XIII. 1776. Dec. not to be believed." 1 "Let them come," said CHAP. Rall; what need of intrenchments? We will at them with the bayonet."2 At all alarms he set troops in motion, but not from apprehension, for he laughed the mouldering army of the rebels to scorn. His delight was in martial music; and for him the hautboys at the main guard could never play too long. He was constant at parade; and on the relief of the sentries and of the pickets, all officers and under-officers were obliged to appear at his quarters, to give an aspect of great importance to his command. Cannon which should have been in position for defence, stood in front of his door, and every day were escorted for show through the town. He was not seen in the morning until nine, or even ten or eleven; for every night he indulged himself in late carousals. So passed his twelve days of command at Trenton; and they were the proudest and happiest of his life. "No man was ever overwhelmed by greater difficulties, or had less means to extricate himself from them," than Washington; but the sharp tribulation which assayed his fortitude carried with it a divine and animating virtue. Hope and zeal illuminated his grief. His emotions come to us across the century like strains from that eternity which repairs all losses and rights all wrongs; in 1 Diary kept in Donop's command, written by himself or one of his aids. The narrative is very minute and exact. Unluckily I have but a part of it, from Dec. 10 to the end of the year 1776. 2 Tagebuch eines Kurhessischen Officiers vom 7 October, 1776, bis VOL. IX. 19 7 December, 1780. Wiederhold, 1776. Dec. CHAP. his untold sorrows, his trust in Providence kept XIII. up in his heart an under-song of wonderful sweetness. The spirit of the Most High dwells among the afflicted, rather than the prosperous; and he who has never broken his bread in tears knows not the heavenly powers. The trials of Washington are the dark, solemn ground on which the beautiful work of his country's salvation was embroidered. 14. 1 On the fourteenth of December, believing that Howe was on his way to New York, he resolved "to attempt a stroke upon the forces of the enemy, who lay a good deal scattered, and to all appearance in a state of security," as soon as he could be joined by the troops under Lee.2 Meantime, he ob 1" Wer nie sein Brod mit Thränen ass, Der kennt euch nicht," &c. 2 When anything in the campaign went ill, there were never wanting persons to cast the blame on Washington; and there was always some pretender to the merit of what he did well. Washington, on his retreat from Princeton, formed the fixed design to turn upon the British as soon as he should be joined by Lee's division. "I shall face about and govern myself by the movements of General Lee," wrote Washington, Dec. 5, to congress. Sparks's Washington, iv. 202. Dec. 12, to Trumbull, Force, iii. 1186: "to turn upon the enemy and recover most of the ground they had gained." He shadowed out his purpose more definitely as soon as it was known that Howe had left Trenton. Dec. 14, to Trumbull, Washington, iv. 220: "a stroke upon the forces of the enemy, who lie a good deal scattered." The like to Gates, Dec. 14, in Force, iii. 1216. On the 26th, Robert Morris wrote of the attack on Trenton: "This manœuvre of the general had y; been determined on some days ago, but he kept it secret as the nature of the service would admit." How many days he does not specify ; but Dec. 18, Marshall, a leading and well-informed patriot in Philadelphia, enters in his accurate diary, p. 122: "Our army intend to cross at Trenton into the Jerseys." A letter of the 19th, in Force, iii. 1295, says: "before one week." On the same 19th, Greene writes: "I hope to give the enemy a stroke in a few days." Force, iii. 1342. On the 20th, Washington writes: "The present exigency will not admit of delay in the field." On the 21st, Robert Morris writes to Washington: "I have been told to-day that you are preparing to cross into the Jerseys. I hope it may be true; nothing would give me greater pleasure than to hear of such occurrences as your exalted merit deserves." Force, iii. 1331. On the same 21st, Robert Morris, by letter, communicated the design to the American commissioners in France, as a matter certainly resolved upon. Force, iii. 1333. The Donop jour XIII. 1776. Dec. tained exact accounts of New Jersey and its best CHAP. military positions, from opposite Philadelphia to the hills at Morristown. Every boat was secured far up the little streams that flow to the Delaware; and his forces, increased by fifteen hundred volunteers from Philadelphia, guarded the crossing-places from the falls at Trenton to below Bristol. He made every exertion to threaten the Hessians on both flanks by militia, at Morristown on the north, and on the south at Mount Holly. The days of waiting he employed in presenting congress with a plan for an additional number of battalions, to be raised and officered directly by the United States without the intervention of the several states; thus taking the first great step towards a real unity of government. On the twelfth he had written: "Perhaps congress have some hope and prospect of reënforcements. I have no intelligence of the sort, and wish to be informed on the subject. Our little handful is daily decreasing by sickness and other causes; other causes; and without considerable exertions on the part of the people, what can we reasonably look for? The subject is disagreeable; but yet it is true." On the sixteenth nal, in reporting the information which was furnished by General Grant's spy, and of which the substance was found among Rall's papers, appears to me to have reported nothing but what happened before any letter of the twenty-second could have been considered. The elaborate letter of Reed to Washington, Dec. 22, 1776, proves at most that Reed was not in the secret. As adjutant-general, his place was at Washington's side, if he was eager for action. Lord Bacon says: "Let ters are good, when it may serve 16. XIII. 1776. Dec. 16. 20. CHAP. he continued: "I am more and more convinced of the necessity of raising more battalions for the new army than what have been voted. The enemy will leave nothing unessayed in the next campaign; and fatal experience has given its sanction to the truth, that the militia are not to be depended upon, but in cases of the most pressing emergency. Let us have an army competent to every exigency." On the twentieth he grew more urgent: "I have waited with much impatience to know the determination of congress on the propositions made in October last for augmenting our corps of artillery. The time is come when it cannot be delayed without the greatest injury to the safety of these states, and, therefore, under the resolution of congress bearing date the twelfth instant, by the pressing advice of all the general officers now here, I have ventured to order three battalions of artillery to be immediately recruited. This may appear to congress premature and unwarrantable; but the present exigency of our affairs will not admit of delay, either in the council or the field. Ten days more will put an end to the existence of this army. If, therefore, in the short interval in which we have to make these arduous preparations, every matter that in its nature is self-evident is to be referred to congress, at the distance of a hundred and thirty or forty miles, so much time must elapse as to defeat the end in view. "It may be said that this is an application for powers too dangerous to be intrusted; I can only say, that desperate diseases require desperate remedies. I have no lust after power; I wish with This XIII. 1776. Dec. 20. as much fervency as any man upon this wide-ex- CHAP. tended continent for an opportunity of turning the sword into the ploughshare; but my feelings as an officer and as a man have been such as to force me to say, that no person ever had a greater choice of difficulties to contend with than I have. It is needless to add, that short enlistments, and a mistaken dependence upon militia, have been the origin of all our misfortunes, and of the great accumulation of our debt. The enemy are daily gathering strength from the disaffected. strength will increase, unless means can be devised to check effectually the progress of his arms. Militia may possibly do it for a little while; but in a little while, also, the militia of those states which have been frequently called upon will not turn out at all; or if they do, it much reluctance and sloth as to same thing. Instance New Jersey! sylvania! The militia come in, you cannot tell how; go, you cannot tell when; and act, you cannot tell where; consume your provisions, exhaust your stores, and leave you at last at a critical moment. will be with so "These are the men I am to depend upon ten days hence; this is the basis on which your cause must forever depend, till you get a standing army, sufficient of itself to oppose the enemy. This is not a time to stand upon expense. If any good officers will offer to raise men upon continental pay and establishment in this quarter, I shall encourage them to do so, and regiment them, when they have done it. If congress disapprove of this proceeding, they will please to signify it, as I |