X. 1776. Oct. CHAP. of social order. How would the human race have suffered, had their experiments been suppressed! The army sighed for the coming of Lee, not knowing that he had advised to give up the forts in Charleston harbor without firing a gun. He loomed as the evil genius of Clinton, whom he seemed to have faced at New York, in Virginia, and in North Carolina, and, with vastly inferior numbers, to have driven with shame from South Carolina. A New York officer wrote: "He is hourly expected, as if from heaven with a legion of flaming swordsmen." "His arrival," said Tilghman, the most faithful member of Washington's staff, "will greatly relieve our worthy general, who has too much for any mortal upon his hands." "Pray hasten his departure; he is much wanted," was the message of Jay to a friend in Philadel phia. Yet Lee, with all his ill-concealed aspirations, had not one talent of a commander. He never could see anything in its whole, or devise a comprehensive plan of action, but, by the habit of his mind, would fasten upon some detail, and always find fault. Moreover, he was proud of being an Englishman, and affected, by the right of birth, to look down upon his present associates, whom he thought to be "very bad company;' for he had the national pride of his countrymen, though not their loyalty; the disdain of other nations, without devotedness to his own. His alienation from Britain grew out of petulance at being neglected; and had a chance of favor been thrown to him, no one would have snapped more swiftly at the bait. He esteemed the people into X. 1776. Oct. whose service he had entered as unworthy1 of CHAP. a place among the nations; their declaration of independence jarred on his feelings; and if, by fits, Ot he played the part of a zealot in their cause, his mind, after every swing, came back to his first idea, that they had only to consider how they could, "with safety, glory, and advantage, return to their former state of relation."2 He used afterwards to say, that "things. never would have gone so far, had his advice been taken;" and he reconciled himself to the declaration of independence by the Americans, only that they might have something "to cede" as the price of "accommodation." " On the seventh of October, Lee appeared before the continental congress in Philadelphia, and obtained the coveted grant of thirty thousand dollars as an indemnity against apprehended losses in England. Aware of his designation to the chief command in case of a vacancy, he looked upon himself as already the head of a party, fretted more than ever at his subordinate position, and wearied congress with clamor for a separate army on the Delaware; but they proved deaf to his cries, and sent him to the camp of Washington, while he in return secretly mocked at them as stable of cattle that stumbled at every step." 66 a feelings; but at length I considered CHAP. X. Oct. Lee had left at Annapolis a rumor of his having "advised that now was the time to make up with 1776. Great Britain," and of having promised for that end to "use his influence with congress;" the convention of Maryland chimed in with his timidity, and, notwithstanding the declaration of independence, were still ready to come to terms, as they expressly voted in November. At On that question Pennsylvania was divided. the same time its convention, composed of new men, and guided mainly by a schoolmaster, the honest but inexperienced James Cannon, formed a constitution, under the complex influence of abstract truths and an angry quarrel with the supporters of the old charter of the colony. It extended the elective franchise to every resident tax-payer; while, with the approbation of Franklin, it concentrated legislative power in a single assembly. Moreover, that assembly, in joint ballot with a council whose members were too few to be of much weight in a decision by numbers, was to select the president and vice-president. The president, who stood in the place of chief magistrate, had no higher functions than those of the president of a council-board. This constitution, which was a mortal offence to the old proprietary party and a stumbling-block to the men of wealth, and which satisfied neither the feelings nor the intuitions nor the reflective judgment of a numerical 1 Deposition of D. Evans, in Force, ii. 1006; confirmed by Lee in his letter to congress of Oct. 10, 1776, in Force, ii. 972: "other provinces I have passed through;" and by the vote of the convention of Maryland of Nov. 10. X. 1776. Oct. majority in the state, was put in action without CHAP. being previously submitted to the citizens for ratification; and it provided no mode for its amendment but through the vote of two thirds of all persons elected to a board of censors, which was to be chosen for one year only in seven. It could have no place in the heart of the people, and was acceptable only as the badge of a revolution; yet from every elector, before his vote could be received, an oath or affirmation was required that he would neither directly nor indirectly do anything injurious to it as established by the convention. This requirement, which disfranchised a large part of the inhabitants, especially of the Quakers, was loudly execrated, and rent the state into embittered domestic factions. To the proprietary party, which had retained a majority in the regular colonial assembly, the new government was hateful as a usurpation; and to Robert Morris, Cadwalader, Rush, Wayne, and many others of "the best of the whigs," the uncontrolled will of a single legislative assembly, which might be biased by the delusions of selfishness or moved by fickle moods of passion, appeared as a form of tyranny; while the want of executive energy took away all hope of employing the resources of the state with earnestness and unanimity. In the very presence of the continental congress, the spirit of a counterrevolution lurked among the inhabitants of Philadelphia; their lukewarm officers in the army threw up their commissions: William Allen, from disgust at the new system; Shee, the good disciplinarian, from an avowed want of fortitude; Reed, the X. 1776. Oct. CHAP. adjutant-general, knowing full well "the most ruinous consequences " of resignations, and concealing his own from Washington. The yearning for peace, and a dread of loss by the depreciating paper currency, wrecked the small remains of cour age of John Dickinson; a majority would have eagerly rushed into a negotiation with the Howes, had their powers been less confined; and there existed "a considerable party for absolute and unconditional submission," which derived aid from the scruples of the Quakers to bear arms, or to promise allegiance to the new constitution. Aware of the wavering in Pennsylvania, Lee, on his way through New Jersey, found much that was congenial with his own inclination "to condemn the Americans for continuing the contest." The constitution of that state was self-annulled, "if a reconciliation between Great Britain and the colonies should take place;" the president of the body which framed it opposed independence to the last, and still leaned to a reunion with Britain; the highest officers in the public service were taken from those who had stood against the disruption; the assembly had adjourned on the eighth "through mere want of members to do business," " leaving unfinished almost everything which they should have done; the open. country could not hope for success in resisting an invading army; "the tories, taking new life, in one of the largest counties were circulating papers for subscription," 1 MS. letters, of which I have copies; as well as the documents in Force, iii. 1255, 1294, 1370. 2 J. D. Sergeant to S. Adams, Oct. 9, 1776. MS. letter. 2 |