1776. Oct. CHAP. adjutant-general, knowing full well "the most ruX. inous 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 courage of John Dickinson;1 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 2 J. D. Sergeant to S. Adams, Oct. 9, 1776. MS. letter. X. 1776. Oct. complaining of the declaration of independence, CHAP. because it was a bar to a treaty. With the alleged concurrence of "the most active friends to the cause in New Jersey, and the other provinces he had passed through," Lee, from Princeton, seized this opportunity to propose that congress should authorize an offer to open a negotiation with Lord Howe on his own terms. The proposal was unheeded. Washington at this time, "bereft of every peaceful moment, losing all comfort and happiness," and least of all thinking that any one could covet his office, was watching the effects of the wilfulness of congress in delaying to raise an army, seeing on the one side the impossibility of doing any essential service to the cause by continuing in command, and on the other the inevitable ruin that would follow his retirement. "Such is my situation," said he, privately, "that if I were to wish the bitterest curse to an enemy on this side of the grave, I should put him in my stead with my feelings." Again he addressed congress: "Give me leave to say, your affairs are in a more unpromising way than you seem to apprehend; your army is on the eve of its dissolution. True it is, you have voted a larger one in lieu of it; but the season is late, and there is a material difference between voting battalions and raising men." But with this warning in their hands, they were still confident of a respite from danger for the winter. "The British force is so divided, they will do no great matter more this fall," said John Adams, the chairman of the board of war; and though officially informed 1776. Oct. CHAP. that the American army would disband, that all X. the measures thus far adopted for raising a new one were but fruitless experiments, he asked and obtained leave of absence at the time when there was the most need of his energy to devise relief. On the morning of the eleventh, previous to his departure, news came, that, two days before, two British ships of forty-four guns each, with three or four tenders, under an easy southerly breeze, ran through the impediments in the Hudson without the least difficulty, and captured or destroyed the four American row-galleys in the river. Congress would not conceive the necessity of further retreat; referring the letter to the board of war, they instantly "desired Washington, if practicable, by every art and at whatever expense, to obstruct effectually the navigation between the forts, as well to prevent the regress of the enemies' frigates lately gone up, as to hinder them from receiving succors. Greene shared this rash confidence. After the British ships of war had passed up the river, he said: "Our army are so strongly fortified, and so much out of the command of the shipping, we have little more to fear this campaign." Congress was confirmed in its delusion by Lee, who, on the twelfth, wrote confidently from Amboy that Howe would not attack Washington's lines, but would "infallibly" proceed against Philadelphia; and he urged that Washington "should spare a part of his army to be stationed about Trenton." While Lee was writing this opinion, Howe, leaving his finished lines above Macgowan's pass to X. 1776. Oct. the care of three brigades under Percy, embarked CHAP. the van of his army on the East river, and landed at Frog's neck. Washington, who had foreseen this attempt to gain his rear, seasonably occupied the causeway and bridge which led from Frog's neck, by Hand's riflemen, a New York regiment, the regiment of Prescott of Pepperell, and an artillery company; posted guards on all guards on all the defensible grounds between the two armies; began the evacuation of New York island by sending Macdougall's brigade before nightfall1 four miles beyond Kingsbridge; and detached a corps to White Plains, to which place he ordered his stores in Connecticut to be transferred.2 On the thirteenth, a council of war was called, but was adjourned, that Greene and Mercer might receive a summons and Lee be present. On the fourteenth, in obedience to the indiscreet order of congress, Putnam was charged "to attend particularly to the works about Mount Washington, and to increase the obstructions in the river as fast as possible;" while Lee, still in 1 The origin of the retirement of the American army from New York has been most industriously misrepresented. "The movement originated with General Lee," writes Stedman, Hist. of the War, i. 211, and he is substantially followed by Reed's Reed, i. 251. So far is this from the truth, the movement was ordered before the idea had entered the mind of Lee, as appears from his letters of Oct. 12 and Oct. 14, and was more than half executed a day or two before his arrival. For evidence of the beginning of the movement, see Smallwood, Oct. 12, 1776, where he acknowledges the receipt of his orders on the very day the British landed, Force, ii. 1014; 2 The witnesses to this are Wash- 1776. Oct. CHAP. New Jersey, blamed Washington for not menacing X. to resign. Later in the day Lee crossed the river, and found New York island already more than half evacuated. Riding in pursuit of Washington, who was directing in person the defence along East and West Chester, he was received with confidence, and assigned to the division beyond Kingsbridge, with the request that he would exercise no command till he could make himself acquainted with the arrangements of his post. In the following night, Mercer, at first accompanied by Greene, made a descent upon Staten Island, and at daybreak on the fifteenth he took seventeen prisoners at Richmond. The intended descent upon eastern Long Island was postponed. To the council of war which assembled on the sixteenth Washington read accounts of a conspiracy of the numerous disaffected in Westchester and Duchess counties, and produced ample evidence of the intention of the enemy to surround his army; in reply to his question, all, except George Clinton, agreed that a change of position was necessary "to prevent the enemy cutting off the communication with the country." Lee, who came to the camp to persuade Washington that he was in no danger whatever of an attack, joined in the well-considered decision which the best of the generals had brought with them to the council, and distinguished himself by his vehement support of his newly adopted opinion. The council 1 That his opinion was new appears from his own letters. Gordon, in his account of the council, makes Greene figure largely; but Greene was not present at it, as the record shows. Force, ii. 1117. |