierce hand to hand fight, in entering the mtrenchments. Stark shouted to his men, " Forward, boys, charge them home !" and his troops, maddened by the conflict, swept the hill with irresistible valor. They pushed forward without discipline or order, seized the artillery, and gave chase to the flying enemy. The field being won, plunder became the object of the militia. The guns, sabres, stores and equipments of the defeated foe were being gathered up, when Col. Breyman, with five hundred men, suddenly appeared upon the field. He had been sent by Burgoyne to re-inforce Baume, but the heavy rain had prevented his men from marching at a rapid rate. The flying troops instantly rallied and joined the new array, which speedily assumed an order of battle, and began to press the scattered forces of the patriots.. This was a critical period. Stark put forth every effort to rally his men, but they were exhausted, scattered, and nearly out of ammuni- tion. It seemed as if the fortune of the day was in the royal hands, when from the edge of a strip of forest, half a mile off, came a loud and genuine American cheer. Stark turned, and beheld emerging from the wood, the Berkshire regiment, under Colonel Warner. This body of men, also delayed by the rain, after a forced march, had just reached the battle field, panting for a share in the affray. General Stark hastened to the captain of the foremost company, and ordered him to lead his men to the charge at once. But the captain cooly asked, " Where's the colonel ? I want to see Colonel Warner before I move." The colonel was sent for, and the redoubtable captain, drawing himself up, said, with the nasal twang peculiar to the puritans of old, "Naow, Kernal, what d'ye want me tu dew?" ' ; Drive those red-coats from the hill yonder," was the answer. " Wall, it shall be done," said the captain, and issuing the necessary orders, he led his men to the charge without a moment's hesitation. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 313 Said an eye-witness, afterwards, " The last we saw of Warner's regiment for half an hour, was when they entered the smoke and fire about half way up the hill." Stark with a portion of his rallied troops supported the Berkshire men, and the royal forces were defeated, after a close contest. A portion of them escaped, but seven hundred men and officers were taken prisoners, among the latter Colonel Baume, who soon died of his wound. The British lost two hundred and seven men killed, and a large number wounded. Of the Americans, about one hun- dred were killed and the same number wounded The spoils consisted of four pieces of cannon, several hundred stand of excellent muskets, two hundred and fifty dragoon swords, eight brass drums, and four wagons laden with stores, cloth- ing and ammunition. This victory severely crippled Burgoyne, and discouraged his army, while it enlivened the Americans from one extent of the country to the other. It taught the British troops to respect the American militia, and it was a brilliant precursor to the victories of Saratoga and Bemis' Hights. Congress voted thanks to General Stark and his brave troops for their great victory, and took measures to push on the war with renewed energy and hope. But the joke of "or Molly Stark's a widow," is not the only fun indulged in at this period, by " Sam," and at the expense too of " the magnificent army of Burgoyne." This pompous and important person had just before issued the following conciliatory document : PROCLAMATION. By John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of His Majes- ty's armies in America, Colonel of the Qmen's regiment of Light Dragoons, Governor of Fort William, in North Britain, one of the Representatives of the Commons of Great Britain, and commanding an army and fleet employed on an Expedition from Canada, etc., etc., etc. The forces entrusted to my command are designed to act in concert, and upon a common principle, with the numerous armies and fleets which already display in every quarter of 314 HISTORICAL AND America the power, the justice, and, when properly sought, the mercy of the king. The cause in which the British army is thus exerted, applies to the most affecting interests of the human heart; and the military servants of the crown, at first called forth for the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the constitu- tion, now combine with love of their country and duty to their sovereign, the other extensive incitements, which form a due sense of the general privileges of mankind. To the eyes and ears of the temperate part of the public, and the breasts of suffering thousands in the provinces, be the melan- choly appeal, whether the present unnatural rebellion has not been made a foundation for the completest system of tyranny that ever God, in his displeasure, suffered for a time to be exercised over a stubborn and froward generation. Arbitrary imprisonment, confiscation of property, persecu- tion and torture, unprecedented in the inquisition of the Eomish church, are among the palpable enormities that verify the affirmative. These are inflicted by assemblies and committees who dare to profess themselves friends to liberty, upon the most quiet subjects, without distinction of age or sex, for the sole crime, often for the sole suspicion, of having adhered in principle to the government under which they were born, and to which, by every tie, divine and human, they owe allegiance. To consummate these shocking pro- ceedings, the profanation of religion is added to the most profligate prostitution of common reason the consciences of men are set at naught, and multitudes are not only compelled to bear arms, but also to swear subjection to a usurpation they abhor. Animated by these considerations at the head of troops in the full powers of health, discipline and valor determined to strike where necessary, and anxious to spare where possible I, by these presents, invite and exhort all persons, in all places whither the progress of this army may point and, by the blessing of God, I will extend it far to maintain such a conduct as may justify me in protecting their lands, habi- tations and families. The intention of this address is tc hold forth security, not degradation, to the country. Tc those whom spirit and principle may indue to partake the glorious task of redeeming their countrymen from dangers, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 315 and re-establishing the blessings of legal government, I offer encouragement and employment ; and upon the first intelli- gence of their association, I will find means to assist their undertakings. The domestic, the industrious, the infirm, and even the timid inhabitants, I am desirous to protect, provided they remain quietly at their houses that they do not suffer their cattle to be removed, nor their corn or forage to be secreted or destroyed that they do not break up their bridges or roads, nor by any other act, directly or indirectly, endeavor to obstruct the operations of the king's troops, or supply or assist those of the enemy. Every species of provisions brought to my camp will be paid for at an equitable rate, and in solid coin. In consciousness of Christianity, rny royal master's 'clem- ency, and the honor of soldiership, I have dwelt upon this invitation, and wished for more persuasive terms to give it impression. And let not people be led to disregard it by considering their distance from the immediate situation of my camp. I have but to give stretch to the Indian forces under my direction and they amount to thousands to overtake the hardened enemies of Great Britain and America. I consider them the same wherever they may lurk. If, notwithstanding these endeavors and sincere inclinations to effect them, the frenzy of hostility should remain, I trust I shall stand acquitted in the eyes of God and men, in denouncing and executing the vengeance of the State against the willful outcasts. The messengers of justice and of wrath await them in the field ; and devastation, famine, and every concommitant horror that a reluctant but indispensable prosecution of military duty must occasion, will bar the way to their return. JOHN BURGOYNE. Camp at Ticonderoga, July 2, 1777. By order of his excellency, the Lieutenant General : ROBERT KINGSTON, Secretary. Now hear " Sam's" answer through one of his chosen sons, to this facetious pronunciamento ! It is a veritable document of the " olden time," which the children of " Sam," during this or the last generation, have had no opportunity of perusing: 316 HISTORICAL AND To John Burgoyne, Esq., Lieutenant General of his Majesty's armies, in America, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of light dragoons, Governor of Fort William in North Britain, one of the Representatives of the Commons of Great Britain, and commanding an army and fleet employed on an Expedition from Canada, etc., etc. etc. MOST HIGH, MOST MIGHTY, MOST PUISSANT, AND MOST SUB- LIME GENERAL: When the forces under your command arrived at Quebec, in order to act in concert, and upon a common principle, with the numerous fleets and armies which already display in every quarter of America, the justice and mercy of your king, we, the reptiles of America, were struck with unusual trepidation and astonishment. But what words can express the plentitude of our horror, when the Colonel of the Queen's regiment of light dragoons advanced toward Ticonderoga. The mountains shook before thee, and the trees of the forest bowed their lofty heads the vast lakes of the north were chilled at thy presence, and the mighty cataracts stopped their tremendous career, and were suspended in awe at thy approach. Judge, then, Oh ! Ineffable Gov- ernor of Fort William, in North Britain, what must have been the terror, dismay, and despair that overspread this paltry continent of America, and us, its wretched inhabitants. Dark and dreary, indeed, was the prospect before us, till, like the sun in the horizon, your most gracious, sublime, and irresistible proclamation, opened the doors of mercy, and snatched us, as it were, from the jaws of annihilation. We foolishly thought, blind as we were, that your gracious master's fleets and armies were come to destroy us and our liberties ; but we are happy in hearing from you (and who can doubt what you assert ?) that they were called forth for the sole purpose of restoring the rights of the Constitution to a froward and stubborn generation. And is it for this, ! Sublime Lieutenant-General, that you have given yourself the trouble to cross the wide Atlantic, and with incredible fatigue traverse uncultivated wilds? And we ungratefully refuse the proffered blessing? To restore the rights of the Constitution, you have called together an amiable host of savages, and turned them loose to scalp our women and children, and lay our country waste REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 817 tli is they have performed with their usual skill and clem- ency, and yet we remain insensible of the benefit, and unthankful for so much gooiness. Our Congress has declared Independence, and our Assem- blies, as your Highness justly observes, have most wickedly imprisoned the avowed friends of that power with which they are at war, and most profanely compelled those whose con- sciences will not permit them to fight, to pay some small part toward the expenses their country is at, in supporting what is called a necessary defensive war. If we go on thus in our obstinacy and ingratitude, what can we expect, hut that you should, in your anger, give a stretch to the Indian forces under your direction, amounting to thousands, to over- take and destroy us? or, which is ten times worse, that you should withdraw your fleets and armies, and leave us to our misery, without completing -the benevolent task you have k'gun, of restoring to us the rights of the Constitution ? We submit we submit Most Puissant Colonel of the Queen's regiment of light dragoons, and Governor of Fort William, in North Britain. We offer our heads to the scalping-knife, and our bellies to the bayonet. Who can resist the force of your eloquence ? Who can withstand the terror of your arms? The invitation you have made in the consciousness of Christianity, your royal master's clemency, and the horror of soldiership, we thankfully accept. The blood of the slain, the cries of injured virgins and innocent children, and the never-ceasing sighs and groans of starving wretches, now languishing in the jails and prison-ships of New York, call on us in vain, while your sublime procla- mation is sounded in our ears. Forgive us, ! our country ! Forgive us, dear posterity! Forgive us, all ye foreign powers, who are anxiously watching our conduct in this important struggle, if we yield implicitly to the persuasive tongue of the most elegant Colonel of her Majesty's regiment of light dragoons. Forbear, then, thou magnanimous Lieutenant-General ! Forbear to denounce vengeance against us. Forbear to give a stretch to those restorers of Constitutional rights, the Indian tbrces under your direction. Let not the messenger of justice and wrath await us in the field, and devastation, and every concomitant horror, bar our return to the allegiance of a 27* 318 HISTORICAL AND prince, who, by his royal will, would deprive us of every bless- ing of life, with all possible clemency. We are domestic, we are industrious, we are infirm and timid ; we shall remain quietly at home, and not remove our cattle, our corn, our forage, in hope that you will come, at the head of your troops, in the full powers of health, disci- pline, and valor, and take charge of them yourselves. Behold our wives and daughters, our flocks and herds, our goods and chattels, are they not at the mercy of our Lord the King, and of his Lieu ten ant-General, member of the House of Com- mons, and Governor of Fort William, in North Britain ? A. B. C. D. E. P., ETC., ETC., ETC. Saratoga, 10th July, 1777. " Sam" makes condescending proposals for a compromise with his haughty master, General Burgoyne, and asks him in philanthropical spirit, to be "as mild as he can!" Proposal for an exchange of General Burgoyne. Ascribed to Ms Excellency William Livingston, Esq., Governor of the State of New Jersey. Should the report of Gefleral Burgoyne having infringed the capitulation, between Major General Gates and himself, prove to be true, our superiors will doubtless take proper care to prevent his reaping any benefit from it ; and should he be detained as a prisoner, for his infraction of any of the articles, I would humbly propose to exchange him, in such a manner as will, at the same time, flatter his vanity and re- dound to the greatest emolument to America. To evince the reasonableness of my proposal, I would observe, that by the same parity of reason that a general is exchanged for a general, a colonel for a colonel, and so on with respect to other officers, mutually of equal rank, we ought to have for one and the same gentleman who shall happen to hold both these offices, both a general and a colonel. This will appear evident from the consideration that those exchanges are never regulated by viewing the persons exchanged in the light of men, but as officers; since otherwise, a colonel might as well be exchanged for a sergeant as for an officer of his EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 319 jwn rank ; a sergeant being, undoubtedly, equally a man, and, as the case sometimes happens, more of a man too. One prisoner, therefore, having twenty different offices, ought to redeem from captivity twenty prisoners, aggregately holding the same offices ; or such greater or less number as shall, with respect to rank, be equal to his twenty offices. This being admitted, I think General Burgoyne is the most profit- able prisoner we could have taken, having more offices, or, (what amounts to the same thing in Old England,) more titles, than any gentleman on this side the Ganges. And as his impetuous Excellency certainly meant to avail himself of his titles, by their pompous display in his proclamation, had he proved conqueror, it is but reasonable that we should avail ourselves of them, now he is conquered ; and, till I meet with a better project for that purpose, I persuade myself that the following proposal will appropriate them to a better use than they were ever applied to before. The exchange I propose is as follows : I. For John Burgoyne, Esquire. Some worthy justice of the peace, magnanimously stolen out of his bed, or taken from his farm by a bapd of ruffians in the uniform of British soldiery, and now probably perish- ing with hunger and cold in a loathsome jail in New York. II. For John Burgoyne, Lieutenant General of His Majesty 's armies in America. Two Majors General. III. For John Burgoyne, Colonel of the Queen's regiment of Light Dragoons. As the British troops naturally prize everything in pro- portion as it partakes of royalty, and undervalue whatever originates from a Republican government, I suppose a colonel of Her Majesty's own regiment will procure at least three Continental Colonels of horse. IV. For John Burgoyne, Governor of Fort William, in North Britain. Here I would demand one governor of one of the United States, as his multitulary excellence is governor of a fort, and two more, as that fort is in North Britain, which his Brit- tanic majesty may be presumed to value in that proportion ; but considering that the said fort is called William, which may excite in his majesty's mind the rebellious idea of liberty, 320 HISTORICAL AND I deduct, one on that account, and, rather than puzzle the cartel with any perplexity, I am content with two governors. V. For John Burgoyne, one of the Kepresentatives of Great Britain. The first member of Congress who may fall into the enemy's hands. VI. For John Burgoyne, Commander of a fleet employed in an expedition from Canada. The Admiral of our navy. VII. For John Burgoyne, Commander of an army employed in an expedition from Canada. One Commander-in-Chief in any of our departments. VIII. For John Burgoyne, etc., etc., etc. Some connoisseurs in hieroglyphics imagine that these three et ceteras are emblematical of three certain occult qualities of the general, which he never intends to exhibit in more legible characters, viz : prudence, modesty, and humanity. Others suppose that they stand for king of America, and that, had he proved successful, he would have fallen upon General Howe, and afterwards have set up for himself. Be this as it may, (which it, however, behooves a certain gentleman on the other side the water seriously to consider,) I insist upon it, that as all dark and cabalistical characters are suspicious, these incognoscible enigmas may portend much more than is generally apprehended. At all events, General Burgoyne has availed himself of their importance, and I doubt not they excited as much terror in his proclamation as any of his more luminous titles. As his person, therefore, is by the capture, become the property of the Congress, all his titles, (which some suppose to constitute his very essence,) whether more splendid or opaque, latent or visible, are become, ipso facto, the lawful goods and chattels of the Continent, and ought not to be restored without a considerable equivalent. If we should happen to overrate them, it is his own fault, it being in his power to ascertain their intrinsic value, and it is a rule in law, that when a man is possessed of evidence to disprove what is alleged against him, and refuses to produce it, the presumption raised against him is to be taken for granted. Certain it is, that these three et ceteras must- stand for three somethings, and as these three somethings must, at least, be equal to three somethings without rank 01 KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 821 title, I had some thoughts of setting them down for three privates; but then, as they are three somethings in General Burgoyne, which must be of twice the value of three any- things in any three privates, I shall only double them, and demand in exchange for these three problematical, enigmati- cal, hieroglyphical, mystic, necromantical, cabalistical, and portentious et ceteras, six privates. So that, according to my plan, we ought to detain this ideal conquerer of the North, now a real prisoner in the East, till we have got in exchange for him, one esquire, two majors- general, three colonels of light horse, two governors, one member of Congress, the admiral of one navy, one coin- mander-in-chief in a separate department, and six privates ; which is probably more than this extraordinary hero would fetch in any part of Great Britain, were he exposed at public auction for a year and a day. All which is nevertheless, humbly submitted to the consideration of the honorable, the Congress, and his excellency, General Washington. Princeton, December 8th, 1777. In order that good jokes may not go abroad without com- pany we append the following, which are quite equally expressive of the spirit of the times of which we treat : REMINISCENCES. BOSTON LESS THAN A CENTURY AGO. Dress, etc. Seventy years ago cocked hats, wigs, and red cloaks, were the usual dress of gentlemen boots were rarely seen, except among military men. Shoe-strings were worn only by those who could not afford to buy buckles. In winter, round coats were used, made stiff with buckram they came down to the knees in front. Before the Revolution, boys wore wigs and cocked hats ; and boys of genteel families wore cocked hats till within