consideration to all persons who should aid in restoring tranquillity."

On the second day after his arrival he sent a white flag up the harbor with a copy of his declaration, enclosed in a letter addressed to Washington as a private man. Reed and Webb, who went to meet the messenger, following their instructions, declined to receive the communication. Lord Howe was grieved at the rebuff; in the judgment of congress, Washington "acted with a dignity becoming his station."

On the same day Lord Howe sent a flag across the Kill to Amboy, with copies of his declaration in circular letters to all the old royal governors south of New York. The papers fell into the hands of Mercer, and through Washington were transmitted to congress.

Lord Howe tried to advance his purpose by forwarding conciliatory letters written in England to persons in America. Those which he had concerted with De Berdt, son of the old agent of Massachusetts, to Kinsey of New Jersey and to Reed of Pennsylvania, were public in their nature, though private in their form, and were promptly referred by their recipients to congress. In them he suffered it to be said that he had for two months delayed sailing from England, in order to obtain an enlargement of his instructions; that he was disposed to treat; that he had power to compromise and adjust, and desired a parley with Americans on the footing of friends. Reed thought "the overture ought not to be rejected;" and through Robert Morris he offered most cheerfully to take such a part "on the occasion as his situation and abilities would admit."

The gloom that hung over the country was deepening its shades; one British corps after another was arriving; the fleet commanded the waters of New York, and two ships-of-war had, on the twelfth, passed the American batteries with very little injury, ascending the Hudson river for the encouragement of the disaffected, and totally cutting off all intercourse by water between Washington's camp and Albany. Greene, on the fourteenth, while facing the whole danger without dismay, wrote to John Adams: "I still think you are playing a desperate game." But congress showed no wavering. "Lord Howe," reasoned Samuel Adams, "comes with terms disgrace

ful to human nature. He has always voted, as I am told, in favor of the king's measures in parliament, and at the same time professed himself a friend to the liberties of America. He seems to me either never to have had any good principles at all, or not to have presence of mind openly and uniformly to avow them." Robert Morris resolved as a good citizen to follow if he could not lead, and thenceforward supported independence. As the only answer to Lord Howe, congress, on the nineteenth, resolved that its own state paper of the fourth of July should be engrossed on parchment as "the unanimous declaration of the thirteen UNITED STATES OF AMERICA," and signed by every one of its members. It further directed Lord Howe's circular letter and declaration to be published, "that the good people of these United States may be informed of what nature are the commissioners, and what the terms with which the insidious court of Britain has endeavored to amuse and disarm them; and that the few who still remain suspended by a hope, founded either in the justice or moderation of their late king, may at length be convinced that the valor alone of their country is to save its liberties."

Before this decision could reach Washington he had made his own opinions known. In reply to a resolution of congress on the massacre by Indians of some prisoners who had capitulated in Canada, General Howe had, on the sixteenth, sent him a note, of which the address had no recognition of his official station. The letter was for that reason not received; and on the twentieth a second letter was rejected, because its address was ambiguous; but, for the sake of coming to some agreement respecting prisoners, Paterson, its bearer, the British adjutantgeneral, was allowed to enter the American camp. After pledging the word of the British commander to grant to prisoners the rights of humanity and to punish the officers who had broken their parole, he asked to have his visit accepted as the first advance from the commissioners for restoring peace, and asserted that they had great powers. "From what appears," rejoined Washington, "they have power only to grant pardons; having committed no fault, we need no pardon; we are only defending what we deem to be our indisputable rights."

To Franklin, as to a worthy friend, Lord Howe had sent assurances that to promote lasting peace and union, and prevent American commerce from passing to foreign nations, formed "the great objects of his ambition." Franklin, after consulting congress, answered: "By a peace between Britain and America, as distinct states, your nation might recover the greatest part of our growing commerce, with that additional strength to be derived from a friendship with us; but her lust of dominion, and her thirst for a gainful monopoly, will join to hide her true interests from her eyes.

"The well-founded esteem and affection which I shall always have for your lordship makes it painful to me to see you engaged in conducting a war, the great ground of which, as expressed in your letter, is 'the necessity of preventing the American trade from passing into foreign channels.' Retaining a trade is not an object for which men may justly spill each other's blood; the true means of securing commerce is the goodness and cheapness of commodities; and the profit of no trade can ever be equal to the expense of compelling it by fleets and armies.

