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VII.

1776.

even to themselves, to promote the meritorious. CHAP. Vacancies must remain undisposed of till the states, each for itself, should intervene; and it was feared that those governments would be swayed by the querulous importunities of the least worthy appli

cants.

Before he received official notice of the new arrangement, Washington borrowed hours allotted to sleep to convey to congress with sincerity and freedom his thoughts on the proper organization of the army. For himself he wished no recompense but such changes as would enable him to give satisfaction to the public; but, said he, "experience, which is the best criterion to work by, so fully, clearly, and decisively reprobates the practice of trusting to militia, that no man who regards order, regularity, and economy, or his own honor, character, or peace of mind, will risk them upon this issue. The evils to be apprehended from a standing army are remote, and, situated as we are, not at all to be dreaded; but the consequence of wanting one is certain and inevitable ruin. This contest is not likely to be the work of a day; and, to carry on the war systematically, you must establish your army upon a permanent footing." The materials he said were excellent; to induce enlistments for the continuance of the war, he urged the offer of a sufficient bounty; for the officers, he advised proper care in their nomination, and such pay as would encourage gentlemen" and persons of liberal sentiments to engage: in this manner they would in a little time have an army able to cope with any adversary.

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CHAP.
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These earnest expostulations commanded little more respect from congress than a reference to a committee; three of its members had already been deputed to repair to the camp on Harlem heights, but their mission was attended by no perceptible results; troops continued to be levied by requisitions on the several states, and officers to be nominated by local authorities, without due regard to their qualifications. Washington, therefore, reluctantly bade adieu to every present hope of getting an efficient army; and yet neither the neglect, distrust, and interference of congress, nor the occasional decline of zeal in the people of some of the states, nor the want of able or even of competent subordinates, nor the melting away of his force by the returning home of his troops. at the end of their term of enlistment, could ever for one moment make him waver in his purpose of perseverance to the end. No provocation could force from his pen one word of personal petulance, or even the momentary expression of a wish to resign his place.

His reiterated desire that the officers might be selected from among "gentlemen" meant no more than that the choice might fall on men who would be alive to the sense of their responsibility; he befriended and honored true merit wherever it was found. Notwithstanding the warmth of his entreaties for a standing force, Washington always trusted the people; his sympathy with them was perfect, and his abiding judgment of them just; but he wished the men of the people, freeholders, husbands, and fathers, to be trained under able commanders, and

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1776.

Sept.

bound to the country and to one another to per- CHAP. severe in arms like himself until their work was done. So it had been in England during the civil wars of the republic. This organization could not be fully attained by the United States, but the people, without being permanently embodied, proved their efficiency by untiring zeal and vigilance and courage; coming forward as militia, they ever remained the chief support of their country, and it was by them that American liberty was asserted, defended, and made triumphant. To undisciplined militia belonged the honors of Concord and Lexington; militia withstood the British at Bunker Hill; by the aid of militia an army of veterans was driven from Boston; and we shall see the unprosperous tide of affairs, in the central states, in the north, and in the south, turned by the sudden uprising of devoted volunteers. Yet, for the time, the bravest had moments of despondency. Robert Morris, the most sanguine of American statesmen, feared that General Howe would not leave time for a diversion from France; "I confess," he wrote, "as things appear to me, the prospect is gloomy."

CHAP.
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CHAPTER VIII.

THE COURSE OF OPINION IN ENGLAND.

SEPTEMBER 28-NOVEMBER, 1776.

In England the national spirit was every day becoming more and more vehement against the 1776. Americans; and as their demand had changed from

Sept.

redress to independence, ninety-nine out of one hundred of their old well-wishers desired their subjection. The account of the success on Long Island, received just before the end of September, strengthened the hope that the junction of the armies of Howe and Carleton would reduce the province of New York, restore a legislative government under the crown, dissolve the loosely joined confederacy, and force the colonies to make Oct. their peace one by one. While Germain attributed "infinite honor to Lord Howe, the all-inspecting admiral so deservedly beloved and admired by men and officers," he strained after words to praise "the inborn courage and active spirit" of General Howe, whom he described as "uniting to the fire

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of youth all the wisdom of experience," and whom CHAP. the king, as a public testimony of favor, on the eighteenth of October, nominated a knight-com- Oct. panion of the order of the Bath. The cause of the Americans seeming now to be lost, Fox wrote to Rockingham: "It should be a point of honor among us all to support the American pretensions in adversity as much as we did in their prosperity, and never desert those who have acted unsuccessfully upon whig principles."

The session of parliament was at hand, and the whig party was divided; Rockingham, Burke, and their friends proposed to stay away, assigning as their motive that their opposition did but strengthen the ministry by exhibiting their weakness. Adhering still more closely than ever to the principles of free government, Fox remonstrated with them earnestly and wisely: "I conjure you, over and over again, to consider the importance of the crisis; secession at present would be considered as running away from the conquerors, and giving up a cause which we think no longer tenable." Rockingham and Burke occupied a position which was not tenable; and they were doubtful what policy to choose. To an insurrection that seemed in its last agony they would not offer independence; they therefore kept aloof for the time, willing to step in on the side of mercy when the ministers should have beaten down the rebellion.

The king, as he opened parliament on the thirty- 31. first, derived from the declaration of independence "the one great advantage of unanimity at home;" and he calmed moderate men by expressing his

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