the last thirty years. Ball-dress for gentlemen was silk coat, and breeches of the same, and embroidered waistcoats sometimes white satin breeches. Buckles were fashionable till within the last fifteen or twenty years, and a man could not have remained in a ball-room with shoe-strings. It was usual for the bridegroom 322 HISTORICAL AND and maids, and men attending, to go to church together three successive Sundays after the wedding, with a change of dress each day. A gentleman who deceased not long since, appeared the first Sunday in white broadcloth, the second in blue and gold, the third in peach bloom, pearl buttons. It was a custom to hang the escutcheon of a deceased head of a family out of a window over the front door, from the time of his decease until after his funeral. The last instance which is remembered of this, was in the case of Gov. Han- cock's uncle, 1764. Copies of the escutcheon, painted on black silk, were more anciently distributed among the pall- bearers, rings afterward and, until within a few years, gloves. Dr. A. Elliott had a mug full of rings which were presented to him at funerals. Till within twenty years, gentlemen wore powder, and many of them sat from thirty to forty minutes under the barber's hand, to have their hair cropped ; suffer- ing no inconsiderable pain from hair-pulling, and sometimes from hot tongs. Crape cushions and hoops were indispensable in full dress, until within thirty years. Sometimes ladies were dressed the day before the party and slept in easy chairs, to keep their hair in fit condition for the following night. Most ladies went to parties on foot, if they could not get a cast in a friend's carriage or chaise. Gentlemen rarely had a chance to ride. The latest dinner hour was two o'clock ; some officers of the colonial government dined later occasionally. In genteel families, ladies went to drink tea about four o'clock, and rarely stayed after candle-light in summer. It was the fashion for ladies to propose to visit not to be sent for. The drinking of punch in the forenoon, in public houses, was a common practice with the most respectable men, till about five and twenty years ; and evening clubs were very common. The latter, it is said, were more common formerly, as this afforded the means of communion on the state of the country. Dinner parties were very rare. Wine was very little in use ; convivial parties drank punch or toddy. Half boots came into use about thirty years ago. The first pair that appeared in Boston were worn by a young gentleman, who came here from New York, and who was more remarkable for his boots than anything else. Within twenty years, gentlemen wore scarlet coats, with black velvet collars and very costly buttons, KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 323 of mock pearl, cut steel, or painted glass and neckcloths edged with lace, and laced ruffles over the hands. Before the Ke volution, from five to six hundred pounds was the utmost of annual expenditure in those families where carriages, and corresponding domestics were kept. There were only two or three carriages, that is chariots or coaches, in 1750. Chaises on four wheels, not phaetons, were in use in families of distinction. The history of the Liberty-Tree is said to be this : That a certain Capt. Mclntosh illuminated the tree, and hung upon it effigies of obnoxious characters, and that these were taken down by the liberty boys and burnt, and the tree thus got its name. The Popes. A stage was erected on wheels on this stage was placed a figure in the chair, called the pope ; behind him, a female figure, in the attitude of dancing, whom they called Nancy Dawson ; behind her Admiral Byng, hanging on a gallows ; and behind him the devil. A similar composition was made at the South-end, called South-end pope. In the daytime the processions, each drawing with them their popes and their attendants, met and passed each other, on the mill or draw-bridge, very civilly ; but in the evening, they met at the same point, and a battle ensued with fists, sticks and stones ; and one or the other of the popes was captured. The North-end pope was never taken but once, and then the captain had been early wounded and taken from the field. The pope conflicts were held in memory of the powder-plot of Nov. 5, and were some sort of imitation of what was done in England on the same anniversary. A man used to ride on an ass, with immense jackboots, and his face covered with a horrible mask, and was called, Joyce Jr. His office was to assemble men and boys, in mob style, and ride in the middle of them, and in such company to terrify the adherents to the royal government, before the Revolution. The tumult which resulted in the massacre of 1770, was excited by such means. Joyce, junior, was said to have a particular whistle, which brought his adherents, etc., whenever they were wanted. About 1730 to 1740, there was no meat market; there were only three or four shops in which fresh meat was sold one of them was the corner of State street and Cornhill. 324 HISTORICAL AND where Mr. Hartshorn now keeps. Gentlemen used to go the day before, and have their names put down for what thoy wanted. Outside of this shop was a large hook, on which carcasses used to hang. A little man, who was a justice of the peace, came one day for meat, but came too late. He was disappointed, and asked to whom such and such pieces were to go? One of them was to go to a tradesman; (it was not a common thing in those days, for tradesmen to eat fresh meat,) the justice went out, saying he would send the trades- man a salad for his lamb. He sent an overdue and unpaid tax-bill. Soon after, the tradesman met the justice near this place, and told him he would repay his kindness ; which he did. by hanging the justice up by the waistband of his breeches to the butcher's hook, and leaving him to get down as he could. TARRING AND FEATHERING ORIGINALLY A YANKEE TRICK. From the American Mercury. This appears from the speech of McFingal, the Tory Saga- more, to the Yankee mob: " Was there a Yankee trick ye knew, They did not play as well as you ? Did they not lay their heads together, And gain "your art to tar and feather ?" TARRING AND FEATHERING LAWFUL ! This appears, by the authority of the sentence which was pronounced on McFingal. This sentence, be it remembered, though seemingly an order and decree of a committee, in fact, had its origin in the brain of a man who was a judge of the Supreme Court of the State of Connecticut. Whether appointed judge from this specimen of his judicial knowledge, or not, is not now in question ; but let us hear the sentence on McFingal, king of the Tories. " Meanwhile, beside the pole, the guard A bench of justice had prepared, Where, sitting round in awful sort, The grand committee hold the Court ; While all the crew in silent awe, Wait from their lips the lore of law. Few moments with deliberation, They hold the solemn consultation, KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 825 When soon in judgment all agree, And clerk declares the dread decree " That Squire McFingal, having grown. The vilest Tory in the town, And now, on full examination, Convicted by his own confession, Finding no token of repentance, This Court proceed to render sentence : That first, the mob, a slip-knot single, Tie round the neck of said McFingal ; And in due form do tar him next, And feather, as the law directs : Then through the town attendant ride him In cart, with constable beside him, And having held him up to shame, Bring to the pole, from whence he came." Vision and prediction of McFingal, king of the Tories, vthen in coat of tar and feathers: " Tar, yet in embryo in pine, Shall run, on Tories' back to shine ; Trees rooted fair in groves of fallows, Are growing for our future gallows ; And geese unhatched, when plucked in fray, Shall rue the feathering of that day." In order to show that there may be two sides to every question, we give also, the confession of a rank Tory of this period, which goes far to exhibit the origin of the Lynch law, in a somewhat palliative light. " Sam," it will be per- ceived, has never licensed Lynch law, from the beginning: but that its possibility constitutes one of the facetiae of his moods, the detail of provocations in this extract will clearly show. CAPTAIN WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. The following is copied from the American Apollo, No. 7, Vol. I, Friday, February 17, 1792, printed at Boston, by Bolknap & Young, State street, (a weekly paper, in the form of a pamphlet,) : The Life, Confession, and last Dying Words of Captain Wil- liam Cunningham, formerly British Provost Marshal in the city of New York, who was executed in London, the Wth of August. 1791. I, William Cunningham, was born in Dublin Barracks, in the year 1738. My father was trumpeter to the Blue Dra- goons, and at the age of eight I was placed with an officer as 326 HISTORICAL AND his servant, in which station I continued until I was sixteen, and, being a great proficient in horsemanship, was taken as an assistant to the riding-master of the troops, and in the year 1761, was made sergeant of dragoons; but the peace coming the year after, I was disbanded. Being bred to no profession. I took up with a woman who kept a gin-shop in a blind alley, near the Coal Quay ; but the house being searched for stolen goods, and my dosy taken to Newgate, I thought it most prudent to decamp. Accordingly I set off for the North, and arrived at Drogheda, where, in a few months after, I married the daughter of an exciseman, by whom I had three sons. About the year 1772, we removed to Newry, where I com- menced the profession of a scow-banker, which is that of enticing the mechanics and country people to ship themselves for America ; they are sold or obliged to serve a term of years for their passage. I embarked at Newry in the ship Need- ham, for New York, and arrived at that port the 4th day of August, 1774, with some indented servants I kidnapped in Ireland ; but these were liberated in New York on account of the bad usage they received from me during the passage. In that city I followed the profession of breaking horses, and teaching ladies and gentlemen to ride, but rendering myself obnoxious to the citizens in their infant struggle for freedom. I was obliged to fly on board the Asia man-of-war, and from thence to Boston, where my own opposition to the measures pursued by the Americans in support of their rights, was the first thing that recommended me to the notice of General Gage, and when the war commenced I was appointed Provost Marshal to the royal army, which placed me in a situation to wreak my vengeance on the Americans. I shudder to think of the murders I have been accessory to, both with and with- out orders from Government, especially while in New York- during which time there were more than two thousand prison- 3rs starved in the different churches, by stopping their rations, which I sold. There were also two hundred and seventy-five American prisoners and obnoxious persons executed, out of all which number there were only about one dozen public executions, which chiefly consisted of British and Hessian deserters. The mode for private executions was th' s conducted : A guard KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 327 was despatched from the provost, about half-past twelve at night, to the harracks street, and the neighborhood of the upper barracks, to order the people to shut their window shutters and to put out their lights, forbidding them, at the same time, to presume to look out of their windows and doors, on pain of death ; after which, the unfortunate prison- ers were conducted, gagged, just behind the upper barracks, and hung without ceremony, and then buried by the black pioneer of the provost. At the end of the war, I returned to England with the army, and settled in Wales, as being a cheaper place of living than in any of the populous cities, but b^ing at length per- suaded to go to London, I entered so warmly into the dissi- pations of that capital, that I soon found my circumstances much embarrassed. To relieve which I mortgaged my half pay to an army agent, but that being soon expended, I forged a draft for three hundred pounds sterling, on the Board of Ordnance, but being detected in presenting it for acceptance, I was apprehended, tried, and convicted and for that offense am here to suffer an ignominious death. I beg the pardon of all good Christians, and also pardon and forgiveness of God, for the many horrid murders I have been accessory to. WILLIAM CUNNINGHAM. The disastrous defeat of Burgoyne, with the details and consequences of which our readers are already sufficiently familiar, had been immediately preceded by a regular influx of foreign adventurers, comprising every stamp of the true Condittori, which at that time swarmed throughout the coun- tries of Europe. They came here like the plagues of Egypt, with insolent buzzings around the doors of Congress, insti- gated by the too easy promises of Deane, and gave occasion, finally, to one of the most bitter letters ever wxitten by Wash- ington, who, goaded, like some noble animal by gad-flres, besought Congress to rid him of these endless swarms. De Kalb, Pulaski, Steuben, and the enthusiastic Lafayette, were of course exceptions. Enthusiasm and the accident of birth, which gave him court influence at Paris, seem always to have die merit of the last, than talent much as he 828 HISTORICAL AND has been lauded and almost deified. Nevertheless, Washing- ton the then representative of " Sam " saw his uses, and loved him as an excellent man, as he undoubtedly was. He proved of great use through his disinterested interest in our cause, in conciliating toward us and bringing about our treaty with France which, by the way, it was not a whit more to our interest than than it should never have been formed. At the commencement of the war, the aid of foreign officers had been thought highly desirable, especially in the depart- ments of artillery and engineering, in which there was a great deficiency of native skill and science. It was one part of Deane's commission to engage a few officers of this description, a matter in which he had gone a good deal beyond his instructions. Beset with endless solicitations, to which the fear of giving offense, and the hope of securing influence, induced him too often to yield, he had sent out not less than fifty officers of all ranks, to whom he had made extravagant promises of promotion, which occasioned great discontent among the native officers, and no Tttle embarrass- ment to Congress. Greene, Sullivan, and Knox, in a joint letter, a few weeks before Washington's visit to Congress, had threatened to resign if a certain M. Du Coudray were promoted to the command of the artillery, with the rank of major general, agreeably to a contract which Deane had signed with him, in consideration of certain supplies which he had furnished. Congress, with a just sense of its dignity, voted this letter of the generals "an attempt to influence their decision, an invasion of the liberties of the people, and indicating a want of confidence in the justice of Congress," for which the writers were required to make an apology. Having consented to serve for the present as a volunteer, with a merely nominal rank, Du Coudray was drowned shortly after in crossing the Schuylkill. There was, indeed, among the American officers excessive jealousy and great heart-burnings on the subject of rank, precedence and command, not only as to foreigners, but as to each other. Congress ^professed to be governed in its promo- tions by the complex considerations of former rank, merito- rious service, and the number of troops raised by the States KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 329 to which the officers respectively belonged. But the officers imagined, and not always without reason, that intrigue ami personal favor had quite as much influence. Among the contracts made by Deane was one with Du Portail, La Kadidre, and Du Govion, three engineer officers of merit, recommended by the French court, who were now placed at the head of the engineer department, thus com- pleting the organization of the new army. Kosciusko, whose entry of the service has been already mentioned, was appointed engineer for the northern department. The Count Pulaski, who had already gained distinction in Europe by his attempts to resist the first partition of Poland, had just arrived in America, and had offered his services to Congress. The foreign officers above named were persons of merit ; but too large a proportion of those who came to seek com- missions in America, whether sent by Deane, or adventurers on their own account, even some who brought high recom- mendations, were remarkable fcr nothing but extravagant self- conceit, and boundless demands for rank, command, and pay. Of a very different character was the Marquis de Lafayette, a youth of nineteen, belonging to one of the most illustrious families of France, who had just arrived in America, and whom General Washington now met at Philadelphia for the first time. Like all other French nobles of that day, he had received a military education, and held a commission in the French army. In garrison at Metz, he had been present at an entertainment given by the governor of that city to the Duke of Gloucester, brother of the British king, and on that occasion, from the duke's lips, he first heard the story of the American rebellion. His youthful fancy was fired by the idea of this transatlantic struggle for liberty, and, though master of an ample fortune, and married to a wife whom he tenderly loved, he resolved at once to adventure in it. For that purpose he opened a communication with Deane. His intention becoming known, the French court, which still kept up the forms of neutrality, forbade him to go. But he secretly purchased a ship, which Deane loaded with military stores, and set sail at a moment when the news of the loss of New York and the retreat through the Jerseys made most foreigners despair of the American cause. The French court 28* 330 HISTORICAL AND sent orders to the West Indies to intercept him ; but he sailed directly for the United States, arrived in safety, presented himself to Congress, and offered to S^rve as a volunteer, without pay. Admiring his disinterestedness not less than his zeal, and not uninfluenced by his rank and connections, Congress gave him the commission of major general, which Dean had promised ; but, for the present, content with the rank without any command, he entered the military family of Washington, for whom he soon contracted a warm and lasting friendship, which Washington as warmly returned. La Fayette brought with him eleven other officers ; among them the Baron De Kalb, a German veteran, presently com- missioned as major general. The unsuccessful battles of Brandywine and Germantown, which soon followed, brought into rather singular contrast. the military reputations of Washington and the English renegade, Gates, who commanded at the surrender of Bur- goyne. The terrible winter of 1777, had been passed by Washington's miserable army, at Valley Forge, amidst the extremes of suffering, from privations of every kind, when there at once appears to be a formidable cabal on hand, for supplanting him, in favor of the mediocre adventurer, Gates. Here is Hildreth's account of this infamous cabal. While Washington was exerting himself to the utmost, to preserve the army from total disorganization, a project was on foot to remove him from the chief command. Several persons, conspicuous in Congress and the army, were more or less concerned in this movement ; but most of the inform- ation respecting it, has been carefully suppressed, and its history is involved in some obscurity. Every biographer has been very anxious to shield his special hero, from the charge of participation in this affair, indignantly stigmatized, Vy most writers, as a base intrigue. Yet doubts, at that time, as to Washington's fitness for the chief command, though they might evince prejudice or a lack of sound judgment, do not necessarily imply either selfish ends or a malicious disposition. The Washington of that day was not Washing- ton as we know him, tried and proved by twenty years of the most disinterested and most successful public services. As yet, he had been in command but little more than two years, during which, he had suffered, with some slight EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 331 exceptions, a continued series of losses and defeats. He had recovered Boston, to be sure, but had lost New York, New- port, and Philadelphia. He had been completely successful at Trenton, and partially so at Princeton, but had been beaten, with heavy loss, on Long Island and at Fort Wash- ington, and lately, in two pitched battles, on ground of his own choosing, at Brandywine and G-ermantown. What a contrast to the battles of Behmis' Hights, and the capture of Burgoyne's whole army ! Want of success, and sectional and personal prejudices, had created a party in Congress against Schuyler and against Sullivan. Could Washington escape the common fate of those who lose ? Richard Henry Lee and Samuel Adams seem to have been the leaders of a party gradually formed in Congress, and for some time strong enough to exercise a material influence on its action, which ascribed to the commander-in-chief a lack of vigor and energy, and a system of favoritism deleterious to the public