CHAP. 1777. Private MY LORD, exchanged New York 9 Apl. 1777 I have had many conversations with Mons. La Corne St. Luc, lately released from his Captivity with the Rebels. We agree perfectly in sentiments respecting the propriety & importance of employing the Indians. He is anxious to take the command of as many Canadians & Indians, as S Guy Carleton will entrust him with & will pledge his life & honor that he will raise them & be in the environs of Albany in sixty days after he lands at Quebec, for which Port he sails with other Canadian Gentlemen the first fair wind. His expressions were emphatical. "Il faut, dit il, lacher les sauvages sur les frontieres de ces Canals, pour "imposer des terreurs, et pour les faire soumetre, au pied de la Throne "de sa Majesté Britannic. Il faut absolument mettre tous dehors, pour "finir la Guerre cet Été. Les Rebels commence a se guerrier, et si la guerre continue plus long tems que cett' année, il sera tres facheuse pour toute L'Empire. Pour soi-même il m'a assuré, qu'il ne voudroit "jamais, jamais, (jusqu'a ce que son ame Bat dans sons Corps, et le Sang "coule dans ses Veines,) oublier les injures, et les Insults qu'il a recue "de ces gueux - These were his expressions; and though in the sixty sixth year of his age is in the vigour of health & animal spirits. 66 A Pension or Salary of 500 pr ann. with some Distinction among the savages to La Corne St Luc would I am persuaded be productive of the best consequences to Govt at this Period-Sr Wm Johnson was not an abler Partizan than St Luc for Indian services. CHAPTER XIX. AMERICA BEFORE THE OPENING OF THE CAMPAIGN. MARCH-MAY, 1777. XIX. SIR WILLIAM HOWE, while as yet he had gained CHAP. nothing but New York with its environs, asked for a reënforcement of no more than fifteen thousand 1777. men, with which he was to recover a country more than a thousand miles long. On the acquisition of Aquidneck island, and of New Jersey as far as Trenton, he led Lord George Germain to believe that the capture of Philadelphia would bring back the people of Pennsylvania to their allegiance. After the defeat at Trenton, he owned his need of twenty thousand men, and saw no speedy termination of the war but by a general action; but he bore his mishaps very lightly, and waited in indolence for a reply to his requisition. During the interval, attempts at a pacification were renewed. General Charles Lee, for whom congress and Washington most tenderly intervened, sending him money, threatening retaliation if he were to be CHAP. treated as a deserter, and offering six Hessian fieldXIX. officers for his exchange, escaped from danger by a 1777. way of his own. Imprisoned as a deserter, with a 10. halter in view, he did what two years before those who knew him best had foretold:1 he deserted back again. Assuring his captors that independence was declared against his advice, he volunteered to negotiate the return of the colonies to their old allegiance. With the sanction of the Howes, on Feb. the tenth of February he addressed to congress a written request that two or three gentlemen might be sent to him immediately to receive his communication; and in private letters he conjured his friends Rush, Robert Morris, and Richard Henry Lee, "to urge the compliance with his request, as of the last importance to himself and to the public." In congress it was argued, that a deputation for the manifest purpose of negotiation would spread through the country and Europe the idea that they were preparing to return to their old connec tion with England; and therefore, on the twentyfirst, they, with warm expressions of sympathy, and with the greatest unanimity, resolved that "it was altogether improper to send any of their body to communicate with him." There were not wanting men in the army who "not only censured him bitterly, but even insinuated that he was treacher The British commissioners, having failed in their attempt on congress, looked next to Washington. The unhappy American captives had been locked 1 F. Moore's Loyalist Poetry of 2 Shaw to Eliot, 4 March, 1777. the Revolution, 128. XIX. 1777. 11. up in close and crowded hulks and prisons, breath- CHAP. ing a pestilential air, wretchedly clothed, ill supplied with fuel or left without it, and receiving a scanty allowance of provisions, and those of a bad quality; so that when they came out they were weak and feverish, unfit for service, and in many cases sinking under fatal maladies. Men in that condition Washington was willing to accept on parole; but he refused to exchange for them able-bodied soldiers, who had been well fed and cared for during their captivity. The subject was referred on the part of Howe to Lieutenant-Colonel Walcott, on the part of Washington to Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison. On the eleventh of March, during a fruitless inter- March view of nine hours, Walcott, speaking under instructions from Howe, took occasion to say to Harrison: "What should hinder you and me, or rather what should prevent General Washington, who seems to have the power in his hands, from making peace between the two countries?" Harrison replied: "The commissioners have no other powers than what they derive under the act of parliament by which they are appointed." "Oh," said Walcott, "neither you nor I know their powers. Suppose General Washington wrote to know them? The minister has said in the house of commons, he is willing to place the Americans as they were in 1763; suppose Washington should propose this, renouncing the absurd idea of independence, which would be your ruin?" "Why do you refuse to treat with congress?" said Harrison. "Because," answered Walcott, "it is unknown as a legal assembly to both countries. But it would be worth XIX. CHAP. Washington's while to try to restore peace." Without a moment's hesitation, Harrison put aside the 1777. overture.1 March 19. 28. Eight days after this rebuff, Lee once more conjured congress to send two or three gentlemen to converse with him on subjects "of great importance, not only to himself, but to the community he so sincerely loved." The letter was received in Philadelphia on the twenty-eighth. Men asked: "What has Lee been after of late, suffering himself to be made a paw by the Howes?" John Adams was indignant. On the twenty-ninth, congress coldly resolved, "that they still judged it improper to send any of their members to confer with General Lee." This vote of congress fell upon the day on which Lee signalized his perfidy by presenting to Lord and General Howe an elaborate plan for reducing the Americans.2 These are some of his words: "I think myself bound in conscience to furnish all the lights I can to Lord and General Howe. I shall most sincerely and zealously contribute all in my power to an accommodation. To bring matters to a conclusion, it is necessary to unhinge or dissolve the whole system or machine of resistance, or, in other terms, congress government. I assert with the penalty of my life, if the plan is fully adopted, in less than two months from the date of the proclamation of pardon not a spark 1 Walcott's report to Howe. MS. 2 I have seen the paper: it is in the handwriting of Lee; the indorsement is in the handwriting of Henry Strachey, of whose letters I have had many in my hands. The merit belongs to author of Lee. |