1776. FRANKLIN'S INTERVIEW WITH HOWE. 217 many of the most eminent persons in this country and in France. With Lord Howe he had recently held many conversations on American affairs; and the subject had been discussed with the frankness and good understanding which became men of sense and temper. Franklin plainly stated the terms upon which his countrymen would be willing to settle the dispute, and Howe had stated as plainly that such terms were inadmissible. John Adams, the second commissioner, had been, with his cousin Samuel and the merchant Handcock, owner of the Liberty sloop, among the earliest promoters of the Revolution. Handcock was now President of the Congress, in which Adams had the preceding year moved the appointment of Washington to the command of the continental army, and had, only a few weeks previously, seconded the Declaration of Independence. Adams afterwards became ambassador of the United States of America at the Court of St. James's, and closed his eventful career as President of the Republic. Rutledge, one of the representatives of South Carolina, was distinguished among the orators in Congress, and had acquired a considerable influence in that assembly; but, like his coadjutors, he had been an early opponent of British connection. Adams has left an account of this remarkable interview, and of the spirit with which it was approached.* The circumstances were such as might have made men of more than ordinary firmness shrink from the responsibility of maintaining the extreme measures which, up to this time, they had counselled and conducted. The arms of the new-born state had sustained a signal reverse; and the probability was urgent, that the resumption of hostilities, which must immediately follow an abrupt termination of the conference, would result in the annihilation and dis * Autobiography. Works, vol. iii. p. 80. 218 HOWE'S CONFERENCE WITH THE DELEGATES. CH. XX. persion of the American army. In such an event, the prospect of rallying or reuniting the patriot ranks was almost hopeless. The last despatch which had been received by Congress before the departure of the commissioners, was a letter from the General, describing the demoralised condition of the army, the want of military spirit, the desertion of the militia, and the instability of those who remained. The commissioners themselves, in their way from Philadelphia to Staten Island, where the conference was to take place, had observed the unsoldierlike and undisciplined condition of the troops. They had contrasted these miserable stragglers with the imposing line of British guards and grenadiers, drawn up to receive them at the quarters of Lord Howe. They saw the fifty-gun frigates at anchor, the bombs which were to carry destruction into their defenceless ports, the small craft and transports; and seeing all this, they entered the presence of the British commissioner as if they were about to listen to terms from a discomfited and desponding foe. Reception of Lord Howe received the American delegates with every demonstration of good will. Having Franklin. greeted Franklin with the cordiality of a friend, he turned towards Adams, and expressed his regret that he could not receive his visitors at present in the capacity of members of Congress. To this the stiffnecked republican hastily replied, that his lordship might receive him in any character he pleased except that of a British subject. Lord Howe, though for the moment disconcerted at such a retort, endeavoured to give the conversation a conciliatory turn, by alluding to the monument which the province of Massachusetts had erected to the memory of his brother, who fell at Ticonderoga in the last war. He expressed in feeling and manly terms his sense of the compliment thus paid to his family, declaring that so much had America engaged his gratitude and 1776. TERMS OF PACIFICATION REJECTED. 219 affection, that he should lament her fall like the loss of a relative, 'My lord, we will do our utmost to save you that mortification,' answered Franklin, with a sneer. Howe could not quite disguise his pain and, possibly, disgust; but he only returned, 'I suppose you will endeavour to give us employment in Europe.' To this observation no answer was made. After an The pre Rejection of proposals. introduction so unpromising, there was little encouragement to enter on the business of the meeting. Lord Howe offered an amnesty, a full consideration of grievances, and a promise that the Acts of Parliament which had given offence should be repealed. These terms were immediately rejected. liminary condition was inadmissible; the Declaration of Independence having been Lord Howe's promulgated, the Congress had no power to treat on any other basis than the recognition of that act. The commissioners and the delegates, therefore, took leave of each other; and the only effect of this attempt at negotiation was to dissipate the hopes of accommodation which had still been retained, and to convince all Americans, that the time had arrived when they must choose between unqualified allegiance to the British Crown, or the independence of their country. Meanwhile military operations had not been suspended on either side. The first question Military which Washington had to determine, after operations. he had effected the junction of the beaten and dispirited detachment of Long Island with the main army, was that of retreat. The defence of New York, in the face of a powerful fleet and army, appeared hopeless; on the other hand, the possession of it would enable the enemy not only to command the seaboard, but to threaten the provinces of Connecticut and Pennsylvania; while the junction of Carleton by the passage of the Hudson, which might be expected, would give them the command of the Southern States. 220 MILITARY MOVEMENTS-NEW YORK TAKEN. CH. XX. The British fleet was rapidly surrounding the island, and if they should succeed in intercepting his communication with the continent, Washington would be forced to stake the whole fortune of the war on a general action. He resolved, therefore, upon evacuating the city, and retiring to the northern extremity of the island, from which, if pressed, he could fall back upon the mainland. Washington moves to Kingsbridge. On the 14th of September, Washington transferred his head-quarters to Kingsbridge, close to the narrow channel which separated the island on the north from the main continent. On the following day the British men-of-war began to cannonade the town from the Hudson, and two divisions of the army, having landed at different points, marched to the attack. At their approach the Americans fled, nor could the presence of Washington himself arrest the panic; though, in his desperate efforts to rally the terrified fugitives, the General himself was nearly taken prisoner. Finding it useless to make further resistance, Washington fell back upon a strong position in advance of Kingsbridge, and the same day the British army took undisputed possession of the city of New York. New York The English were welcomed with demonstrations. of joy by the inhabitants, the greater part captured. of whom were Loyalists, or Tories as they were called, and had endured many indignities and hardships during the occupation of the motley undisciplined bands which constituted the American army. The expediency of burning the town on leaving it had been strongly urged in Washington's council of war, and was so obviously recommended on military considerations that it would probably have been carried into effect, had not Congress, with an overweening confidence in the fortune of the new Republic, believed that their army would soon be able to retake the place, and for that reason issued orders that it 1776. MILITARY ARRANGEMENTS. 221 should be spared. A few days after the British troops had taken possession of New York, the city was fired in several places, and a great part of it was consumed. The incendiaries were probably stragglers from the American lines; but it is certain that the act was done without the knowledge or countenance of Washington. American army. The deplorable state of the army, and the utter impossibility of keeping the field, or con- State of the ducting any important operations, with a militia which was disbanded every year, had been repeatedly represented to Congress by Washington and other generals. But the lawyers and traders of whom that assembly was composed, thought they were better judges of such matters than the Generalin-Chief and his colleagues in command; and, had it not been for the loss of New York, would probably have gone on declaiming against the danger to liberty of standing armies, while the British troops overran their provinces, and re-established the authority of George the Third. But the misconduct and utter inefficiency of the constitutional force having been proved by fatal experience, the Congress, alarmed at the imminent danger, at length gave their sanction to a plan for raising a body of regulars, which Washington had urged. They voted eighty-eight battalions for service during the war, and they offered a liberal bounty on enlistment. At the pressing instance of John Adams,* the President of the War Committee, they also, though not without great hesitation and reluctance, adopted a measure without which an army is an undisciplined mob, dangerous only to its employers. They enacted a code of military law, upon the model of the Articles of War which govern the British service. Still they did what they could to mar the efficiency of the * Autobiography. Adams' Works, vol. iii. |