service. The Pennsylvanians were much annoyed at the loss of Philadelphia ; and several leading persons in that State, seem to have co-operated with this party, especially Mifflin a plausible, judicious, energetic, ambitious man, very popular and very influential, but of whose recent man- agement of the quarter-master's department, Washington had loudly complained. Nor were other. malcontents want- ing in the army. The marked confidence which Washington reposed in Greene, gave offense to some ; others had purposes of their own to serve. Conway aspired to the office of inspector-general, the establishment of which he had sug- gested ; and, not finding his pretensions favored by Wash- ington, he indulged in very free criticisms on the state of the troops, and the incapacity of the commander-in-chief. Gates, who might aspire, since his sucesses at the north, to the most elevated station, should the post of commander-in- chief become vacant, had lately behaved toward Washington with marked coldness and neglect. A correspondence, highly derogatory to Washington's military character, was carried on between Gates, Mifflin, and Conway. By the indiscretion of the youthful Wilkinson, who talked rather too freely over his cups, at Sterling's quarters, when on his way to Congress with the news of Burgoyne's surrender, a pointed sentence from one of Con way's letters to Gates leaked out, and was 332 HISTORICAL AND communicated by Sterling to Washington, who inclosed it in a note to Con way. Suspecting that Hamilton, during his visit to Albany, had, as he expressed it, " stealingly copied " Conway 's letter, Gates demanded to know, in very high terms, by what breach* of confidence Washington had become possessed of the extract. When Wilkinson was given as the authority, he changed his ground, and, in an elaborate letter, alleged that the pretended extract was a forgery, and that Conway had written nothing of the sort. Conway 's letter, however, was not produced ; and to Washington's sarcastic allusion to that fact, and to the manifest discrepancy between his first and second letters, Grates, anxious to hush up the matter, made a very tame and submissive answer. In the composition of the new Board of war, the influence of the party opposed to Washington became very apparent. Gates was made president of it, and Mifflin a member. The other members were Pickering, who resigned for that pur- pose his office of adjutant-general, Joseph Trumbull, the late commissary-general, and Richard Peters, secretary of the old Board. Harrison, Washington's secretary, was elected, but declined. In spite of Washington's earnest remonstrances, Conway, promoted over the heads of all the brigadiers to the rank of major-general, was made inspector of the armies of the United States. An attempt was also made, but without success, to gain over La Fayette, by offering him the com- mand of an expedition against Canada. Beside these open measures, calculated to disgust Washington, and to cause him to resign, secret intrigues were resorted to, of a very dis- reputable character. Anonymous letters, criticising Wash- ington's conduct of the war, were addressed to Patrick Henry, governor of Virginia, and to Laurens, president of Congress ; but these gentlemen, in the true spirit of honorable candor, at once inclosed these letters to Washington. One of them, Washington ascribed to Dr. Eush. When these intrigues became known in the army, they produced among the officers a great burst of indignation. Nor did the idea of a new commander-in-chief find any sup- port in the State Legislatures or the public mind. In spite of losses, the inevitable result of insufficient means, Wash- ington was firmly rooted in the respect and affection of the soldiers and the people, who had not failed tc perceive and KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 333 to appreciate hie incomparable qualifications for the station which he held. Seeing how strongly the country and the army were against them, most of the parties concerned in the late project for a new commander-in-chief denied or con- cealed as much as possible, their participation in it ; and the result served at once to evince and to strengthen the hold of Washington on the general confidence. (1778.) Being presently ordered to the northern department, Con- way sent a letter to Congress, in which he complained of ill- treatment in being thus banished from the scene of action, and offered to resign. Very contrary to his intention, he was taken at his word. All his attempts to get the vote reconsidered were in vain. He was wounded soon after in a duel with General Cadwallader, who had accused him of cow- ardice at the battle of Brandy wine ; and, supposing himself near his end, he sent a humble apology to Washington. On his recovery he returned to France. Gates was sent to the Highlands to superintend the new fortifications to be erected there. Both he and Mifflin ceased to act as members of the Board of War, and their place on it was ultimately supplied by two members of Congress, appointed to serve for short periods. Mifflin obtained leave to join the army again ; but the other officers, not liking this intrusion on the part of one who had never held any command in the line, got up a charge against him, which was referred to a court of inquiry, of having mismanaged the quarter-master's department. The accounts and business of that department had been left in a good deal of confusion ; but there seems to have been no serious ground of charge against Mifflin. Finding him- self so unpopular with the officers, he presently resigned his commission of major-general ; but he continued to take an active and leading part in affairs, being presently appointed a member of Congress from Pennsylvania. The more Congress reflected on the terms of Burgoyne's capitulation, the less satisfactory those terms appeared. The troops of that army, transported to England, and placed in garrison there, would relieve just as many other men for service in America. Some cavils had begun to be raised about an alleged deficiency of cartouch-boxes surrendered, when an impatient letter from Burgoyne furnished a much 834 HISTORICAL AND more plausible pretext. The British general complained that proper accommodations had not been furnished to his officers, and, in the vexation of the moment, incautiously alleged that the Americans had broken the convention. Catching eagerly at this hasty expression, which Congress chose to con- strue into a repudialion of the treaty by the very officer who had made it, it was resolved to suspend the embarkation of the troops " till a distinct and explicit ratification of the con- vention of Saratoga shall be properly notified by the court of Great Britain." Nor could any remonstrances or expla- nations on the part of Burgoyne, obtain any change or modi- fication in a policy founded, indeed, more on considerations of interest than of honor, and for which Burgoyne's letter had but served as a pretext. The transports which had arrived at Boston were ordered to depart. Burgoyne only, with one or two attendants, was suffered to go to England, on parole. Such was the end of this famous triumph, the capture of Burgoyne, and of the cabal to which it gave a head, which, had it proved successful, would have caused the first important triumph of " Sam" to have been the ruin of his people. Throwing their destinies into the hands of two military adventurers, as it would have done, it requires no prophet to foresee what disastrous consequences must have followed. Even so late as this year, 1778, we find the following signifi- cant letter from Washington, which affords a clear glimpse of the trials through which this heroic man was compelled to pass, in keeping together our unfortunate army : Extract of a letter from General Washington, to Congress, dated Head Quarters, Springfield, 20th Jime, 1780. " The honorable the committee will have informed Con- gress, from time to time, of the measures which have been judged essential to be adopted for co-operating with the ar- mament expected from France, and of their requisitions to to the States in consequence. What the result of these has been I cannot determine, to my great anxiety, as no answers on the subject of them have been yet received. The period is come when we have every reason to expect the fleet will arrive and yet, for want of this point of primary conse- quence, it is impossible for me to form or fix on a system of co-operation I have no basis to act upon and, of course, KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 335 were this generous succour of our ally to arrive, I should 2ind myself in the most awkward, embarrassing and painful situation. The general and the admiral, from the relation in which I stand, as soon as they approach our coast, will re- quire of me a plan of the measures to be pursued ; and these ought, of right, to be prepared ; but circumstanced as I am, I cannot give them conjectures. From these considerations, I have suggested to the committee, by a letter I had the honor of addressing them yesterday, the indispensable neces- sity of their writing again to the States, urging them to give immediate and precise information of the measures they have taken and of the result. The interest of the States, the honor and reputation of our councils, the justice and gratitude due our allies, a regard to myself all require that I should, "without delay, be enabled to ascertain and inform them what we can, or cannot undertake. There is a point which ought now to be determined, on which the success of all our future operations may depend, which for want of knowing our prospects, I am altogether at a loss what to do in. For fear of involving the fleet and army of our allies in circumstances which, if not seconded by us, would expose them to material inconvenience and hazard, I shall be com- pelled to suspend it, and the delay may be fatal to our hopes. Beside the embarrassments I have mentioned above, and on former occasions, there is another of a very painful and humiliating nature. We have no shirts, from the best in- quiry I can make, to distribute to the troops, when the whole are in great want, and when a great part of them are abso- lutely destitute of any at all. Their situation too with respect to summer overalls, I fear, is not likely to be much better. There are a great many on hand, it is said, in Springfield, but so indifferent in their quality as to be scarcely worth the expense of transportation and delivery. For the troops to be without clothing at any time, is highly injurious to the service and distressing to our feelings; but the want will be more peculiarly mortifying when they come to act with those of our allies. If it is possible, I have no doubt immediate measures will be taken to relieve their dis- tress. It is also most sincerely to be wished that there could be some supplies of clothing furnished for the officers. 336 HISTORICAL AND There are a great many whose condition is really miserable still, and in some instances it is the case with almost whole State lines. It would be well for their own sakes, and for the public good, if they could be furnished. When our friends come to co-operate with us, they will not be able to go on the common routine of duty, and if they should, they must be held, from their appearance, in low estimation. What a commentary does this manly letter furnish upon the petty and venal injustice of his cotemporary foes, toward one of the greatest of all the characters of history ! CHAPTER XXII. Sketch of Colonel Daniel Morgan The Non-resistant Principles of the Quakers Its consequences about these times. IT is impossible for us to continue a detailed account of the succeeding Revolutionary events. These are too familiar to the gene.al reader, to render their relation necessary, even if our space admitted of such dilation. Our ohject has been, to reproduce such characteristic memorials of the prominent events in the history of " Sam," as being likely, from their antiquity, to be lost renew also, by their cotemporary fresh- ness, our memory of the true spirit of that early time, which is likely to prove so necessary to this degenerate period. The following sketch of that noble old patriarch of American heroes, Daniel Morgan, has an unction in it, which might serve to regenerate a thousand modern Tories. DANIEL MORGAN. From the " Custis Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life and Character of Washington." The outposts of the two armies were very near to each other, when the American commander, desirous of obtaining particular information respecting the positions of his adver- sary, summoned the famed leader of the riflemen, Colonel Daniel Morgan, to headquarters. It was night, and the chief was alone. After his usual polite, yet reserved and dignified salutation, Washington remarked: "I have sent for you, Colonel Morgan, to intrust to your courage and sagacity, a reconnoiter of the enemy's lines, with a view to your ascertaining correctly, the position 29 337 338 HISTORICAL AND of their newly-constructed redoubts ; also of the encampments of the British troops that have lately arrived, and those of their Hessian auxiliaries. Select, sir, an officer, a non-com- missioned officer, and about twenty picked men, and, under cover of the night, proceed, but with all possible caution, get as near as you can, and learn all you can, and by day dawn retire, and make your report to headquarters. But mark me, Colonel Morgan, mark me well, on no account whatever, are you to bring on any skirmishing with the enemy; if discovered, make a speedy retreat; let nothing induce you to fire a single shot ; I repeat, sir, that no force of circum- stances will excuse the discharge of a single rifle on your part, and for the extreme preciseness of these orders, permit me to say, that I have my reasons." Filling two glasses with wine, the general continued: "And now, Colonel Morgan, we will drink a good night, and success to your enterprise." Morgan quaffed the wine, smacked his lips, and assuring his excellency that his orders should be punctually obeyed, left the tent of the commander-in-chief. Charmed at being chosen as the executive officer of a daring enterprise, the leader of the woodsmen repaired to his quarters, and calling for Gabriel Long, his favorite cap- tain, ordered him to detach a sergeant and twenty prime fellows, who being mustered, and ordered to lay on their arms, ready at a moment's warning, Morgan and Long stretched their manly forms before the watch-fire, to await the going down of the moon, the signal for departure. A little after midnight, and while the rays of the setting moon still faintly glimmered in the western horizon, " Up, sergeant," cried Long, "stir up your men," and twenty ath- letic figures were upon their feet in a moment. "Indian file, march," and away all sprung, with the quick, yet light and stealthy step of the woodsmen. They reached the enemy's lines, crawled up so close to the pickets of the Hes- sians, as to inhale the odor of their pipes, discovered, by the newly turned-up earth, the positions of the redoubts, and by the numerous tents that dotted the field for "many a rood around," and shone dimly amid the night haze, the encamp- ments of the British and German reinforcements, and, in short, performed their perilous duty without the slightest EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 3-"9 discovery ; and pleased, prepared to retire, just as chanticleer, from a neighboring farmhouse, was "bidding salutation to the morn." The adventurous party reached a small eminence, at some distance from the British camp, and commanding an exten- sive prospect over the adjoining country. Here Morgan halted, to give his men a little rest, before taking up his line of march for the American outposts. Scarcely had they thrown themselves on the grass, when they perceived, issuing from the enemy's advanced pickets, a body of horse, com- manded by an officer, and proceeding along the road that led directly by the spot where the riflemen had halted. No spot could be better chosen for an ambuscade, for there were rocks and ravines, and also scrubby oaks, that grew thickly on the eminence by which the road we have just mentioned, passed, at not exceeding a hundred yards. " Down, boys, down," cried Morgan, as the horse approached, nor did the clansmen of the Black llhoderick, disappear more promptly amid their native heather, than did Morgan's woodsmen in the present instance, each to his tree or rock. " Lie close there, my lads, till we see what these fellows are about." Meantime, the horsemen had gained the hight, and the officer, dropping the rein on his charger's neck, with a spy- glass reconnoitered the American lines. The troops closed up their files, and were either cherishing the noble animals they rode, adjusting their equipments, or gazing upon the surrounding scenery, now fast brightening in the beams of a rising sun. Morgan looked at Long, and Long upon his superior, while the riflemen, with panting chests and sparkling eyes, were only awaiting the signal from their officers, " to let the ruin fly." At length, the martial ardor of Morgan overcame his prudence and sense of military subordination. Forgetful of consequences, reckless of everything but his enemy, now within his grasp, he waved his hand, and loud and sharp rang the report of the rifles amid the surrounding echoes. At pointblank distance, the certain and deadly aim of the Hunting Shirts of the revolutionary army is too well known to history to need remark at this time of day. In this 340 HISTORICAL AND instance we have to record, the effects of the fire of the riflemen were tremendous. Of the horsemen, some had fallen to rise no more, while their liberated chargers rushed wildly over the adjoining plain ; others wounded, hut entangled with their stirrups, were dragged by the furious animals expiringly along ; while the very few who were unscathed, spurred hard to regain the shelter of the British lines. While the smoke yet canopied the scene of slaughter, and the picturesque forms of the woodsmen appeared among the foliage, as they were reloading their pieces, the colossal figure of Morgan stood apart. He seemed the very genius of war, as gloomily he contemplated the havoc his order had made. He spoke not, he moved not, but looked as one absorbed in an intensity of thought. The martial shout, with which he was wont to cheer his comrades in the hour of combat, was hushed, the shell * from which he had blown full many a note of battle and of triumph, on the fields of Saratoga, hung idly by his side ; no order was given to spoil the slain ; the arms and equipments for which there was always a bounty from Congress, the shirts, for which there was so much need in that, the sorest period of our country's privation, all, all were abandoned, as with an abstracted air, and a voice struggling for utterance, Morgan suddenly turn- ing to his captain, exclaimed: " Long, to the camp, march." The favorite captain obeyed, the riflemen with trailed arms fell into file, and Long and his party soon disappeared, but not before the hardy fellows had exchanged opinions on the strange termination of the late affair. And they agreed, nem. con., that their colonel was tricked, (conjured,) or assuredly, after such a fire as they had just given the enemy, such an emptying of saddles, and such a squandering of the troopers, he would not have ordered his poor rifle boys from the field, without so much as a few shirts or pairs of stockings Morgan's riflemen were generally in the advance, skirmishing with the light troops of the enemy, or annoying his flanks ; the regiment was thus much divided into detachments, and dispersed over a very wide field of action. Morgan was in the habit of using a conch-shell frequently, during the heat of the battle, with which he would blow a loud and war- like blast. This, he said, was to inform his boys that he was still alive, and from many parts of the field was beholding their prowess ; and like the celebrated sea-warrior of another hemisphere's last signal, was expecting that " every man would do his duty." KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. being divided among them. " Yes," said a tall, lean, and swarthy-looking fellow, an Indian hunter, from the frontier, as he carefully placed his moccasined feet in the footprints of his file leader, " Yes, my lads, it stands to reason, our colonel is tricked." Morgan followed slowly on the trail of his men. The full force of his military guilt had rushed upon his mind, even before the reports of his rifles had ceased to echo in the neighboring forests. He became more and more convinced of the enormity of his offense, as with dull and measured strides, he pursued his solitary way, and thus he soliloquized : " Well, Daniel Morgan, you have done for yourself. Broke, sir, broke to a certainty. You may go home, sir, to the plow ; your sword will be of no further use to you. Broke, sir, nothing can save you ; and there is an end of Colonel Morgan. Fool, fool by a single act of madness, thus to destroy the earnings of so many toils, and many a hard- fought battle. You are broke, sir, and there is an end of Colonel Morgan." To disturb this reverie, there suddenly appeared at full speed, the aid-de-camp, the Mercury of the field, who, reining up, accosted the colonel with, " I am ordered, Colonel Morgan, to ascertain whether the firing jus,t now heard, proceeded from your