"Posterity will condemn to infamy those who advised this war; and even success will not save from some degree of dishonor those who voluntarily engage to conduct it. I believe that when you find conciliation impossible on any terms given you to propose, you will relinquish so odious a command."

When on the thirtieth Lord Howe received this reply, his countenance grew more sombre; tears glistened in his eyes; he looked within himself, and was conscious of aiming at a reconciliation on terms of honor and advantage to both parties. The truth began to dawn upon him that he had been deceived into accepting a commission which left him no power but to assist in the subjugation of America by arms.

The interview of the British adjutant-general with Washington led to one humane result. From the desire to release the British officers who had been taken by "the rebels," and still more from a consideration of the difficulties which might occur in the case of foreign troops serving in America, the British minister, in February 1776, instructed General Howe to effect the exchange of prisoners, but without using the king's name

in any negotiation for that purpose. The secretary's letter was followed by the proposal, in July 1776, to give up a citizen carried away from Boston for a British subject held in arrest. Congress, on the twenty-second, voted its approval, and gave power to exchange prisoners of war: officer for officer of equal rank, soldier for soldier, sailor for sailor, and citizen for citizen. In this arrangement Howe readily concurred. Interrupted by frequent altercations, it prevailed to the end of the war.

Union was the cry of America. "The plan of a confederation was drawn by Dickinson," and was in the hands of the committee before the end of June.

The main hindrance to the establishment of a strong, overruling central force was an unwillingness of the separate states to give up power, and a jealousy of establishing it in other hands than their own. The Dutch and Swiss confederacies were the only models known to the people in detail, and they were studied and imitated. There was not at that time one civilian who fully comprehended the need of the country, or was fit to be the architect of a permanent national constitution; and zeal to guard against the predominance of the central power heightened the imperfections which had their deep root in the history of the states.

Every English administration had aimed at acquiring the disposal of the military resources and revenues of the colonies, while every American legislature had constantly resisted encroachments. This resistance, developed and confirmed by successive generations, had become the instinct and habit of the people.

In raising a revenue, the colonies had acknowledged in the king no function whatever except that of addressing to them severally requisitions which they, after deliberation and consent, were to collect by their own separate power. The confederacy now stood in the place of the crown as the central authority; and to that federal union the colonies, by general concurrence, proposed to confide only the same limited right of making requisitions.

The plan of Dickinson was less efficient than that proposed the year before by Franklin. Colonies often failed to be rep

* Edward Rutledge to John Jay, 29 June 1776. MS.

resented; Franklin's plan constituted one half of the members of congress a quorum, and left the decision of every question to the majority of those who might be present; Dickinson knew only "the United States assembled;" counted every one of them which might chance to be unrepresented as a vote in the negative; required that not even a trivial matter should be determined except by the concurrence of seven colonies; and that measures of primary importance should await the assent of nine, that is, of at least two thirds of the whole. If eight states only were present, no question relating to defence, peace, war, finances, army, or navy, could be transacted even by a unanimous vote; nor could a matter of smaller moment be settled by a majority of six to two. Franklin accepted all amendments that should be approved by a majority of the states; Dickinson permitted no change but by the consent of every state.

Edward Rutledge of South Carolina, who served with industry on the committee with Dickinson, saw danger in an indissoluble league of friendship between the states for their general welfare, and in June, while the plan was still in the hands of the committee, wrote privately but deliberately: "If the plan now proposed should be adopted, nothing less than ruin to some colonies will be the consequence. The idea of destroying all provincial distinctions, and making everything of the most minute kind bend to what they call the good of the whole, is in other terms to say that these colonies must be subject to the government of the eastern provinces. The force of their arms I hold exceeding cheap; but I dread their overruling influence in council. I am resolved to vest the congress with no more power than what is absolutely necessary, and to keep the staff in our own hands; for, if surrendered into the hands of others, a most pernicious use will be made of it."*

Eight days after the declaration of independence the committee appointed to prepare articles of confederation in the absence of Dickinson brought in his draft. After it had been printed, on the twenty-second of July 1776, it was taken into consideration by congress in committee of the whole. The discussion was renewed at every following session in July and for Rutledge to Jay, 29 June 1776. MS.

*

VOL. V.-3