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AMERICA IN ALLIANCE WITH

FRANCE.

CHAPTER I.

CAN THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES MAINTAIN INDEPENDENCE?

JULY-AUGUST 1776.

THE American declaration of independence was the beginning of new ages. It disembarrassed the people of the United States from the legal fiction of allegiance to a king against whom they were in arms, and set before them a well-defined, single, and inspiring purpose. It changed the contest from a war for the redress of grievances to the creation of a self-governing commonwealth. Hope whispered the assurance of unheard-of success in the pursuit of public happiness through faith in the rights of man.

Before receiving the declaration, the convention of Maryland, on the sixth of July, yielded to "the dire necessity" of renouncing the king who had violated his compact, and "conjured every virtuous citizen to join cordially in maintaining the freedom of Maryland and her sister colonies."

Two days later, the committee of safety and that of inspection at Philadelphia marched in procession to the state-house, where the declaration was read to the battalions of volunteers and a concourse of the inhabitants of the city and county. The emblems of royalty were then burnt amid the acclamations of the crowd, and peals from the state-house bell proclaimed "liberty throughout the land."

With the certainty of immediate war the congress of New Jersey, in presence of the committee of safety, the militia un

der arms, and a great assembly of the people at Trenton, published simultaneously the declaration of independence and their own new constitution.

On the morning of the ninth, the newly elected convention of New York, invested with full powers from the people, assembled at White Plains, chose as president Nathaniel Woodhull of Suffolk county, a man of courage and discriminating mind, and listened to the reading of the declaration of independence. In the afternoon they met again, thirty-eight in number, among whom were Woodhull, Jay, Van Cortlandt, Lewis Morris, Gouverneur Morris, Gansevoort, Sloss Hobart, the Presbyterian minister Keteltas, and other representatives of the Dutch, English, and Huguenot elements of the state. If resistance to the end should be chosen, Lewis Morris must abandon his large estate to the unsparing ravages of the enemy; Woodhull could not hope to save his constituents from immediate subjection; Jay must prepare to see his aged father and mother driven from their home at Rye, to pine away and die as wanderers; the men from the western part of the state knew that their vote would let loose the Indian with his scalping-knife along their border. But they trusted in the unconquerable spirit of those by whom they had been elected. The leading part fell to Jay. On his report, the convention with one voice, while they lamented the cruel necessity for "independence, approved it, and joined in supporting it at the risk of their lives and fortunes." They directed it to be published with the beat of drum at White Plains, and in every district of the state; empowered their delegates in congress to act for the happiness and the welfare of the United States of America; and named themselves the representatives of the people of the state of New York. By this decree the union of the thirteen colonies was consummated; New York, long with the cup of misery at her lips, ever remained true to her pledge.

In announcing independence, the commander-in-chief asserted for the colonists "the rights of humanity." The declaration was read on the ninth to every brigade in New York city, and received with the most hearty approbation. In the evening a mob, composed in part of soldiers, threw down the leaden equestrian statue of George III. which stood in the Bowì

ing Green. The riot offended Washington and was rebuked in general orders.

On the eleventh the ill-provided fleet of Lord Dunmore was driven by well-placed batteries from its safe moorage near Gwynn's Island, to ride at anchor near the mouth of the Potomac. Here a gale sprung up which wrecked several of the small craft and drove a sloop on shore, where it fell into the hands of "the rebels." To disencumber himself of everything but the transports, the governor sent the refugees under his protection to Great Britain, the West Indies, or St. Augustine. Of the negroes whom he had enlisted, five hundred had died of ship-fever or small-pox; of the rest, great numbers were sent to the West Indies. His appeal to the slaves brought death or wretchedness on all who rose at his bidding, and incensed the southern colonies without benefit to the crown.

Dunmore roved about for some weeks longer in the waters of the Chesapeake, vainly awaiting help; but no hostile foot rested on the soil of Virginia, when, on the twenty-fifth, the declaration of independence was read in Williamsburg at the capitol, the court-house, and the palace; and when it was proclaimed by the sheriff of each county at the door of his courthouse on the first ensuing court-day. In Rhode Island it was announced successively at Newport, East Greenwich, and Providence, where it called forth loud huzzas for "free trade with all the world, American manufactures, and the diffusion of liberty o'er and o'er the globe." The thriving city of Baltimore was illuminated for joy. At Ticonderoga the soldiers under Saint-Clair shouted with rapture: "Now we are a free people, and have a name among the states of the world." In Massachusetts the great state paper was published from the pulpit on a Lord's Day by each minister to his congregation, and was entered at length on the records of the towns. The assembly of South Carolina, while they deplored "the unavoidable necessity" of independence, accepted its declaration "with unspeakable pleasure."

Independence had sprung from the instructions of the people; it was now accepted and confirmed as their work in cities and villages, in town-meetings and legislatures, in the camp and the training-field. The report went out among all

nations; it involved the reform of the British parliament, the emancipation of Ireland, the overthrow of feudalism in France. Even Hungary bent forward to hear the glad sound; and Italians and Germans recalled their days of unity.

The arrow had sped when Lord Howe entered upon the scene with his commission for restoring peace. As a naval officer, he added experience and skill to phlegmatic courage. Naturally taciturn, his manner of expressing himself was confused. His profile resembled that of his grandfather, George I.; his complexion was very dark; his grim features had no stamp of superiority; but his face wore an expression of serene and passive fortitude. As unsuspicious as he was brave, he sincerely designed to act as a mediator; and indulged in visions of riding about the country, conversing with its principal inhabitants, and restoring the king's authority by methods of moderation and concession. At Halifax he told Admiral Arbuthnot "that peace would be made within ten days after his arrival." With a simplicity which speaks for his sincerity, he had not discovered how completely his powers were circumscribed. He could pardon individuals on their return to the king's protection, and could grant an amnesty to insurgent communities which should lay down their arms and dissolve their governments. The only further privilege which his long altercation wrung from the ministry was a vague permission to converse with private men on their alleged grievances and to report their opinions; but he could not promise that their complaints would be heeded; and he was strictly forbidden to treat with the continental congress, or any provincial congress, or any civil or military officer holding their commission.

In the evening of the twelfth Lord Howe reached Staten Island. His brother, who had impatiently expected him, was of the opinion "that a numerous body of the inhabitants of New York, the Jerseys, and Connecticut only waited for opportunities to prove their loyalty; but that peace could not be restored until the rebel army should be defeated." Lord Howe, while at sea, had signed a declaration which had been sketched by Wedderburn in England, and which did but announce his authority separately, not less than jointly with his brother, to grant free and general pardons, and promise "due

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