detachment." " It did sir," replied Morgan, sourly. " Then, colonel," continued the aid, " I am further ordered to require your immediate attendance upon his excellency, who is approaching." Morgan bowed, and the aid, wheeling his charger, galloped back to rejoin his chief. The gleams of the morning sun upon the sabres of the horse guard, announced the arrival of the dreaded comman- der that being who inspired with a degree of awe, evory one who approached him. With a stern, yet dignified compo- sure, Washington addressed the military culprit : "Can it bo possible, Colonel Morgan, that my aid-de-camp has informed me aright? Can it be possible, after the orders you re- ceived last evening, that the firing we have heard proceeded from your detachment? Surely, sir, my orders were so explicit as not to be easily misunderstood." Morgan was brave, but it has boen often, and justly too, observed, that the man never was born of a woman, who could approach the great Washington, and not feel a degree of awe and veneration 29* 342 HISTORICAL AND for his presence. Morgan quailed for a moment before the stern, yet just displeasure of his chief, till arousing all his energies to the effort, he uncovered and replied : " Your excellency's orders were perfectly well understood, and agree- ably to the same, I proceeded with a select party to reconnoiter the enemy's lines by night. We succeeded even beyond our expectations, and I was returning to headquarters to make my report, when, having halted a few minutes to rest the men, we discovered a party of horse coming out from the enemy's lines. They came up immediately to the spot where we lay concealed in the brushwood. There they halted, and gathered up together like a flock of partridges, affording me so tempting an opportunity of annoying my enemy, that, may it please your excellency, flesh and blood could not refrain." On this rough, yet frank, bold, and manly explanation, a smile was observed to pass over the countenances of several of the general's suite. The chief remained unmoved, when, waving his hand, he continued : " Colonel Morgan, you will retire to your quarters, there to await further orders." Mor- gan bowed, and the military cortege rode on to the inspection of the outposts. Arrived at his quarters^ Morgan threw himself upon his hard couch, and gave himself up to reflections upon the events which had so lately and so rapidly succeeded each other. He was aware that he had sinned past all hopes of forgiveness. Within twenty-four hours he had fallen from the command of a regiment, and being an especial favorite with the general, to be, what ? a disgraced and broken sol- dier. Condemned to retire from scenes of glory, the darling passions of his heart forever to abandon the "fair fields of fighting men/' and in obscurity to drag out the remnant of a wretched existence, neglected and forgotten. And then his rank, so hardly, so nobly won, with all his " blushing honors," acquired in the march across the frozen wilderness of the Kennebec, the storming of the lower town, and the gallant and glorious combats of Saratoga. The hours dragged gloomily away ; night came. bu+ with it no rest for the troubled spirit of poor Morgan. The drums and fifes merrily sounded the soldier's dawn, and the sun arose, giving "promise of a good day." And to many within KEVOLUTTONAKY INCIDENTS. 343 the circuit of that widely-extended camp, did its genial beama give hope, and joy, and gladness, while it cheered not with a single ray the despairing leader of the woodsmen. About ten o'clock, the orderly on duty reported the arrival of an officer of the staff, from headquarters, and Lieutenant Colonel Hamilton, the favorite aid of the commander-in-chief, entered the niarkee. "Be seated," said Morgan; "I know your errand, so be short, my dear fellow, and put me out of my misery at once. I know that I am arrested ; 'tis a matter of course. Well, there is my sword; but surely, his excel- lency honors me, indeed, in these last moments of my military existence, when he sends for my sword by his favorite aid, and my most esteemed friend. Ah, my dear Hamilton, if you knew what I had suffered since the cursed horse came out to tempt me to ruin." Hamilton, about whose strikingly-intelligent countenance there always lurked a playful smile, now observed: " Colonel Morgan, his excellency has ordered me to " " I knew it," interrupted Morgan, " to bid me prepare for trial ! Guilty, sir, guilty past all doubt. But then, (recollecting himself,) perhaps my services might plead nonsense ; against the disobedience of a positive order? no, no, it is all over with me ; Hamilton, there is an end of your old friend and of Colonel Morgan." The agonized spirit of our hero then mounted a pitch of enthusiasm, as he exclaimed: "But my country will remember my services, and the British and Hessians will remember me too, for though I may be far away, my brave comrades will do their duty, and Morgan's riflemen be, as they always have been, a terror to the enemy." The noble, the generous -souled Hamilton could no longer bear to witness the struggles of the brave unfortunate ; he called out : " Hear me, my dear colonel, only promise to hear me for one moment, and I will tell you all." " Go on, sir," replied Morgan, despairingly, "go on." "Then," continued the aid-de-camp, "you must know that the commanders of regiments dine with his excellency to-day." " What of that?" again interrupted Morgan; "what has that to do with me, a prisoner, and " " No, no," exclaimed Hamilton, " no pris- oner ; a once offending, but now forgiven soldier ; my orders are to invite you to dine with his excellency to-day at three 344 HISTORICAL AND o'clock, precisely. Yes, my brave and good friend, Colonel Morgan, you still are, and likely long to be, the valued and famed commander of the rifle regiment." Morgan sprang from the camp-bed on which he was sitting, and seized the hand of the little great man in his giant grasp, wrung and wrung until the aid-de-camp literally struggled to get free, then exclaimed, "Am I in my senses? but I know you, Hamilton you are too noble a fellow to sport with the feelings of an old soldier." Hamilton assured his friend that all was true, and, kissing his hand as he mounted his horse, bade the now delighted colonel remember three o'clock, and to be careful not to disobey a second time, galloped to the headquarters. Morgan entered the pavilion of the commander in chief as it was fast filling with officers, all of whom, after paying their respects to the general, filed off to give a cordial squeeze of the hand to the commander of the rifle regiment, and to whisper in his ear words of congratulation. The cloth removed, Washington bade his guests fill their glasses, and gave his only, his unvarying toast the toast of the days of trial, the toast of the evening of his "time-honored" life, amid the shades of Mount Vernon "All our friends." Then, with his usual old-fashioned politeness, he drank to each guest by name. When he came to " Colonel Morgan, your good health, sir," a thrill ran through the manly frame of the gratified and again favorite soldier, while every eye in the pavilion was turned upon him. At an early hour the company broke up, and Morgan had a perfect escort of officers to accompany him to his quarters, all anxious to congratulate him upon his happy restoration to rank and favor, all pleased to assure him of their esteem for his person and services. And often in his after-life did Morgan reason upon the events which we have transmitted to Americans and their posterity, and he would say, "What could the unusual clem- ency of the commander-in-chief towards so insubordinate a soldier as I was, mean ? Was it that my attacking my enemy wherever I could find him, and the attack being crowned with success, should plead in bar of the disobedience of a positive order? Certainly not. Was it that Washington well knew I loved, nay, adored him above all human beings ? That knowledge would not have weighed a feather in the scale of BEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 345 his military justice. In short, the whole affair is explained in five words : It was my first offense." The clemency of Washington to the first offense, preserved to the army of the revolution one of its most valued and effective soldiers, and had its reward in little more than two years from the date of our narrative, when Brigadier General Morgan consummated his own fame, and shed an undying lustre on the arms of his country, by the glorious and ever- memorable victory of the Cowpens. Nearly twenty years more had rolled away, and our hero, like most of his companions, had beaten his sword into a plowshare, and was enjoying, in the midst of a domestic circle, the evening of a varied' and eventful life. When advanced in years, and infirm, Major General Morgan was called to the supreme legislature of his country, as a representative from the State of Virginia. It was at this period that the author of these memoirs had the honor and happiness of an interview with the old general, which lasted for several days. And the veteran was most kind and communicative to one, who, hailing from the immediate family of the venerated chief, found a ready and warm welcome to the heart of Morgan. And many and most touching reminiscences of the days of trial were related by the once famed leader of the woodsmen, which were eagerly devoured and carefully treasured by their youthful and delighted listener, in a memory of no ordinary power. And it was there the unlettered Morgan, a man bred amid the scenes of danger and hardihood that distinguished the f i-on tier warfare, with little book knowledge, but gifted by nature with a strong and discriminating mind, paid to the fame and memory of the father of our country, a more just, more magnificent tribute than, in our humble judgment, has emanated from the thousand and o:ie efforts of the best and brightest genuises of the age. General Morgan spoke of the necessity of Washington to the army of the revolution, and the success of the struggle for independence. He said, " We had officers of groat military talents, as, for instance, Greene and others ; we had officers of the most consummate courage and enterprising spirit, as, for instance, Wayne and others. One was yet necessary, to guide, direct, and animate the whole, 346 HlSTOKICAL AND and it pleased Almighty God to send that one in the person of GEORGE WASHINGTON." The modern tories, to whom we alluded in introducing this fine sketch, will find something also, in the subjoined papers to freshen their memories, in regard to who were most justly regarded as tories of the olden time : BRITISH IN PHILADELPHIA. A much-valued friend has placed in the hands of the editor, a large volume of papers, containing the correspondence of Brigadier-General Lacey, of Pennsylvania, who commanded the Militia stationed on the east bank of the Schuylkill, to watch the motions of the enemy, and prevent his obtaining supplies. General Lacey's orders to his scouting parties, March 9, 1778 : " If your parties should meet with any people going to market, or any persons whatever going to the city, and they endeavor to make their escape, you will order your men to fire upon the villains. You will leave such on the roads their bodies and their marketing lying together. This I wish you to execute on the first offenders you meet, that they may be a warning to others." General Washington to General Lacey, dated at Valley Forge, 20th March, 1778: Sunday next being the time on which the Quakers hold one of their general meetings, a number of that society will probably be attempting to go into Philadelphia. This is an intercourse that we should by all means endeavor to interrupt, as the plans settled at these meetings are of the most pernicious tendency/"" I would 1 was in great doubt whether I ought to publish or suppress this let- ler b it, on reflection, have thought best to insert it. It must be admitted that a great majority of the Quakers in Pennsylvania, were " well inclined" to the British, and some of them went great lengths out of the rules of their profession, to aid and comfort the enemy of their country ; others by adhering to those rules and refusing to take any part in the contest, even by the payment of taxes, were improperly suspected of disaffection, when in fact they were only neutral, refusing to have anything to do with the war ; a few, however, laid aside their testimony against fighting, and con- tended gallantly for freedom. Persons of this religious persuasion in some other States, were sincerely attached to the cause of Independence, and KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 347 therefore have you dispose of your parties in such a manner as will most probably fall in with these people, and if you should, and any of them should be mounted on horses fit for draught, or the service of light dragoons, I desire they may be taken from them, and sent over to the quarter-master- general. Any such are not to be considered as the property of the parties who may seize them, as in other cases. Com- municate the above orders to any of the officers who may command scouting parties on your side of the Schuylkill." [General Lacey, in reply, says he had ordered out his horse to stop the Quakers, with orders, " if they refuse to stop when hailed, to fire into them, and leave their bodies lying in the road."] This is the commentary of Niles, of the old Register, who published this correspondence nearly thirty-five years ago, and for the first time, but we would beg leave to add, as a com- ment upon his apology, the following extract from the speech of a prominent Revolutionary leader, upon the floor of the Continental Congress. It is taken from his own columns : I have excluded those from the privileges of free white inhabitants in the several States, who refuse to take up arms in defense of the confederacy a measure, in my opinion, - perfectly just. It is said, example before precept. Let the Quakers take shelter under any text in Scripture they please the best they can find is but a far-fetched implica- tion in their favor. However, had their precept been in more positive terms, I think I have an example at hand, capable of driving them from such a cover. We read that " Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overturned the tables of tho money-changers." Here we see the arm of the flesh raised up, and a degree of hostile violence exercised, suffi- cient to the end in view. And shall it be said, violence is not justifiable ? Did not God command Moses to num- ber " all that were able to go forth in war, in 'Israel?" did all they consistently coulJ do to assist the whigs. A stoppage of the intercourse with Philadelphia, at the time, was indubitably necessary and proper but General Washington was misinformed, I apprehend, when he spoke of the " plans " settled at the " meetings " of the Quakers what- ever they may have done as individuals, their " meetings " must have passed without the adoption of any plans of a political nature for such things are not suffered to be mentioned in them, 348 HISTORICAL AND Did not Moses, by the Divine order, send twelve thousand men to cut off the Midianites. And, although " they slew all the males," were they not reprehended for having " saved all the women alive ?" Did not the Almighty command the children of Israel, that when they had passed into Canaan " then they should drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before them ?" Did not Moses direct that when the people were " come nigh unto the battle," the priests should encourage them, declaring that the Lord their God was with them " to fight for them against their enemies?" And yet the Quakers have sagaciously found out a few words which, by implication, they contend restrain from doing now, what God then commandeel as just. The grand principles of moral rectitude are eternal. Dare the Quakers contend that the myriads who have drawn the sword since the commencement of the Christian era, are damned for having done so ? And unless they maintain this position, they seem to have no reasonable excuse for their creed and conduct. They seem to have forgot that it is written " how hardly shall they that have riches enter into kingdom of God !" Are there any people on the face of the earth more diligent after riches than the Quakers? We, in this time of calamity, know it to our cost. Without doubt, there are many valuable men of that sect ; men of that persuasion are very good citizens in time of peace, but it is their principle in time of war I condemn. Is there a Quaker who will not bring his action for trespass ? Is not this an opposition to force ? Have they forgot their principles of meekness and non-resistance ? The great Lord Lyttleton, in his Dialogues of the Dead, tells us " it is blasphemy to say that any folly could come from the fountain of wisdom. Whatever is inconsistent with the great laws of nature, and with the necessary state of human society, cannot be inspired by the Divinity. Self-'defense is as necessary to nations as to men. And shall men particu- larly have a right which nations have not ? True religion is the perfection of reason. Fanaticism is the disgrace, the destruction of reason." Than all this, nothing could be more just, certain, and evident. Car/ those men reasonably claim an equal participation in civil rights, who, under any pretence whatsoever, will not assist in defending them? Shall there be a people maintained in the possession of their BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 349 riches by the blood and labor of other men ? Are not the Quakers, some few excepted, the most inveterate enemies to the independence of America? Have they not openly taken part with those in arms against us ? I consider them not only as a dead weight upon our hands, but as a dangerous body in our bosom, and I would, therefore, gladly be rid of them. I almost wish to " drive out all such inhabitants of the land from before us." The Canaanites knew not God. Bat the Quakers say they know him ; and yet, according to the idea of Lord Lyttleton, would have gross folly and injus- tice to proceed from the fountain of wisdom and equity. I entertain these sentiments with a conscience perfectly at ease on this point. If such treatment shall be termed persecu- tion, the conscientious Quakers can never take it amiss, when they recollect it is "blessed are they that are persecuted for Christ's sake." I do not consider this as such a persecution. But if they should, can they be displeased at being placed in a situation to be blessed? And I would lay it down as a truth, that whoever of that sect should be offended at such treatment, would deserve to be expelled from our society, as the buyers, sellers, and money-changers were cast out of the temple. I am not afraid of any resentment, when it is my duty to act in behalf of the rights and interests of America. I trust I fully demonstrated this resolution when, on the 25th of April, 1776, I had the honor, in the supreme seat of justice, to make the first public declaration in America, that my countrymen owed no allegiance to the king of Great Britain. 