warning. Out of his own feeble army he spared one brigade from Massachusetts and one from Rhode Island, of one thousand each, and they were followed by a further detachment. Directing Sullivan, who was placed over the district of Rhode Island, to throw the American troops into two divisions, he sent Greene to command the one, and Lafayette the other. Young Laurens served d'Estaing as aid and interpreter. On the twenty-ninth of July, while Clinton was reporting to Germain that he would probably be under the necessity of evacuating New York and retiring to Halifax, the French fleet, with thirty-five hundred land troops on board, appeared off Newport; and the British saw themselves forced to destroy ten or more armed ships and galleys, carrying two hundred and twelve guns.

The country was palpitating with joy at the alliance with France. Congress, on Sunday the sixth of August, with studied ceremony gave its audience of reception to Conrad Alexander Gerard, the French plenipotentiary, listened to his assurances of the affection of his king for the United States and for "each one" of them, and "acknowledged the hand of a gracious Providence in raising them up so powerful a friend." Robert Livingston expressed the hope that congress, in treating for peace, would insist on the independence of Canada, Hudson's bay, the Floridas, and all the continent.

On the eighth the French fleet, which a whim of Sullivan had detained for ten days in the offing, ran past the British batteries into the harbor of Newport. The landing had been concerted for the tenth; but, learning that the British outposts on the north of the island had been withdrawn, Sullivan, on the morning of the ninth, without notice to d'Estaing, crossed with his troops from the side of Tiverton. Scarcely had he done so when the squadron of Lord Howe, which had been reinforced from England, was seen to anchor near Point Judith. On the tenth, a strong wind rising from the north-east, d'Estaing, by advice of his officers, among whom were Suffren and de Grasse, bore down upon the British squadron in order of battle. While d'Estaing was baffled in the attempt to force an action, the wind increased to a hurricane and wrecked and scattered both fleets. The French ship Languedoc lost its

rudder and masts; the Apollo, to which the British admiral had shifted his flag, could not keep at sea.

The same storm flooded Rhode Island with rain, damaged the ammunition of the American army, overturned their tents, and left them no shelter except trees and fences. Horses were killed, and even soldiers perished. The British troops, being quartered in the town, suffered less; and, on the return of fair weather, Pigot, but for his inertness, might have fallen upon a defenceless enemy.

The squadron of Lord Howe steered for Sandy Hook. D'Estaing, three of whose ships had severally encountered three English ships, appeared on the twentieth within sight of Newport; but only to announce that he was compelled to sail for Boston for repairs and supplies. In general orders, Sullivan censured d'Estaing, and insinuated the inutility of the French alliance; and then, under compulsion from Lafayette, in other general orders made reparation. Washington sent him timely and incessant messages to withdraw from the island; yet he persisted in raising on Honyman's Hill batteries which were too remote to be of use. The retreat, which was conducted in the presence of regular troops superior in numbers, was delayed till the night of the twenty-eighth. The next day the British attempted to get round the American right wing, and cut off every chance of escape. On that side, Greene, supported by young Laurens, changed the defence into an attack, and drove the enemy in disorder and with loss back to their strong post on Quaker Hill. On the night following the thirtieth the army of Sullivan, evading its pursuers, escaped from the island.

Clinton, with a reinforcement of four thousand men, landed the next day. He soon returned to New York, having accomplished nothing, except that a detachment under Grey set fire to the shipping in New Bedford, and then levied cattle and money on the farmers of Martha's Vineyard. Lord Howe gave up the naval command to Admiral Byron, and was not again employed in America. Washington, in August, as he came again upon White Plains, wrote to a friend in Virginia: "After two years' manoeuvring and the strangest vicissitudes, both armies are brought back to the very point they set out

from, and the offending party at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the spade and pickaxe for defence. The hand of Providence has been so conspicuous in all this that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that has not gratitude to acknowledge his obligations." Governor Trumbull of Connecticut expressed the belief of his state when he said: "In the series of marvellous occurrences during the present war he must be blind who doth not see the divine ordering thereof."

