CHAP. station. The letter was for that reason not received;

I. and on the twentieth a second letter was rejected, 1776. because its address was ambiguous; but for the sake

July.

of coming to some agreement respecting prisoners, Paterson, its bearer, the British adjutant-general, was allowed to enter the American camp. After pledg ing the word of the British commander to grant to prisoners the rights of humanity and to punish the officers who had broken their parole, he asked to have his visit accepted as the first advance from the commissioners for restoring peace, and asserted that they had great powers. "From what appears," rejoined Washington, "they have power only to grant pardons; having committed no fault, we need no pardon; we are only defending what we deem to be our indisputable rights."

To Franklin, as to a worthy friend, Lord Howe had sent assurances that to promote lasting peace and union formed "the great objects of his ambition." Franklin, after consulting congress, answered: "By a peace to be entered into between Britain and America, as distinct states, your nation might recover the greatest part of our growing commerce, with that additional strength to be derived from a friendship with us; but I know too well her abounding pride and deficient wisdom. Her fondness for conquest, her lust of dominion, and her thirst for a gainful monopoly, will join to hide her true interests from her eyes, and continually goad her on in ruinous distant expeditions, destructive both of lives and treasure.

66

"I have not the vanity, my lord, to think of intimidating by thus predicting the effects of this

I.

war; for I know it will in England have the fate CHAP. of all my former predictions, not to be believed till the event shall verify it.

"Long did I endeavor, with unfeigned and unwearied zeal, to preserve the British empire from breaking. Your lordship may remember the tears of joy that wet my cheek when, in London, you once gave me expectations that a reconciliation might soon take place. I had the misfortune to find those expectations disappointed, and to be treated as the cause of the mischief I was laboring to prevent. My consolation under that groundless and malevolent treatment was, that I retained the friendship of many of the wise and good men in that country, and, among the rest, some share in the regard of Lord Howe.

"The well-founded esteem and affection which I shall always have for your lordship makes it painful to me to see you engaged in conducting a war, the great ground of which, as expressed in your letter, is 'the necessity of preventing the American trade from passing into foreign channels.' Retaining a trade is not an object for which men may justly spill each other's blood; the true means of securing commerce is the goodness and cheapness of commodities; and the profit of no trade can ever be equal to the expense of compelling it by fleets and armies.

"This war against us is both unjust and unwise: posterity will condemn to infamy those who advised it; and even success will not save from some degree of dishonor those who voluntarily engaged to conduct it. I know your great motive in coming hither was the hope of being instrumental in a conciliation;

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CHAP. and I believe that when you find that impossible I. on any terms given you to propose, you will relinquish so odious a command."

1776.

July.

On the thirtieth, Lord Howe received this reply, which he well understood as expressing the opinion of congress. His countenance grew more sombre; tears glistened in his eyes; he looked within himself, and was conscious of aiming at a reconciliation on terms of honor and advantage to both parties. The truth began to dawn upon him, that he had been deceived into accepting a commission which gave him no power but to offer pardon, to hear complaints, and to confirm the right of petition. Sorrow entered his heart. Why should he, the greatest admiral of his day, come against a distant people whose few ships could not employ his genius; whose hereditary good-will he longed not to forfeit; whose English privileges he respected; whose acknowledged wrongs he desired to see redressed? A manly and generous nature found itself in a false position: his honor as an officer was plighted to his king, and he must promote the subjugation of America by

arms.

CHAPTER II.

CONFEDERATION; SIGNING THE DECLARATION.

JULY-AUGUST 2, 1776.

II.

THE interview of the British adjutant-general with CHAP. Washington led to one humane result. After the retreat from Concord in 1775, Gage consented to 1776. July. an exchange of prisoners; but of those who fell into his hands at Bunker Hill, he wrote in August, under a different influence, that "their lives were destined to the cord." In December, Washington insinuated to the successor of Gage a wish for a cartel; but Howe evaded the proposal, awaiting the king's orders. From Quebec Carleton generously dismissed his captives on their parole. Meantime the desire to release the British officers who had been taken by "the rebels," and still more a consideration of the difficulties which might occur in the case of foreign troops serving in America, led the British minister, in February, 1776, to instruct General Howe: "It cannot be that you should enter into any treaty or agreement with rebels for

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CHAP. a regular cartel for exchange of prisoners, yet I II. doubt not but your own discretion will suggest to you the means of effecting such exchange without the king's dignity and honor being committed, or his majesty's name being used in any negotiation for that purpose." The secretary's letter was received in May at Halifax, and was followed by the proposal in July to give up a citizen carried away from Boston for a British subject held in arrest. Congress, on the twenty-second, voted its approval; and further empowered its commanders in each department to exchange prisoners of war: officer for officer of equal rank, soldier for soldier, sailor for sailor, and citizen for citizen. In this arrangement Howe readily concurred; the choice of prisoners was to be made by the respective commanders for their own officers and men. On the part of the United States the system was a public act of the highest authority; on that of the British government it had no more enduring sanction than the good-will of the British general, and did not even bind his successor. Interrupted by frequent altercations, it nevertheless prevailed during the war, and extended to captive privateers when they es caped impressment.

Union was the need of America. The draught of confederation which, on the twelfth of July, was brought into congress, was in the handwriting of Dickinson, and had been begun before the end of June. The Farmer of Pennsylvania, like the statue of the fabled child of the morning twilight, welcomed the coming sun with music, but stood silent and motionless during the heat of the day. He