30 CHAPTER XXIII. The Treaty with France The progress of the War, North and South The Cowpens Yorktown Surrender of Cornwallis Letter from General Washington. We will now proceed with a rapid summary of the con- cluding events of the great war. The important treaties with France, of commerce and defensive alliance, which had been so long and eagerly sought for, were the first events of consequence which now ensued. The importance of these treaties, however, except so far as they finally served to strengthen our now rapidly declining financial credit, the historian of " Sam" thinks to have heen habitually overrated by local and provincial historians ; seeing that the very basis of their formation was plainly avowed to rest upon the fact, that he had already exhibited his full ability to take care of himself. That he had already demonstrated himself, by virtue of his mighty thews and sinews, to be the master of his own destiny, afforded, no doubt, to Johnny Crapeaud, a mighty opportunity for a grand display of magnanimity, in helping him to a place of national recognition, in which no leaven of ancient animosity was, of course, mingled, to disflavor the generosity of the patronage ! That France had hated England from the beginning, was necessarily, to the modern foes of " Sam," no reason why France loved America less ! Her disinterestedness in send- ing us the cast-of military adventurers of Europe, who crowded her capital, and of whom she was only too happy to be rid, and who only managed to annoy Congress and Wash- ington, with endless importunities for their precious services, 350 EEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS* 351 which were never rendered, except in second rate skirmishes, although they had unanimously consented to fight his battles for him, in the subordinate positions of prepaid and overpaid Generals, Brigadiers, etc ! Be this as it may, for these evidences of disinterestedness, " Sam " has, however, for seventy-nine years since, shown himself duly or unduly, so scrupulously grateful, as to have allowed to all foreigners greater franchises than he has ever permitted even to his own children. He has given them most of his offices, set them to teaching most of his schools, with professorships and gratuities of every imaginable grade and class, and all because he had three or four honorable and upright servitors among them, during the dark hours of his tribulation. But it unluckily appears, that this excessive gratitude on the part of " Sam/ 7 instead of covering them with humility, and rendering them grateful for largess bestowed with a magnanimous hand, has filled them with the insolence which has always accompanied the reaction of servility, and caused them to assume the airs of masters, and even sovereign dic- tators. But " Sam " has lost patience at last, and his mighty arm is now raised over them in wrath, and with one haughty finger pointing at the pillory, he brandishes aloft the whips of his electric threatenings above their cowering backs, and gives them to understand, in a voice that shakes the conti- nent, " hence, to your kennels, hounds ! I am master here ! disorganize rs, tories, insolent and ungrateful presumers upon a precious magnanimity, which you were too much born-serfs in your own pageant-saddled and king-ridden lands to com- prehend, learn to respect my own born children, and know your places ! Know that ye are but fugitive-slaves, among a people of sovereign freemen, and only tolerated on good behavior, until a sufficient period of probation has shown you to be worthy the privileges of citizenship !" Yes, the time has come for the peremptory rebuke of this presuming arrogance, against the annoyance of which, even during this early period of the Eevolution, the lofty and patient Wash- ington found it necessary to write several complaining letters to the Continental Congress, beseeching them to cease giving any further encouragements to these clamorous 352 HISTORICAL AND and greedy cormorants, who incessantly beset his marquee, and worried him with their unheard of demands ! So great had this evil at this time become, that Congress thought it necessary to recall their foolish and imprudent agent at Paris, Dean, and force him to give a stern account of his conduct, for having sent over such a swarm of impu dent beggars, to assail every department of the Goverment with their importunate clamors. And the example of such beggar lazzaroni as they then complained of, has been very successfully followed up to the present day. But it is time for us to return to our proposed hasty out- line. The French fleet, under D'Estaing, had now arrived. The British found it necessary to withdraw from Philadelphia. When the evacuation became known to the American army, Washington determined upon immediate pursuit ; and every one will remember the indecisive battle of Monmouth which followed, and the either treacherous or dastardly conduct on the field, of Lee, whom Washington, in his irritation, impetuously denounced as a coward, when he met him in full retreat, with the whole American advance. The conduct of Lee has been much discussed, pro and con, but we think that no one who will take the trouble to remember his precedents, will for a moment delude himself with the supposition that Lee's conduct was the result of cowardice. Yet we have always thought he ought to have been court-martialed and cashiered on the spot, or else strung as high as Arnold would have been hung, had he been caught ; for his conduct was clearly the result of personal jealousy of Washington, and a desire to defeat a movement which he had opposed in a council of war, which preceded the pursuit. Had he succeeded in effecting this "masterly inactive" policy of his, and the British army been permitted to escape without harrassment or loss, it would, in the then existing conditions of bitter jealousy and intrigue against Washing- ton, have greatly shocked the as yet unshaken confidence of the sagacious Congress, which carefully overlooked, with penetrating vision, the whole field of operations in their favorite servant and general, Washington ; in which event, Master Lee, who was second in command, might have natur ally looked forward to the eagle plume of chieftainship. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 353 This Congress affords, perhaps, the only instance in which a legislative body has, with just discrimination, supervised the operations of a long and perilous war, without rashly entrusting too great powers to its generals, or embarrassing them with impertinent interference. Such bodies usually fail in one extreme or the other. But the hand of " Sam," under God, was over this body, than whom, a wiser and nobler assemblage history does not record to have ever assembled before, for executive purposes. The Indian wars, which now ravaged the Western and Northern Frontiers, now resulted in the savage massacre of Wyoming, which was promptly followed by a proportionate retribution against our quondam friends, the Six Nations, and the prompt return of several tribes to their ancient alle- giance. The war, then transferred to the South, was attended with serious calamities to our cause. Savannah taken, and Georgia subdued, North and South Carolina were reduced to extremities. In the meantime, King's Ferry, on the Hudson, was occu- pied by the British ; Stoney Point surprised ; and Spain takes a hand against America in the war and John Paul Jones, the Americanized Scotchman, performed Herculean prodigies of valor on the sea. Charleston soon after capitulated, and with it came the submission of the State to British rule. A savage partisan warfare now arose, and the gallants Marion and Sumpter, began to be heard of, through the indomitable prowess of their surprising feats. The disastrous rout at Camden, and the treachery of Arnold, with the trial and execution of Andre*, followed in close succession. The gallant Greene, appointed to the command in the south, to take the place of the renegade Gates, soon caused a change in the aspect of affairs in this direction. The sharp and close fighting of our backwoods' men at the battle of King's Mountain, somewhat revived the spirits of the South. A quarrel between Great Britain and Holland, which occurred about this time, tended somewhat to the em- barrassment of the former. The financial embarrassments and depreciation of Contin- ental currency, had now about reached its climax, and the disaffection of the army, and the difficulty of keeping it 30* 354 HISTORICAL AND together, became every day more great. Several regiments rebelled, and many left the field entirely, for want of pay. The battle of the " Cowpens," on the borders of the Caro- linas, in which the redoubtable conch-shell of the hurley Morgan, carried terror to the craven heart of the bloody Tarleton, and set the lordly Cornwallis on his " pegs," into the Hasty trot of retreat, at the cost of a great loss of stores and baggage roused up the ever-vigilant Greene ; and although Cornwallis had been discreetly compelled to reduce his whole army to the condition of a light infantry corps, for the purpose of pursuing the discreet retreat of the vic- torious Morgan, Greene was enabled to effect an immediate junction with Morgan, who had managed to effect his escape, owing to the sudden rise of waters which prevented the pur- suit of his enemies. The battle of Gilford Court-house, which now follows, and may be called a drawn battle, (though attended with great loss to the British, and compelling Cornwallis to retire,) was very inspiriting to our cause. Green was everywhere successful. The petulant and irrit- able D'Estaing had in the meantime returned with his fleet from the West Indies. Cornwallis, who had finally reached Virginia on his fourth retreat, found himself rapidly involved in the inextricable meshes, from which he never finally escaped. The details of the subsequent movements of Washington and Greene, one moving suddenly from the north and the other from the south, are too well known to require any greater detail here. It is sufficient that now came the great climax of our struggle. Washington, Greene, and the Count De Grasse, who had now assumed the command of the French force, by a long concerted movement, as we shall proceed to show, now unexpectedly closed upon the army of the British lord, who found himself, to his great dismay, beleaguered from all sides, in the paltry village of Yorktown. As our purpose has been to add new light to old and well- known facts, rather than to follow slavishly old records of familiar details, we append the following ancient and au- thentic documents concerning this great event. We give first the following document, containing a private letter written by Washington in 1778. KEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. 355 It has been controverted, whether the capture of General Cornwallis ivas the result of a plan preconcerted between Gen- eral Washington and Count De Grasse : or rather, whether the arrival of the Count in the Chesapeake, was predetermined and expected by General Washington, and consequently all the prepa- rations to attack New York, a mere finesse to deceive the enemy : or whether the real intention was against New York, and the siege of Yorktown planned upon the unexpected arrival of the French fleet, in the Bay. The following letter will set the matter in its true light [Carey's Museum. MOUNT VERNON, July 31, 1788. SIR. I duly received your letter of the 14th inst., and can only answer you briefly, and generally from memory that a combined operation of the land and naval forces of France, in America, for the year 1781, was preconcerted the year before ; that the point of attack was not absolutely agreed upon, because it could not be foreknown where the enemy would be most susceptible of impression ; and because we (having the command of the water, with sufficient means of conveyance) could transport ourselves to any spot with the greatest celerity ; that it was determined by me, nearly twelve months beforehand, at all hazards, to give out, and cause it to be believed, by the highest military, as well as civil officers, that New York was the destined place of attack, for the important purpose of inducing the Eastern and Middle States to make greater exertions in furnishing specific sup- plies, than they otherwise would have done, as well as for the interesting purpose of rendering the enemy less prepared elsewhere ; that, by these means, and these alone, artillery, boats, stores, and provisions, were in seasonable preparation to move with the utmost rapidity to any part of the conti- nent ; for the difficulty consisted more in providing, than knowing how to apply the military apparatus. That, before the arrival of the Count Do Grasse, it was the fixed determina- tion to strike the enemy in the most vulnerable quarter, so as to insure success with moral certainty, as our affairs were then in the most ominous train imaginable ; that New York was Because it would be easy for ount De Grasse in good tirae before his departure from the West Indies, to give notice, by express, at what place he could most conveniently first touch, to receive advice. 356 HISTORICAL AND thought to he beyond our efforts, and consequently, that the only hesitation that remained, was hetween an attack upon the British army in Virginia, and that in Charleston ; an r - finally, that, hy the intervention of several commurications and some incidents which can not he detailed in a leHer, the hostile post in Virginia, from being a provisional and strongly expected, became the definitive and certain object of the campaign I only add, that it never was in contemplation to attack New York, unless the garrison should first have" been so far degarnished, to carry on the Southern operations, as to render our success in the siege of that place, as infallible as any future military event can ever be. For I repeat it, and dwell upon it again, some splendid advantage (whether upon a larger or smaller scale was almost immaterial) was so essen- tially necessary, to revive the expiring hope and languid exertions of the country, at the crisis in question, that I never would have consented to embark in any enterprise, wherein, from the most rational plan and accurate calculation, the favorable issue should not have appeared to my view as a ray of light. The failure of an attempt against the posts of the enemy, could, in no other possible situation during the war, have been so fatal to our cause. That much trouble was taken, and finesse used, to mis- guide and bewilder Sir Henry Clinton, in regard to the real object, by fictitious communications, as well as by making a deceptive provision of ovens, forage, and boats in the neigh- borhood, is certain ; nor were less pains taken to deceive oui own army ; for I always conceived where the imposition dock not completely take place at home, it would never sufficiently succeed abroad. Your desire of obtaining truth is very laudable ; I wish I had more leisure to gratify it, as I am equally solicitous the undisguised verity should be known. Many circumstances will unavoidably be misconceived and misrepresented. Not- withstanding most of the papers which may properly be deemed official, are preserved, yet the knowledge of innu- merable things of a more delicate and secret nature, is con- fined to the perishable remembrance of some few of the present generation. With esteem, I am, sir, your most obedient humble servant, GEORGE WASHINGTON. REVOLtJTION'AllY INCIDENTS. 357 We will now give a graphic account of the ceremonies attending the surrender of Yorktown. THE SURRENDER AT YORKTOWN. From the Richmond Compiler, of April 10, 1818. As every incident connected with our Revolutionary his- tory, is interesting to the great mass of the people, I shall solicit a niche in your paper, to answer an inquiry in a late Compiler, concerning the surrender of the British army, at Yorktown, Virginia ; and hope that your readers will experi- ence the same pleasure in reading the account, that I enjoy in the narration. " At two o'clock in the evening, October 19th, 1781, the British army, led "by General O'Hara, marched out of its lines, \\ith colors cased, and drums beating a British march. " It will be seen in the sequel, that O'Hara, and not Corn- wallis, surrendered the British army to the allied forces of France and America. In this affair, Lord Cornwallis seemed to have lost all his former magnanimity and firmness of character he sunk beneath the pressure of his misfortunes, and, for a moment, gave his soul up to chagrin and sorrow. "The road through which they marched, was lined with spectators, French and Americans. On one side, the com- mander-in-chief, surrounded by his suite and the American staffs, took his station ; on the other side, opposite to him, was the Count de Rochambeau, in like manner attended. The captive army approached, moving slowly in column, with grace and precision. " Universal silence was observed amidst the vast concourse, and the utmost decency prevailed, exhibiting in demeanor, an awful sense of the vicissitudes of human life, mingled with commiseration for the unhappy. The head of the column approached the commander-in-chief ; O'Hara, mistaking the circle, turned tn that on his left, for the purpose of paying his respects to the commander-in-chief, and requesting fur- ther orders ; when quickly discovering his error, with embar- rassment in his countenance, he flew across the road, and advanced up to Washington, asked pardon for his mistake, apologized for the absence of Lord Cornwallis, and begged to know his further pleasure. 358 HISTORICAL AND " The General, feeling his embarrassment, relieved it by referring him, with much politeness, to General Lincoln for his government. Keturning to the head of the column, it again moved, under the guidance of Lincoln, to the field selected for the conclusion of the ceremony. " Every eye was turned, searching for the British com- mander-in -chief, anxious to look at a man, heretofore so much their dread. All were disappointed. " Cornwallis held himself back from the humiliating scene ; obeying sensations which his great character ought to have stifled. He had been unfortunate, not from any false step, or deficiency of exertion on his part, but from the infatuated policy of his superior, and the united power of his enemy brought to bear upon him alone. There was nothing with which he could reproach himself ; there was nothing with which he could reproach his brave and faithful army ; why not then appear at its head in the day of misfortune, as he had always done in the day of triumph ? " The British general in this instance, deviated from his usual line of conduct, dimming the splendor of his long and brilliant career. " Thus ended the important co-operation of the allied forces. Great was the joy diffused throughout our infant empire." I can not end this interesting detail, as recorded by Henry Lee, without giving you his panegyric on the father of our country : " This wide acclaim of joy and of confidence, as rare as sincere, sprung not only from the conviction that our signal success would bring in its train the blessings of peace, so wanted by our wasted country, and from the splendor with which it encircled our national name, but from the endearing reflection that the mighty exploit had been achieved by our faithful, beloved Washington. We had seen him struggling throughout the war, with inferior force, against the best troops of England, assisted by her powerful navy ; surrounded by difficulties, oppressed by want, never dismayed, never appalled, never despairing of the commonwealth. " We have seen him renouncing his fame as a soldier, his safety as a man, in his unalloyed love of country ; weakening EEVOLUTIONABY INCIDENTS. 359 his own immediate force to strengthen that of his lieu- tenants ; submitting with equanimity to his own subsequent inability to act, and rejoicing in their triumphs, because best calculated to uphold the great cause intrusted to his care ; at length, by one great and final exploit, under the benign influence of Providence, lifted to the pinnacle of glory, the reward of his toil, his sufferings, his patience, his heroism, and his virtue. Wonderful man ! rendering it difficult by his conduct throughout life, to decide whether he most excel- led in goodness or in greatness." Here also is a curious paper which illustrates the effect of the surrender of Cornwallis, given in the words of an eye- witness, a candid Englishman, who was an habitue of the British Court at the time of the arrival of the news : SURRENDER OF LORD CORNWALLIS. From Sir. N. W. Wraxall's Memoirs of his Own Time." NOVEMBER, 1781. During the whole month of November the concurring accounts transmitted to government, enumer- ating Lord Cornwallis' embarrassments and the positions taken by the enemy, augmented the anxiety of the Cabinet. Lord George Germain, in particular, conscious that on the prosperous or adverse termination of that expedition, must hinge the fate of the American contest, his own stay in office, as well as probably the duration of the ministry itself, felt, and even expressed to his friends, the strongest uneasiness on the subject. The meeting of Parliament, meanwhile, stood fixed for the 27th of November. On Sunday, the 25th, about noon, official intelligence of the surrender of the Brit ish forces at Yorktown, arrived from Falmouth, at Lord Ger- main's house in Pall Mall. Lord Walsingham, who, previous to his father, Sir William de Gray's elevation to the peerage, had been under secretary of state in that department, and who was selected to second the address in the House of Peers on the subsequent Tuesday, happened to he there when the messenger brought the news. Without communicating it to any person, Lord George, for the purpose of despatch, immediately got with him into a hackney-coach and drove to 360 HlSTOEICAL AND Lord Stormount's residence in Portland Place. Having imparted to him the disastrous information, and taken him into the carriage, they instantly proceeded to the Chancellor's house, in Great Bussel Street, Bloomsbury, whom they found at home ; when, after a short consultation, they determined to lay it themselves, in person, before Lord North. He had not received any intimation of the event when they arrived at his door, in Downing Street, between one and two o'clock. The first minister's firmness, and even his presence of mind, gave way for a short time, under this awful disaster. I asked Lord George afterwards, how he took the communica- tion when made to him ? " As I would have taken a ball in my breast/' replied Lord George. "For he opened his arms, exclaiming wildly, as he paced up and down the apartment during several minutes, ' O ! God ! it is all over !' Words which he repeated many times, under emotions of the deepest agitation and distress." When the first agitation of their minds had subsided, the four ministers discussed the question, whether or not it might be expedient to prorogue Parliament for a few days ; but, as scarcely an interval of forty-eight hours remained before the appointed time of assembling, and, as many members of both houses were already either arrived in London, or on the road, that proposition was abandoned. It became, however, indis- pensable to alter, and almost to model anew the king's speech, which had already been drawn up, and completely prepared for delivery from the throne. This alteration was, therefore, made without delay ; and at the same time, Lord George Germain, as secretary for the American department, sent off a despatch to his majesty, who was then at Kew, acquainting him with the melancholy termination of Lord Cornwallis' expedition. Some hours having elapsed before these different, but