XIV. an attack in winter, though Howe recalled more CHAP. than a brigade of British troops from Rhode Is land. 1777. Jan. 20. Under the last proclamation of the brothers, two thousand seven hundred and three Jerseymen, besides eight hundred and fifty-one in Rhode Island, and twelve hundred and eighty-two in the rural districts and city of New York, subscribed a declaration of fidelity to the British king; on the fourteenth of January, just as its limited period was about to expire, Germain, who grudged every act of mercy, sent orders to the Howes, not to let "the undeserving escape that punishment which is due to their crimes, and which it will be expedient to inflict for the sake of example to futurity." Eleven days after the date of this unrelent- 25. ing order, Washington, the harbinger and champion of union, was in a condition to demand, by a proclamation in the name of the United States, that those who had accepted British protections "should withdraw within the enemy's lines, or take the oath of allegiance to the United States of America." On the promulgation of this order the civil difficulty from a conflict of sovereignties was felt anew, and Clark, a member of congress from New Jersey, interposed the cavil, that "an oath of allegiance to the United States was absurd before confederation." Washington, from the moment of the declaration of independence, acted persistently for one common country embracing all the independent states; but congress and the people were so far behind him, that it fell to each state to outlaw those of its inhabitants who refused allegiance XIV. CHAP. to its single self, as if the Virginian owed fealty only to Virginia, the Jerseyman only to New Jersey 1777. Jan. The results of the campaign were inauspicious for the British. Their indiscriminate rapacity, which spared neither friend nor foe, the terrible excesses of their lust, the unrestrained passion for destruction, changed the people of New Jersey from spectators of the war, so supine that not more than a hundred of them had joined Washington in his retreat, to active partisans, animated by the zeal and courage which exasperation at personal injuries, the love of liberty and property, the regard for the sanctity of home, and the impulse to avenge wrong, could inspire. New England except the island of Rhode Island, all central, northern, and western New York except Fort Niagara, all the country from the Delaware to Florida, were free from the invaders, who had acquired only the islands that touched New York harbor, and a few adjacent outposts, of which Brunswick and the hills round Kingsbridge were the most remote. For future operations they had against them the vast extent of the coast, and the forest, which was ever recurring between the settlements. Whenever they passed beyond their straitened quarters, they were exposed to surprises, skirmishes, and hardships. They were wasted by incessant alarms and unremitting labor; their forage and provisions were purchased at the price of blood. The contemporary British historians of the war have not withheld praise from Washington's masterly conduct and daring enterprise. His own army XIV. loved their general, and had nothing against him CHAP. but the little care he took of himself while in action. Cooper of Boston is the witness, that "the 1777. confidence of the people everywhere in him was beyond example." In congress, which had already much degenerated, and had become distracted by selfish schemers, there were signs of impatience at his superiority, and an obstinate reluctance to own that the depressed condition of the country was due to their having refused to heed his advice. To a proposition for giving him power to name generals, John Adams objected vehemently, saying: "In private life I am willing to respect and look up to him; in this house I feel myself to be the superior of General Washington." Samuel Adams once wrote: "I have always been so very wrong-headed as not to be over well pleased with what is called the Fabian war in America." The temper of the body is best seen by their resolves of the twenty-fourth of February, when they voted to Washington mere "ideal reënforcements," and then, after an earnest debate, in which some of the New England delegates and one from New Jersey showed a willingness to insult him, they expressed their "earnest desire" that he would "not only curb and confine the enemy within their present quarters, but, by the divine blessing, totally subdue them before they could be reënforced." Well might Washington reply: "What hope can there be of my effecting so desirable a work at this time? The whole of our numbers in New Jersey fit for duty is under three thousand." The absurd paragraph was carried by a bare majority, in which CHAP. Richard Henry Lee brought up Virginia to the side XIV. of the four Eastern states, against the two Carolinas, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. 1777. There were not wanting members who penetrated the nature of the contest and were just to the worth of Washington. "He is the greatest man on earth," wrote Robert Morris from Philadelphia, on the first of February. From Baltimore, William Hooper, the representative from North Carolina, thus echoed back his words: "Will posterity believe the tale? When it shall be consistent with policy to give the history of that man from his first introduction into our service, how often America has been rescued from ruin by the mere strength of his genius, conduct, and courage, encountering every obstacle that want of money, men, arms, ammunition, could throw in his way, an impartial world will say with you that he is the greatest man on earth. on earth. Misfortunes are the element in which he shines; they are the groundwork on which his picture appears to the greatest advantage. He rises superior to them all; they serve as foils to his fortitude and as stimulants to bring into view those great qualities which his modesty keeps concealed. I could fill the side in his praise; but anything I can say cannot equal his merits." CHAPTER XV. THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE SEVERAL STATES OF AMERICA. 1776-1783. HAD the decision of the war hung on armies CHAP. XV. alone, America might not have gained the victory; 1776. but the contest involved the introduction into political life of ideas which had long been hovering in the atmosphere of humanity, and which the civilized world assisted to call into action. The law of continuity was unbroken. The spirit of the age moved the young nation to own justice as antecedent and superior to the state, and to found the rights of the citizen on the rights of man. And yet, in regenerating its institutions it was not guided by any speculative theory, or laborious application of metaphysical distinctions. Its form of government grew naturally out of its traditions by the simple rejection of all personal hereditary authority, which in America had never had much more than a representative existence. Its people were industrious and frugal; accustomed to the cry of liberty |