On the third of October the commissioners for restoring peace to the colonies addressed a farewell manifesto to the congress, assemblies, and other inhabitants of America, that their persistence in separating from Great Britain would "change the whole nature and future conduct of this war;" that "the extremes of war" should so distress the people and desolate the country as to make them of little avail to France. Congress published the paper in the gazettes to convince the people of the insidious designs of the commissioners. In the British house of commons Coke of Norfolk proposed to disavow the declaration. Lord George Germain insisted that the Americans by their alliance were become French, and should be treated as Frenchmen. Burke pointed out that the "dreadful menace was pronounced against those who, conscious of rectitude, stood up to fight for freedom and country." The commissioner, Johnstone, who, in changing sides on the American question, had not tamed the fury of his manner, said: "No quarter ought to be shown to their congress; and, if the infernals could be let loose against them, I should approve of the measure. The proclamation certainly does mean a war of desolation; it can mean nothing else." Gibbon divided silently with the friends of America, who had with them the judgment, though not the vote, of the house. Three days later Rockingham in the house of lords denounced the "accursed" manifesto, and declared that "since the coming of Christ war had not been conducted on such inhuman ideas." Lord Suffolk, in reply, appealed to the bench of bishops; on which the bishop of Peterborough, tracing the resemblance between the proclamation and the acts of Butler at Wyoming, added: "There is an article in the extraordinaries of the army for

scalping-knives. Great Britain defeats any hope in the justness of her cause by means like these to support it."

The debate closed well for America, except that Lord Shelburne was provoked into saying that he never would serve with any man who would consent to its independence.

The British army under Clinton could only ravage and destroy by sudden expeditions. Toward the end of September, Cornwallis led a foray into New Jersey; and Major-General Grey with a party of infantry, surprising Baylor's lighthorse, used the bayonet mercilessly against men that sued for quarter. A band, led by Captain Patrick Ferguson in October, after destroying the shipping in Little Egg Harbor, spread through the neighboring country to burn the houses and waste the lands of the patriots. On the night of the fifteenth they surprised light infantry under Pulaski's command; and, cumbering themselves with no prisoners, killed all they could. In November a large party of Indians, with bands of tories and regulars, entered Cherry valley by an unguarded pass, and, finding the fort too strong to be taken, murdered and scalped more than thirty of the inhabitants, most of them women and children.

Immediately after the general declaration of independence the citizens of South Carolina, by common consent, intrusted constituent powers to their representatives. In January 1777, a bill for a new constitution was introduced. The senate was to be chosen by the electors in the several parishes; the distribution of the representation in the general assembly was left unchanged. The bill was printed, and submitted for examination to the people for more than a year. The legisla ture, in March 1778, gave it their sanction; and it was then presented to the president for confirmation. Every one expected that in a few hours it would be proclaimed, when Rutledge, the outgoing president, called the council and assembly into the council chamber, and, after a formal speech, gave it a negative, because it took from the chief of the executive his veto power. The majority determined to vote no taxes until the veto should be reversed. After a three days' adjournment, which was required by the rules before a rejected bill could be again brought forward, Rawlins Lowndes, the newly elected president, gave his sanction to the re-enacted bill.

The new constitution might be altered by legislative authority after a notice of ninety days. None but freeholders could elect or be elected to office; and for the higher offices the possession of a large freehold was required. In any redistribution of the representation of the state, the number of white inhabitants and the amount of taxable property were to be considered. The veto power was taken from the president. Till this time, the church of England had been the established church in South Carolina. The Christian Protestant church was now declared to be the established religion of the state; and none but Protestants were eligible to high executive or any legislative office. The right of suffrage was conferred exclusively on every free white man who, having the requisite age and freehold, acknowledged God and a future state of rewards and punishments. All persons who so believed, and that God is publicly to be worshipped, might form religious societies. The support of religious worship was voluntary; the property then belonging to societies of the church of England, or any other religious societies, was secured to them in perpetuity. The people were to enjoy forever the right of electing their own pastors or clergy; but the state was entitled to security for the due discharge of the pastoral office by the persons so elected. Of slaves or slavery no mention was made except by implication.

The constitution having been adopted on the nineteenth of March 1778, to go into effect on the following twenty-ninth of November, all resident free male persons in the state above sixteen years, refusing to take the oath to maintain it against the king of Great Britain and all other enemies, were exiled; but a period of twelve months after their departure was allowed them to dispose of their property. In October 1778, after the intention of the British to reduce South Carolina became known, death was made the penalty for refusing to depart from the state, or for returning without permission.

At this time the British ministry, resigning the hope of reducing the North, indulged the expectation of conquering all the states south of the Susquehannah. For this end the British commander-in-chief at New York was ordered to despatch before October, if possible, a thousand men to reinforce

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