necessary acts of business could take place, the ministers separated, and Lord George Germain repaired to his office in Whitehall. There he found a con- firmation of the intelligence, which arrived about two hours after the first communication ; having been transmitted from Dover, from which place it was forwarded to Calais with the French account of the same event. I dined on that day at Lord George's ; and though the information which had reached London in the course of the EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 361 morning, from two different quarters, was of a nature not to admit of long concealment, yet it had not been communicated to me, nor to any individual of the company, as it might naturally have been, through the channel of common report, vvhen I got to Pall Mall, between five and six o'clock. Lord VValsingham, who likewise dined there, was the only person present, except Lard George, who was acquainted with the fact. The party, nine in number, sat down to table. I thought the master of the house appeared serious, though he manifested no discomposure. Before the dinner was finished, one of his servants delivered him a letter, brought back from the messenger who had been despatched to the king. Lord George opened and perused it ; then looking at Lord Walsingham, to whom he exclusively directed his ob- s rvation, "The king writes," said he, "just as he always d>es, except that I observe he has omitted to mark the hour and the minute of his writing, with his usual precision." This remark, though calculated to awaken some interest, excited no comment ; and while the ladies, Lord George's three daughters, remained in the room, we repressed our curiosity. But they had no sooner withdrawn, than Lord George, having acquainted us that from Paris information had just arrived of the old Count de Maurepas, first minister, lying at the point of death: "It would grieve me," said I " to finish my career, however far advanced in years, were I first minister of France, before 1 had witnessed the termi- nation of this great contest between England and America." " He has survived to see that event," replied Lord George, with some agitation. Utterly unsuspicious of the fact which had happened beyond the Atlantic, I conceived him to allude to the indecisive naval action fought at the mouth of the Chesapeake, early in the preceding month of September, between Admiral Graves and Count de Grasse ; which, in its results, might prove most injurious to Lord Cornwallis. Under this impression, " my meaning," said I, " is that if I were the Count de Maurepas, I should wish to live long enough to behold the final issue of the war in Virginia." " He has survived to witness it completely," answered Lord George, " the army has surrendered, and you may peruse the parti- culars of the capitulation in that paper." taking at the same time one from his pocket, which he delivered into my hand, 31 362 HISTORICAL AND not without visible emotion. By his permission, I read it aloud, while the company listened in profound silence. We then discussed its contents, as it effected the ministry, the country and the war. It must be confessed that they were calculated to diffuse a gloom over the most convivial society, and that they opened a wide field for practical speculation. After perusing the account of Lord Cornwallis's surrender at Yorktown, it was impossible for all present not to feel a lively curiosity to know how the king had received the intel- ligence, as well as how he expressed himself in his note to Lord George Germain, on the first communication of so pain- ful an event. He gratified our wish by reading it to us, observing at the same time, that it did the highest honor to his Majesty's fortitude, firmness, and consistency of character. The words made an impression on my memory which the lapse of more than thirty years has not erased ; and I shall here communicate its tenor, as serving to show how that prince felt and wrote, under one of the most afflicting, as well as humiliating occurrences of his reign. The billet ran nearly to this effect: " I have received, with sentiments of the deepest concern, the communication which Lord George Ger- main has made me, of the unfortunate result of the opera- tions in Virginia. I particularly lament it, on account of the consequences connected with it, and the difficulties which it may produce in carrying on the public business, or in repair- ing such a misfortune. But I trust that neither Lord George Germain, nor any member of the cabinet, will suppose that it makes any alteration in those principles of my conduct which have directed me in past times, and which will always continue to animate me under every event, in the prosecution of the present contest." Not a sentiment of despondency or despair was to be found in the letter ; the very handwriting of which indicated composure of mind. Whatever opinion we may entertain relative to the practicability of reducing America, to obedience, by force of arms, at the end of 1781, we must admit that no sovereign could manifest more calm- ness, dignity, or self-command than George III. displayed in this reply. Severely as the general effect of the blow received in Vir- ginia was felt throughout the nation, yet no immediate symptoms of ministerial dissolution, or even of Parliamentary REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 363 defection became visible in either House. All the ani- mated invectives of Fox, aided by the contumelious irony of Burke, and sustained by the dignified denunciations of Pitt, enlisted on the same side, made little apparent impression on their hearers, who seemed stupefied by the disastrous intelligence. Yet never, probably, at any period of our his- tory, was more indignant language used by the opposition, or supported by administration. In the ardor of his feelings at the recent calamity beyond the Atlantic, Fox not only accused ministers of being virtually in the pay of France, but men- aced them in the name of an undone people, who would speedily compel them to expiate their crimes on the public scaffold. Burke, with inconceivable warmth of coloring, depicted the folly and impracticability of taxing America by force, or, as he described it, "shearing the wolf." The meta- phor was wonderfully appropriate, and scarcely admitted of denial. Pitt leveled his observations principally against the cabinet, whom he represented as destitute of principle, wis- dom, or union of design. All three were sustained, and I had almost said, outdone, by Mr. Thomas Pitt, who, in terms of gloomy despondency, seemed to regard the situation of the country as scarcely admitting of a remedy, under such a Par- liament, such ministers, and such a sovereign. Lord North, in this moment of general depression, found resources within himself he scornfully repelled the insinuations of Fox, as deserving only contempt ; justified the principles of the war, which did not originate in a despotic wish to tyrannize over America, but from the desire of maintaining the constitutional authority of Parliament over the colonies ; deplored in com- mon with the opposition, the misfortunes which had marked the progress of the contest ; defied the threat of punishment ; and finally adjured the House not to aggravate the present calamity by dejection or despair, but by united exertion, to secure our national extrication. Such a picture of the consternation of the British Court, on hearing this disastrous news of the ignominious wreck of a second army in America, has never before been furnished to the public eye ; and significantly suggests how the stento- rian words of "Sam/' " I am master here!" rung porten- tously even at that early period, in the ears of the hoary and feeble despotisms of the Old World. 364: HISTORICAL AND " Sam " was now a freeman ; and " youngling " as he was, the weight of his ponderous limbs had, even through the storm and crash of battle, made verge and room enough whereon to stretch themselves at ease on their " old couch of space." CHAPTER XXIV. Trouble with the Indians Tecumseh's League General Harrison Battles with the Indians The British treat with them Death of Tecumseh. JOHN Bull seems to have had enough of " Sam," after the surrender of Cornwallis, to stay his stomach for the present. That portly gentleman would appear now to have come to the conclusion, that he had counted rather much upon the respect due to age, plethora, and gout, and to have become rapidly more philosophical, and more reasonable in his views, as to his own, and the rights of others. The future con- queror of Napoleon had been soundly thrashed by a big baby, to be sure, but what of that? many a kind, but uxorious father had been conquered by big babies before, through the excess of his parental feeling and where was the shame ? It was all human nature, to say the most of it. Babies will be fractious, and fathers will be fond. And the more John reasoned, and philosophised, the more reasonable and philo- sophical he became, of course until finally the bright idea illuminated his brain, through the fumy fog of after-dinner Port, and cigar, that it might be well to let the poor " young- ling" up, since he had beaten him with sufficient severity for this, his first fall, and hoped, in the gracious serenity of his more contemplative and propitious mood, that the rude, but willful, though not contumacious boy, might still have some elements of submission and reformation in him. And John grinned with a grim smile, as he hitched up the already nearly bursting waistband, which heaved with the throes of beef, plum-pudding, and paternal sentiment. Ha ! ha ! ha ! the wild, young dog ! I'll let him up now, but may be the 31 * 365 366 HISTORICAL AND next time, I have occasion to lay my hand upon him, his mother won't know him, when I 'm done with him ! But as Mrs. Bull was not present, to say whether she thought it likely she would, this important historical problem must remain through all time a solemn mystery, to be solved by some transcendental historian of the Bancroft order, in some remote era of the "spiritual" regime, which is now so rapidly approaching. Certainly John Bull proved himself in earnest in the apos- tolic threat of the " laying on of- hands," some short time afterward as we simil see and we shall see, too, the result. But " Sam," fortunately, was of the philosophic tempera- ment too, by inheritance, no doubt and remained very meekly contented with the drubbing he had received, and a little unimportant concession of liberty to do as he pleased hereafter. To be sure he found himself with an empty treasury, a plundered, ravaged continent, a half-rebellious people at his disposal, but managed with a remarkable pla- cidity, through the easy temperament for which he is noted, to reconcile himself with what John Bull would have called a vainglorious contemplation of the manifold trophies of two entire captured armies, and the paltry pittance, for which he was obviously indebted to paternal magnanimity, of a per- petual fief to lands, demense rents, etc., to which he naturally considered himself, in all humility, somewhat entitled, by virtue of " Squatter Sovereignty." To be sure, " Sam" had never been a tailor, except in the Eve and Adam sense, or the " Rough and Ready " and therefore, could not be strictly considered a " squatter." As it was, we proceeded very meekly to organize a government, and weld a constitution, the iron hinges of which have as yet successfully resisted the shock of all elemental forces, which have been brought combined, against it. This achievement, though, no doubt, owing to the inspira- tion of filial gratitude, solely, and the sentiment of thank- fulness for his .full release, through the gracious and benign magnanimity of his new-found and portly sire for we had thought " Sam " the child of the elements solely neverthe- less placed him in a position among the nations of the earth, KE VOLUTION ARY INCIDENTS. 367 which caused Old Empire to verily stare at the Young Mon- strosity. The Federal Constitution organized, America an independ- dent nation of the earth, and Washington inaugurated as president, we must leave the intervening period to other his- tories, and make a long stride to that of the war of 1812 with Tecumseh. The pressure of Bonaparte's commercial system, not con- fined to the civilized world, was felt even by the wild tribes of the North American forests. The price of furs, in conse- quence of their exclusion from the Continent of Europe, their chief market, had sunk so low that the Indian hunters found their means of purchase from the traders greatly curtailed. The rapid extension of settlements north of the Ohio had not only occasioned an alarming diminution of game, but, in the facilities afforded for the introduction of whisky, had inflicted a still greater evil on the Indians. Among those tribes, D -lawares, Shawanese, Wyandots, Miamis, and, further to the northwest, Ottowas, Potawatomies, Kickapoos, Winnebagoes, and Chippewas, a remarkable influence had of late been established by two twin brothers of the Shawanese tribe, who possessed between them all the qualities held in greatest esteem by the Indians. Tecumseh was an orator and a war- rior, active, intrepid, crafty, and unscrupulous. His brother, commonly known as The Prophet, was not only an orator, but a "medicine man 7 ' of the highest pretensions, claiming to hold direct intercourse with the Great Spirit, and to possess miraculous powers. He announced himself as specially sent, and instructed to require of the red men, as a first step toward a return to their ancient prosperity, to renounce all those innovations borrowed from the whites, more especially the use of whisky, which had made them the slaves of the traders. But these denunciations were not limited to the vices borrowed from the white men ; they were equally lev- elled at those approaches to civilization, and those new reli- gious opinions, which the agents of the government on the one hand, and a few missionaries on the other, had been laboring to introduce. Separating himself from his own tribe, which was slow, at first, in recognizing his mission, the Prophet had established (1806) a village of his own at Greenville, near the western 868 HISTORICAL AND border of Ohio, on lands already ceded to the United States. Meanwhile Tecumseh traveled from tribe to tribe, spreading everywhere his brother's fame. While the Prophet's imme- diate followers, engrossed in their religious exercises, were often on the verge of starvation, it was reported, and believed at a distance, that he could make pumpkins as big as a wig- wam spring out of the ground at a single word, along with stalks of corn, of which a single ear would suffice to feed a dozen men. Denounced by the chiefs of their own and the neighboring tribes as impostors, they retorted by charges of subserviency to the whites, and even of witchcraft, a very terrible accusation among the Indians, under which they pro- cured the death of two or three hostile Delaware Chiefs. It was, however, among the more remote tribes that the greater part of their convicts were obtained ; and this, perhaps, was one reason why the Prophet, in the summer of 1808, removed his village to the Tippecanoe, a northern branch of the Upper Wabash, a spot belonging to the Miamis and Delawares, but which he occupied in spite of their opposition. At this new village, disciples and spectators flocking in from all sides, the Prophet continued to celebrate his appointed seasons of fasting and exhortations : religious exercises, which were intermin- gled with or followed by warlike sports, such as shooting with bows, by which the rifle was to be superseded, and wielding the stone tomahawk or war-club, ancient Indian weapons, before the hatchet was known. These military exercises, and an alleged secret intercourse with the British traders and agents, had drawn upon the Prophet and his brother the suspicions of Harrison, governor of the Indiana Territory, and superintendent of Indian affairs; but these suspicions were, in a great measure, dis- pelled by a visit which the Prophet paid to Vincennes, in which he assumed the character of a warm friend of peace, his sole object being, as he declared, to reform the Indians, and especially to put a stop to the use of whisky. Not long after this visit, Harrison held a treaty at Fort Wayne with the Delawares, Potawatomies, Miamis, Kickapoos, Weas, and Eel River Indians, at which, in consideration of annuities amounting to $2350, and of presents in hand to the value of $8200, he obtained a cession of lands extending up the Wabash above Terre Haute, and including the middle waters KE VOLUTION ARY INCIDENTS. 869 of White river. Neither the Prophet nor the tribe to which he belonged had any claim to these lands, except, indeed, under a doctrine which he had lately set up, that all the Indian lands belonged to all the tribes in common, and that none could be sold without the consent of all. On this ground the Prophet and his brother denounced the late treaty as void, and they threatened to kill all the chiefs concerned in making it a threat the more formidable, in consequence of the accession to the Prophet's party, at this moment, of the Wyandots, a tribe on Lake Erie, not numer- ous, but famous warriors, and regarded with great respect by all the northwestern tribes, who called them uncles. In consequence of new reports of intended hostilities, Har- rison invited the Prophet and his brother to a new interview, which took place in a field just outside the village of Vin- cennes. Though requested not to bring more than thirty followers, Tecumseh came attended by some four hundred warriors. The governor, surrounded by several hundred of the unarmed townspeople, was seated in a chair, attended by the jduges of the Territory, by several officers of the army, and by Winnemack, a friendly Potawatomie chief, who had on this, as on other occasions, given notice of Tecumseh's designs. Under some trees on the border of the field were placed a sergeant and twelve men from the fort. The Indians, who sat in a semicircle on the grass, had left their rifles at their camp, but they had their tomahawks by them. Tecumseh, in his opening speech, fully avowed the design of himself and his brother to establish, by a combination among the tribes, the principle of no more cessions of Indian lands except by general consent. He admitted a determina- tion to kill all the chiefs concerned in the late treaty, but disavowed any intention to make war upon the whites, and denounced those who had accused him of it as liars. This was aimed at Winnemack, whom Tecumseh overwhelmed with a torrent of reproaches, and who, as he sat on the ground, near Harrison's chair, secretly charged a pistol, and held it concealed, ready for use. Harrison, in reply, ridiculed Tecumseh's assertions that the Great Spirit had intended the Indians to be one people ; for, if so, why had he put different tongues into their heads ? 370 HISTORICAL AND Why had he not given them one language, which all might understand? The land in dispute had been bought of the Miamis, whose fathers had owned it while the fehawanese lived in Georgia ; and the sale had been consented to by all the tribes who by occupancy had any claim. They had seen fit to sell the land, and what business had the Shawanese to interpose ? Here the governor paused for the interpreter to repeat to the Indians what he had said, in the midst of which Tecumseh broke in, declaring, with violent gesticulations, that Jbhe governor's statements were false, and that he and the United States had cheated and imposed upon the Indians. As he went on with increased vehemence, his warriors sprang upon their feet and began to brandish their tomahawks. Harrison started from his chair and drew his sword, as did the officers who stood by ; Winneinack cocked his pistol ; and the unarmed citizens caught up such missiles as came to hand, principally brickbats from an ancient kiln. The guard of soldiers came running up, and were about to fire, but were checked by the governor, who asked the interpreters what was the matter. Being told what Tecumseh had said, Har- rison pronounced him a bad man, with whom he would hold no further conference. As he had come under the protection of the council fire, he might depart in safety, but he must instantly leave the neighborhood. Thereupon the council broke up, and Tecumseh retired to his camp. The people of Vincennes stood to their arms, expecting an attack that night. But, changing his tactics, Tecumseh the next morning expressed the greatest regret at the violence into which he had been betrayed, and requested and obtained another interview. This time his deportment was dignified and collected. He denied any intention of using force, ascribing the demonstration of the day before to the advice of white men and Harrison had enemies in the Territory, who had accused him of having cheated the Indians by whom he had been told that, if he made a vigorous opposition to the treaty, the governor would be recalled, and the land given up. But, though he disclaimed any hostile intentions, upon being asked whether he meant to interfere with the survey of the land, he significantly replied that he should adhere to the old boundary. He was followed by a Wyandot, a BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 371 Potawatomie, an Ottawa, a Kickapoo, and a Winnebago, all of whom declared their adherence, and that of their tribes, to the new confederacy. Anxious to ascertain Tecumseh's real feelings and inten- tions, Harrison paid him a visit in his camp. He expressed, on this occasion, great reluctance to go to war with the Americans, and promised, if the recent cessions were given up, and the principle adopted of taking no more land from the Indians without the consent of all the tribes, to be a faithful ally, and to assist the Americans in any war with the British ; otherwise, though well aware that the pretended friendship of the British was all for their own purposes, he should be obliged to join them. Harrison, though he held out no hope of success, promised to lay the matter before the President. Numerous complaints, some months after, from the frontier, of horses stolen, houses plundered, and even alleged murders, caused Harrison to send word to Tecumseh that, if he did not put a stop to these outrages, he might expect to be attacked. Tecumseh replied by a personal visit, but with no satisfactory result. Shortly after, he started on a journey to the South, in hope to bring the Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws into his confederacy. Among the Creeks especially he might hope for some influence, as his mother had belonged to that tribe. Harrison had suggested to the administration the estab- lishment of a post high up the Wabash, and they had pro- posed the seizing of Tecumseh and his brother as hostages for peace. Boyd's regiment of regular infantry had been for some time stationed at Pittsburgh, with a view to possi- ble operations in the West. Fresh complaints coining from the Illinois Territory, Boyd was directed to place himself under Harrison's command. Harrison was authorized, should the Prophet commence or threaten hostilities, to attack him, and to call out militia for that purpose ; but considering the threatening state of relations with Great Britain, much anx- iety was at the same time expressed for the preservation of peace. The people of Vincennes and its neighborhood, dreaded being suddenly attacked at any time. They were eager to strike a decisive blow ; and, though somewhat em- barrassed by his orders, Harrison thought that policy the 372 HISTORICAL AND best. With Boyd's regiment, about three hundred strong, and some five hundred militia, partly from Kentucky, includ- ing two or three mounted companies, advancing some sixty miles up the Wabash to Terre Haute, he established a post there, named after himself ; and thence he dispatched some Delaware chiefs, that tribe still remaining friendly, on a mission to the Prophet. These messengers were very ill received, and were dismissed with insults and contempt. The troops then advanced, and, after eight days 7 cautious march, encamped within ten miles of the Prophet's town. The march being resumed the next day, small parties of Indians began to appear, with whom it was in vain attempted to communicate; but within three miles of the town, some chiefs came forward, who asked the meaning of this hostile movement ; urged the Prophet's desire for peace ; and ob- tained a halt, and the appointment of a council for the mor- row. The army encamped in a hollow square, surrounded by a chain of sentinels, the troops sleeping on their arms, with orders, if attacked, to maintain their position at all hazards. Just before daybreak the light of the moon, then in its third quarter, obscured by clouds, with an occasional drizzle of rain an alarm was given by the discharge of a gun by one of the sentinels, followed by the Indian yell, and a desperate rush and heavy fire upon the left rear angle of the camp. The Indians had crept close to the sentinels, designing to overpower them by surprise. The men stood at once to their arms. All the camp-fires were immediately extinguished, lest they might serve to guide the aim of the Indians. The attack soon extended to almost the whole square, the Indians advancing and retiring at a signal made by the rattling of deer's hoofs. Not being able to break the square, and being charged, soon after daylight, by the mounted men, they presently disappeared, carrying off their wounded, but leaving forty dead on the field. This battle, for the present, ended the war with the Indians, until Te- cumseh, after the declaration of the war of 1812, formed an alliance with the English, when it was resumed with all its terror. The final death of Tecumseh, which occurred soon after, at the battle of the Thames, broke up the formi- dable alliance among ten Indian tribes, of which he was the head, and defeated, finally, his grand and masterly scheme, BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 373 ot , mihilating the entire western settlements, by a combi- nation of all the savage tribes of the West and North. The death of Tecumseh, in this battle, was in reality one of the gieat events of western history. The circumstances of his fall, of which so great use has been made for paltry political ends, which attributed it to the prowess of Colonel Richard M. Johnson, that Ethiop-loving demagogue of the democracy, have been, for the first time, properly delineated in our cut. He was undoubtedly slain by Colonel Whitley, of the Kentucky mounted men, in a single-hand conflict, and we have furnished a correct portrait of the noble horse which he rode on the occasion, and which, wounded by the last shot from the pistol of Tecumseh, survived, and finally came into the possession of the father of the present nar- rator. This event'virtually ended the war, in this direction. This expedition gave rise to abundant discussions. Har- rison's consenting to suspend his march ; his selection of a camp so near the Indians ; his omission to fortify it, for which the want of axes was pleaded in excuse ; and his con- duct also during the battle, were all very closely canvassed. A dispute also arose, as to whether the merits of the repulse belonged to him or to Boyd. Harrison, however, was sus- tained, 'and his conduct approved by the President, and by resolutions of the Legislatures of Kentucky and Indiana; and such was the general impression throughout the West, as to give him a decided military reputation. The question of war with Great Britain, which it is well remembered turned solely upon the question of embargo, and the right of impressment, which Johnny Bull, with the full recollection of his reserved, apostolic right of the "lay- ing on of hands," claimed that he possessed the power of enforcing, to the virtual ruin of our national commerce and navy, caused immense discussion, in which the most brilliant of the children of " Sam " developed their finest powers of oratory and invective, pro and con. Randolph, with his fierce wit and demoniac satire, stood like the incarrate ghost of famine, in the halls of our Con- gress, hurling savage epithets at the heads of the promoters of the war ; shaking his spectral finger, with terrible de- nunciations, at the eloquent and subtle Clay, whose clarion voice, the very music of war, had roused our people to battle 32 374 HISTORICAL AND against the predominating insolence of British naval ascend ancy. But Randolph squeaked his dire epithets in vain a stronger spell than he could wake was upon the hearts of the people and, in spite of Tories, Jesuits, and Quakers, the nation rose up as one man, and drove the vaunted tyrant of the seas from our waters, more humiliated than ever. This time pursy John Bull did " give up the ship ; " Sam " had thrashed him on the land before, and now it became necessary to thrash him on the sea, which, in the glorious battles of the Constitution and the Guerriere, the United States and the Macedonian, the Wasp and the Hornet, he quickly demonstrated, that on whatever element he chose to carry his arms and his commerce, they should be respected. Nor did he find it necessary to bombard any Greytowns, at that, or perform any other such superlative heroics. Now, too, culminated the reputations of Jackson, Harri- son, and Scott stalwart men, all, and good generals. The first, the greatest, and strongest since Washington, the man of iron will and lofty aim, the rude, unlettered hero of the savage West ! the gaunt Titan of modern pigmies of demo- cracy ! Who can forget his long career of opposition and dauntless conquest against aggressions of all kinds, whether military, political, or social? It would be impossible for us, within our narrow limits, to follow up, in detail, the incidents of this important war. We can do nothing more than glance at some of its impor- tant events. We will only mention, that throughout its entire course, the whole conduct of John Bull exhibked a most unrelenting determination to consummate the purposes of his avowed vengeance. In doing this, he scrupled at no intrigue, however infa- mous, no strategy, however brutal, and no affiliation, how- ever debasing. He, without hesitation, sought the aid of the French Jesuits, whom he hated and feared more than any other power, except that of the recreant " Sam," upon whom he was sworn to be avenged ; and, through their agency, he formed treaties with the savage tribes of the con- tinent, over whom they had now obtained ascendancy, north and south, made them the medium of his revengeful largess in arms, ammunition, and money, and thus turned them loose from every " Reduction " the cordon of which had KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 375 now been completed by the intrigues of these holy fathers, who gladly availed themselves of such temporary alliance with their old foes, to wreak their own hoarded vengeance against the Protestant cause. Thus inflamed, the sanguinary savages of the entire con- tinent were turned loose upon the women and children of our vast and defenseless borders, and the war assumed many aspects of tomahawk and scalping-knife horror, which had remained, until now, to assume their full sanguinary coloring. The battle in which Perry so singularly defeated the entire naval force of John Bull, upon the Northern Lakes, was the first and most important check which his hired bri- gands received during the war. Jackson's operations con- summated, by the battle of the Great Horse-shoe Bend, and the submission of the Creeks inforced a peace with the Southern Indians. Brown's invasion of Canada, and the battle of Chippewa, in which the young Scott distinguished himself, and the battle of Bridgewater, and the siege of Fort Erie, followed in rapid succession. The march on Washington, the battle of Bladensburg, and the attack and defense of Baltimore, which rapidly succeeded the capture of the capital, were soon followed by the advance on and the battle of Plattsburg, and the retreat of the British, which virtually ended the war in the North. Then came the battle of New Orleans, of which we shall give* some more detailed account. Previous to Jackson's arrival at New Orleans, everything had remained there, intervening dilapidations excepted, in the same condition in which Wilkinson had left it, a stop having been put, immediately after his departure, to every measure of defense which he had commenced. The total population of Louisiana did not exceed one hundred thousand, of whom half were slaves or free people of color. New Orleans had about twenty thousand, of whom less than half were whites. Of these whites a large portion were French Creoles, while there were also many adventurers of foreign birth, whose attachment to the United States was not impli- citly relied upon. The adjoining districts of Mississippi con- tained not above forty thousand inhabitants, of whom half 376 HISTORICAL AND were slaves. In consequence of communications sent by General Jackson from Mobile, Governor Claiborne had ordered all the militia of Louisiana to hold themselves in resdiness for instant service, those of the city to exercise twice a week, and those of the country half as often. A public meeting was soon after called in New Orleans and a committee of defense organized, of which Edward Livingston was appointed chairman. Having recovered possession at last of his batture, Livingston had begun to rise above the wave of obloquy with which he had been so long overwhelmed ; but he was still so unpopular, and such were the local jeal- ousies and quarrels, that another and rival committee of defense was presently organized. Determined to avail him- self of every means of defense, Jackson issued from Mobile an affectionate address to " the noble-hearted, generous, free men of color.' 7 Repudiating the mistaken policy which had hitherto excluded them from the military service, he called on them to enroll themselves in a distinct corps a call to which they quickly responded, under an act of the Louisiana legislature, called together in special session, and by which a joint committee of defense was appointed, apparently, how- ever, with very little hopes that any very serious attack could be withstood. The arrival of Jackson, who was soon followed by a few regulars from Mobile, served to give some encouragement. But he saw at once that he must rely for defense mainly on exterior resources ; nor were there any to which he could look except Coffee's brigade, which, after the expulsion of the British from Pensacola, he had ordered to march for the Mississippi, and other detachments of militia from Kentucky and Tennessee, called for some time before, and expected down the river, but which, as yet, had scarcely set out. Such, in fact, was the poverty and disorganization of the quarter- master's department in the West, that the Kentucky troops had only been enabled to embark, by the credit of individual citizens pledged for the necessary supplies. Intent to aug- ment his forces by all means, Jackson accepted the aid of Lafitte and a portion of the Baratarian buccaneers, who again tendered their services on condition of pardon. The convicts, also, in the prison, were released and embodied. A flat-bottomed frigate, commenced by Wilkinson, and KE VOLUTION ABY INCIDENTS. 877 which would have been invaluable at the present moment, lay unfinished on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain. The only naval force on that lake and Lake Borgne, was five gun- boats and a small schooner ; these, with a few other gun-boats and barges in the Mississippi, the schooner Carolina of four- teen guns, and the ship Louisiana of sixteen, the latter just taken into service, constituted the whole naval means of defending the water approaches. While Jackson was inspect- ing the forts St. Philip and Leon, which guarded the ascent of the river, news reached New Orleans that the expected British fleet had anchored at Cat Island, off the entrance of Lake Borgne. The force on board, without counting four thousand sailors and marines, amounted, as it afterward appeared, to twelve thousand men, commanded by Packing- harn, Keene, Lambert, and Gibbs, able and experienced gen- erals of Wellington's late Peninsular army, whence, also, the troops had mostly been drawn. Some forty or fifty British barges succeeded after a hard fight, in capturing the Amer- ican flotilla on Lake Borgne, thus laying open the passage to New Orleans ; and about the same time, the post called the Balize, at the entrance of the river, with all the pilots stationed there, fell into the enemy's hands. The Louisiana militia were at once called into the field ; but a serious difficulty arose from the want of arms. Jack- son, some months before, had called for a supply from the arsenal at Pittsburg ; but, from an unwillingness to pay the freight demanded by the only steamer which then navigated the Mississippi, these necessary means of defense had been shipped in keel boats, nor did they arrive till the fate of the city had been decided. Even the muskets on hand would have been useless, but for a supply of flints furnished by Lafitte, the Baratarian pirate. The Legislature passed an act extending for four months the payment of all bills and notes; but they hesitated to suspend the habeas corpus act: whereupon Jackson, under whose command Governor Clai- borne had placed himself and the militia, took the responsi- bility of proclaiming martial law. Expresses had already been sent up the river, to get news, if possible, of Coffee's brigade, and of the militia expected from Tennessee and Kentucky. Coffee, after encountering great hardships from excessive rains and short supplies, had 32* 378 HISTORICAL AND reached the neighborhood of Baton Rouge about the time that the British appeared off Cat Island. On receiving Jack- son's orders, he had marched with one thousand three hundred and fifty men, leaving three hundred sick behind, and push- ing forward himself with eight hundred of the best mounted, he accomplished the distance of one hundred and fifty miles in two days, encamping on the third within four miles of the city. A body of Mississippi dragoons, which had marched from Mobile about the same time, arrived shortly after. On news of Carroll's approach with the additional Tennessee militia, the steamboat which had just arrived from Pittsburg had been sent to bring them down ; and Jackson thus found himself at the head of five thousand men, of whom somewhat less than a thousand were regulars. Meanwhile the British Army, advancing in their light transports to the head of Lake Borgne, under the pilotage of some Italian fishermen who dwelt in that neighborhood, found a water passage by the Bayou Bienvenu, to within a short distance of the Mississippi, of which the left bank, about fifteen miles below New Orleans, was gained by General Keene with an advanced party of two thousand light troops. This approach from the front was a fortunate circumstance ; had the British advanced by Lake Pontchartrain , thus cutting off the communication of New Orleans with the country above, the result might have been very different. As soon as Jackson was informed of this lodgment, leaving Carroll and the Louisiana country militia to cover the city, he marched to meet the enemy, taking with him the regu- lars, the city militia, Coffee's brigade dismounted, and the Mississippi dragoons. The British left rested on the river, exposed to the fire of the schooner Carolina. Coffee was detached to gain their right, while Jackson, with the rest of the troops, and two pieces of artillery, advanced on their front. It was dark before the action began, a circumstance favorable in some respects to the raw American troops, but preventing co-operation, and producing some confusion. The attack was made with vigor. The British, greatly annoyed by the fire of the schooner, were driven to take several new positions ; but at last they got into a very strong one, between an old levee, which covered them from the schooner, and a new one, raised within, which guarded their right ; and [REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 379 fi ding that this position could not be forced, Jackson retired wioh a loss of two hundred and twenty-three in killed, wounded, and prisoners. The enemy's loss was rather greater. The next day Jackson took up a position behind a deep trench, running from the river to the swamp, at a point where the solid land between was less than a mile in breadth, a position naturally strong, and which every effort Was made to strengthen. Just as the late action closed, the British had been joined by a new division from their ships ; but, alarmed at the warm reception they had met, and ignorant of Jackson's force, which the American prisoners greatly exaggerated, instead of pressing forward at once, which would have been their best chance, they waited to bring up rein- forcements and artillery. This interval was diligently employed by Jackson in strengthening his position, bales of cotton being used to form a rampart, which, as well as the ditch in front of it, was extended into the swamp. A British battery, established on the levee, succeded in destroying the Carolina by hot shot, but the Louisiana was saved, and towed out of reach. The next day the enemy advanced in force, driving in Jackson's outposts, and having approached within a half a mile of his lines, they opened upon them with artil- lery, bombs, and Congreve rockets. Jackson had five pieces of heavy artillery already mounted, and served by the crew of the Carolina. These guns, aided by the raking fire of the Louisiana, checked the enemy's advance, and after a seven hours' cannonade, he retired with considerable loss. As matters thus approached a crisis, Jackson and Claiborne were not a little troubled at the apprehension of treachery within the city. Fulwar Skip worth, who, from having been governor of the late insurgent republic of West Florida, was now speaker of the Louisiana Senate, had made some inqui- ries of Major Butler, left in command at New Orleans, as to the truth of a rumor, that, rather than surrender, Jackson would destroy the city and retire up the river, from whioh, and other circumstances, it was conjectured that the Legisla- ture might intend to save the city by offering to capitulate. Jackson directed Clairborne, in case any move was made in that direction, to arrrest the members of the Legislature ; an order to which Claiborne gave such an interpretation, con- trary, it wa,s afterward said, to Jackson's intentions, that, 380 HISTORICAL AND without waiting to see whether there were any grounds foi his suspicions, he placed a military guard at the door of the hall, and broke up the legislative session. Jackson alsc authorized a general search of houses and stores for arms, and, to prevent any skulking from militia duty, he directed a registration of all the male inhabitants. With the commencement of the new year, the enemy renewed his attack with more and heavier artillery ; but, in the interval, the works had been much strengthened ; and, after a 'heavy cannonade, the British guns were dismounted and silenced. Jackson's preparations for defense were not confined to the left bank of the river. By the Bay of Bara- taria and the inlets connected with it, the bank opposite the city might be approached, without passing the forts on the river ; and to guard against attack from that quarter, Gen- eral Morgan had been sent across, with orders to throw up defenses like those on the eastern side. At last the long expected Kentuckians arrived 2250 men, led by General Adair, that old friend of Burr's but half of them were without arms, which Jackson could not furnish. Detachments of these Kentuckians and of the Louisiana militia were sent to join Morgan, whose force was thus raised to 1500 men, stationed behind an intrenchment, defended by several brass twelves and by a battery of twenty four-pounders, commanded by Commodore Patterson. The men without arms were em- ployed by Jackson upon a second line of intrenchments, as a place of rally should he be driven from his first line. Preparations had meanwhile been made by the British for a grand attack. Boats having been drawn, with great labor, from the bayou into the river, Colonel Thornton was sent across in the night, with a British detachment, to assault Morgan. At the same time, under the fire of a battery of six eighteen pounders, erected also during the night, the main body, led by Packenham in person, advanced to storm Jackson's position. " Booty and beauty," such was the watch- word; comment enough on British military morals. One column marched by the river, and, without much difficulty, carried an advanced redoubt, by the guns of which the approach to the American line was raked through its whole extent. The other and main column, led by Gibbs and Keene, approached that part of the American line nearest BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 381 to the fatal fire of the Tennessee sharp-shooters, and of nine pieces of heavy artillery, was speedily thrown into confusion. Packing-ham, in attempting to restore order, was killed ; the other two generals were wounded, Gribbs mortally ; and after an hour's struggle, and two unsuccessful advances. Lambert, who succeeded to the command, was obliged to withdraw, at the same time abandoning the redoubt on the river, which the other column had carried. Thornton, on the opposite bank, not- withstanding some delay in his advance, had proved entirely successful, and the position he had gained would have given great advantage for renewing the attack. But the British army had lost two thousand men in killed and wounded ; and Lambert, dreading still further disasters, hastened to with- draw Thornton's troops, and to abandon the whole enterprise. Having taken all proper precautions to cover his retreat, he first fell back to the original landing place on Lake Borgne, from which point the army was presently re-embarked. Jackson's loss was but trifling, only seventy-one on both sides of the river, while his total loss in the campaign had been but three hundred and thirty- three. But with his raw troops, whose flight before Thornton had shown how little they could be depended on, he did not choose to risk anything in attempting to intercept the enemy's retreat, who, retiring first to Cat Island, proceeded thence, as if not to fail entirely, to the attack and capture of Fort Bowyer. About the same time the enemy withdrew from the coast of Georgia ; but not until they had caused a proclamation of martial law, and had thrown that State, and South Carolina also, into a par- oxysm of alarm. Humors of Jackson's successes beginning to arrive at Washington, successes which the administration, so far as anything had been done by them, had very little right to expect, came like an exhilarating cordial to the baffled and mortified war party. Confirmations, with additional particu- lars, continued to arrive, and to be welcomed with the loudest exultations ; but, before the whole story was known, the public -attention was drawn off to a fresh piece of news, of even greater interest and importance. The British sloop of war Favorite, arriving at New York under a flag of truce, brought two messengers, one British, 382 HISTORICAL AND the other American, bearers of an unexpected treaty of peace, already ratified by the British government. It was late of a Saturday night ; but no sooner was the joyful word PEACE cir- culated through the city and it spread like electricity than, without stopping to inquire or to think about the terms, the whole active population, of all parties, rushed into the streets in a perfect ecstasy of delight ; and, amid shouts, illumina- tions, and a perfect uproar of joy, expresses were sent oft', north and south, with the news. In thirty-two hours (thought to be a great effort of speed) the announcement reached Boston, where it was received on Monday morning with the most clamorous rejoicings. All the bells were at once set to ringing; messengers were despatched in every direction to spread the delightful intelligence ; the schools received a holyday; the whole population, quitting their employments, hastened to congratulate each other at this relief, not only from foreign war, but from the still more dreadful impending cloud of internal and civil struggle. The blockaded snipping, rotting forlorn at the wharves, got out all their flags and streamers, and, before night, once more the hum of commerce sounded, ship-carpenters and riggers were busy at work, car- goes were being shipped, and crews engaged. The joy was the same along the whole maritime frontier ; nor, however they might strive to conceal their emotions, was it less among the politicians at Washington, including those most forward to precipitate their country into a struggle so unequal and disastrous. At the same time they made a very dexterous use of the sudden halo of glory diffused by Jackson's victory, to conceal from themselves, as well as from the people, the desperate point to which affairs had been reduced. Troup had the audacity to congratulate the House even before the contents of the treaty were known, it having but just been laid before the Senate, on the glorious termination of the most glorious war ever waged by any people provided, as he cautiously added, that the treaty should prove an honora- ble one ! The weakness of the British possessions in North America ; the necessity of some barrier against that ambitious spirit admirals and vice-admirals failed, as the same proposal has often done since, but an important change was made in BEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 383 of annexation exhibited in the acquisition of Louisiana, the threatened conquest of Canada, and the constant curtailment of the Indian territory, these had been stated by the British commissioners, at the opening of the negotiation, as grounds of their claim for an assignment to the British Indian allies, of a permanent neutral territory, with a prohibition to the United States to establish fortresses or keep ships on the great lakes. The American commissioners had protested, in reply, against this attempted interference with the Indians, as a thing which the policy of Great Britain had never per- mitted in her own case, and as contrary to the assurances originally given of a disposition to treat on terms of perfect reciprocity. They denied, with emphasis, that the conquest of Canada had ever been a declared object of the war ; and they dwelt on the humane disposition of their government toward the Indians, protesting, also, against the British employment of Indian auxiliaries. Finally, after some pretty sharp controversy, the British commissioners had agreed to be content with a mutual stipulation for peace with the Indians, the tribes still actively engaged in hostili- ties at the close of the war, to be restored to the same position in which they had stood at its commencement. This question disposed of by the provisional assent of the American com- missioners, the next related to boundaries. The false idea that the Mississippi had its source north of the forty-ninth degree of latitude, had rendered nugatory the provision of the treaty of 1783 as to the northern boundary of the United States, west of the Lake of the Woods. That boundary, indeed, since the acquisition of Louisiana, remained to be extended far to the west, the United States claiming, under that cession, even to the Pacific Ocean. The provision for a boundary on the northeast, so far as related to the territory between the head of the St. Croix and the head of the Con- necticut, had likewise failed, so the British commissioners contended, from similar geographical ignorance ; and, as the basis of a new arrangement, they had suggested that each party should retain what he held at the signing of the treaty. To this the American commissioners had refused to agree. So the negotiation had stood at the latest accounts previous to the arrival of the treaty of peace. The treaty, as signed, provided for the mutual restoration 384 HlSTOKICAL AND of all conquered territory, and for the appointment of three commissions : one to settle the title to the islands in Passam- aquoddy Bay ; another to mark out the northeastern boundary as far as the St. Lawrence ; and a third to run the line through the St. Lawrence and the lakes, to the Lake of the Woods. In case of disagreement in either commission, the point in dispute was to he referred to some friendly Power. No provision was made as to the boundary west of the Lake of the Woods, nor as to the fishery on the shores of British America. The British commissioners refused to accept, in return for this right of fishing, a modified renewal of the article for the navigation of the Mississippi, which, in their view, was also terminated by the war. The result, therefore, was, that, instead of leaving the parties where they began, the war took away from Great Britain a nominal right, never used, of navigating the Mississippi, and from the New Eng- land fishermen a valuable right, hitherto used from the earliest times, of catching and curing fish on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the loss of which long continued to be felt. Hostilities on land were to terminate with the ratification of the treaty, and on the ocean in certain specified periods, according to distances, of which the longest was four months. By some adroit management, the English commissioners were induced to admit into the treaty a clause copied from that of 1783, with the history of which probably they were not familiar, against carrying away " any negroes or other property. 7 ' The only remaining article related to the slave trade, for the suppression of which, as irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice, both parties promised to use their best endeavors. The treaty, having been unanimously ratified and formally promulgated, was celebrated everywhere throughout the country with the loudest rejoicings. The Federalists, and all the more sensible Republicans, considered the country lucky in the peace, such as it was. The violent war men, greatly cooled by this time, concealed their mortification behind the smoke of Jackson's victory, and vague declama- tions about the national rights vindicated, the national char- acter exalted, and the military and naval glory of the war. Considering the new demands of Great Britain, put forward at Ghent, they seemed to esteem it a triumph to be allowed KEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 385 to stop where they began, leaving the whole question of impressments and neutral rights, the sole ostensible occasion of the war, withoat a word said on the subject, to be settled at some convenient opportunity : a common termination of wars, even for the most powerful and belligerent nations, and of which Great Britain herself has given more than one instance. The war thus happily ended, Dallas's bank scheme, which had been again revived and carried through the Senate, was ^definitely postponed in the House by a majority of one vote. Instead of the scheme of finance which he had proposed, a loan of $1 8, 400,000 was authorized, being the amount of treasury notes outstanding ; and, as immediate means to go on with, new treasury notes to the amount of twenty-five millions. A part of these notes, to be issued in sums under a hundred dollars, payable to the bearer, and without inter- est, were intended to serve as a currency. Those over a hundred dollars were to bear an interest of five and two-fifths per cent., a cent and a half a day for every hundred dollars. Both kinds were to be receivable for all public dues, and fund- able at the pleasure of the holder those bearing interest, in six per cent, stock, and those without interest in seven per cent, stock. Haste was made to repeal, in favor of all reciprocating nations, the act imposing discriminating duties on foreign vessels, and all remnants and remainders, if any there were, of the old non-intercourse and non-importation acts; also an act passed only a few days before, containing many strong provisions, some of them of very questionable constitution- ality, for the extinguishment of trade and intercourse with Great Britain. The commissioners at Ghent, before termi- nating their mission, signed a commercial convention for four years, copied substantially from Jay's treaty, but with an additional proviso for absolute reciprocity in the direct trade, by the abolition, on both sides, of all discriminations. Appropriations were made for rebuilding the public edifices lately burned by the British ; not, however, without a good deal of opposition. Rhea proposed to encircle the ruins of the Capitol with an iron balustrade, to let the ivy grow over them, and to place on their front, in letters of brass, this inscription: "Americans! This is the effect of British 33 386 HlSTOKICAL AND barbarism ! Let us swear eternal hatred to England !" Many of the Southern members were quite electrified by this burst of patriotic indignation ; but the effect passed rapidly away, as it occurred to them that Rhea was a Pennsylvanian, anxious to have the seat of government removed to Phila- delphia or Lancaster. Jefferson had offered a library of some seven thousand volumes, which he had been all his life collecting, to supply the place of that burned by the British ; but the appropria- tion for this purpose did not pass without violent opposition. It was proposed to pay for these books about thirty thousand dollars more, no doubt, than they would have sold for, though probably not much more than they had cost. But this act of mutual accommodation for Jefferson needed the money was violently denounced by many of the Federalists as an approach to a system of pensions. The same objection defeated a bill to pay to the destitute family of Vice Presi- dent Gerry, who had died during the session, his salary for the remainder of the year. A vast deal of Federal spleen was vented in the not very creditable debates on these two bills. The Democrats fully retorted in the discussion of a bill, which also failed to pass, to repay to Massachusetts and Connecticut their advances for local defense during the war advances of which a large amount, amid millions squan- dered on more favored States, remains unpaid to this day. The President recommended a peace establishment of 20,000 men. The House wished to reduce it to 6000 ; the Senate preferred 15,000; 10,000 was finally agreed to as a compromise. Two major generals, four brigadiers, and the necessary number of staff, regimental, and company officers, were to be selected by the President from those in service. The supernumerary officers and men, according to the original terms of enlistment, were to be discharged with three months' extra pay. An additional bounty in land was also proposed, but not carried. The flotilla act was repealed, and the remaining gun-boats ordered to be sold. The naval establishment was left as it stood, with an additional appropriation of $200,000 annually, for three years, for its gradual increase. A bill for appointing the swamp, occupied by Carroll's division. The ditch in front was very deep and broad; and the storming column, exposed KE VOLUTION AEY INCIDENTS. 387 the naval administration, -by creating a board of three naval officers, to exercise, under the Secretary of the Navy, the general superintendence of that department. The three national ships at sea when peace was concluded did not return without additional laurels. Off Lisbon, the Constitution engaged in a moonlight action two British sloops of war, the Cyane, of twenty-four guns, and the Levant, of eighteen. Keeping the wind, and taking a distance favora- ble to her long twenty-fours, but too great for the carronades, the enemy's principal armament, herself, as it were, in the apex, and the two hostile ships at the opposite angles of a nearly equilateral triangle, the Constitution compelled first the Cyane and then the Levant to strike, with a lose to her- self of only three killed and twelve wounded, and no essential damage to the vessel. She then proceeded with her prizes to Porto Praya, in the Cape de Verd Islands, whence she barely escaped, in a fog, from a squadron of heavy British vessels, by which the Levant was recaptured. The rendezvous appointed for the Hornet and Peacock, on getting out of New York, was Tristran d'Acunha, off the Cape of Good Hope. Shortly before arriving there, the Hornet, Captain Biddle, encountered and captured the brig- of-war Penguin, of eighteen guns, just about her match. The Penguin suffered very severely, with loss of foremast and bowsprit, so that it became necessary to destroy her. The Peacock appeared the next day, when both vessels pro- ceeded together to the Indian Ocean. As they entered that sea they were chased by a seventy-four, from which the Hor- net escaped with difficulty, being obliged to throw overboard almost everything moveable, and returning to New York without boat, anchor, or cable, and with but one gun. The Peacock, Captain Warrington, kept on her cruise, and in the Straits of Sunda. captured the Nautilus, an East India cruiser, of fourteen guns. Though told that peace had been made, Warrington insisted that the Nautilus should strike to him, and he compelled her to do so by a broadside, which killed six men and wounded eight others. But the next day she was given up, and so ended the naval hostilities. The whole number of British vessels captured during the war, on the lakes and on the ocean, as well by privateers (cf which there remained some forty or fifty at sea when peace 388 HISTORICAL AND was consluded) as by national vessels, omitting those recap- tured, was reckoned at seventeen hundred and fifty. According to an official British return, there had been captured or destroyed by ships of the royal navy, forty-two American national vessels, including twenty-two gun-boats, two hun- dred and thirty-three privateers, and fourteen hundred and thirty-seven merchant vessels sixteen hundred and eighty- three in all, manned by upward of eighteen thousand sea- men. The captures by British privateers were not numerous. Owing to the early disasters by land, the balance of pris- oners had been all along against the Americans. Horrid, indeed, were the tales brought back, equal to those of the Jersey prison-ship, from Dartmoor and other British depots for prisoners, where war had been seen stripped of all its gilding, and felt in all its grim horrors. Much feeling was also occasioned by an unlucky disturbance which occurred at Dartmoor after the peace was known, the guard firing on the prisoners and killing several. As to the maritime results of the war, the British remained very sore. A party, with the London Times at its head, bitterly complained that any peace should have been assented to before stripping the upstart and insolent Yankees of their naval laurels. Madison, on the other hand, exhibited his anxiety to avoid the impressment question for the future by recommending the passage of an act excluding foreign sea- men from American ships. The Algerine war which now broke out, although it con- tributed to the making of a naval hero of Decatur, being of minor importance, in comparison with the great events which we are commemorating, Hildreth disposes of very summarily. Just as the late war with Great Britain had broken out, the Dey of Algiers, taking offense at not having received from America the precise articles in the way of tribute, demanded, had unceremoniously dismissed Lear, the consul, had declared war, and had since captured an American ves- sel, and reduced her crew to slavery. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty with England, this declaration of war had been reciprocated. Efforts had been at once made to fit out ships, new and old, including several small ones lately purchased for the proposed squadrons of Porter and Perry, and before many weeks Decatur sailed from New BEVOLUTIONAKY INCIDENTS. York with the Guerriere, Macedonian, and Constellation frigates, the Ontario, new sloop-of-war, four brigs, and two schooners. Two days after passing Gibraltar, he fell in with and captured an Algerine frigate of forty-four guns, the largest ship in the Algerine navy, which struck to the Guer- riere after a running fight of twenty-five minutes. A