II.

1776.

July.

with paralysis the zeal for creating a government. CHAP. Had such a scheme been at once adopted, the war could not have been carried on; but by a secret instinct, congress soon grew weary of considering it, and postponed it, leaving the revolution during its years of crisis to be conducted by the more efficient existing union, constituted by the instructions under which the delegates of the several colonies were assembled, held together by the necessities of war, and able to show energy of will by its acknowledgment of the right of the majority to decide a question.

The country had, therefore, to fight the battles of independence under the simple organization by which it had been declared; but preconceived notions and the never-sleeping dread of the absorption of the states interfered with the vigorous prosecution of the war. Not a single soldier had been enlisted directly by the United States; and the fear of a standing army as a deadly foe to the liberties of the people had thus far limited the enlistment of citizens to short terms; so that on the approach of danger the national defence was committed to the ebb and flow of the militia of the separate states. Thus good discipline was impossible, and service insecure.

In the urgency of danger Washington made a requisition on Connecticut for foot-soldiers; unable to despatch infantry, Trumbull sent three regiments of light horse, composed chiefly of heads of families and freeholders, mounted on their farm-horses, armed with fowling-pieces, without discipline, or compactness, or uniformity of dress. Their rustic manners were an object of ridicule to officers from the south,

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July.

CHAP. whom they in return scorned as "butterflies and II. coxcombs." Washington could not furnish them 1776. forage, and had no use for them as cavalry. They consented to mount guard, though with reluctance; but they persistently quoted the laws of Connecticut in support of their peremptory demand of exemption from fatigue duty. Less than ten days in camp wore out their patience; and at their own request they were discharged.

cers.

ready to question the

The pride of equality prevailed among the offiThe instructions of congress to Washington were by some interpreted to have made the decision of the council of war paramount to that of the general in command. Every one insisted on his own opinion, and was wisdom of those above him. In July, Crown Point was abandoned by the northern army, on the concurrent advice of the general officers, against the protest of Stark and twenty field-officers. Meantime Gates, though holding a command under Washington, purposely neglected to make reports to his superior; and when Washington saw fit to open the correspondence," and, after consulting his council, "expressed his sorrow at the retreat from Crown Point," Gates resented the interference. He censured the behavior of Washington and his officers as "unprecedented," insisted that he and his council were in "nothing inferior" to "their brethren and compeers" of the council of the commander-in-chief, and transmitted to congress copies of Washington's letter and his answer, with a declaration that he and the generals with him "would not be excelled in zeal or military virtue by any

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II.

1776.

of the officers, however dignified or distinguished." CHAP. While Gates so hastily set himself up as the rival of Washington, he was intriguing with New Eng- July. land members of congress to supersede Schuyler, and was impatient at the dilatoriness of his supporters.

1.

2

To these petty dissensions Washington opposed Aug. his own public spirit. In the general order for the first of August he spoke for union: "Divisions among ourselves most effectually assist our enemies; the provinces are all united to oppose the common enemy, and all distinctions are sunk in the name of an American." On the next day the members of congress, having no army but a transient one, no confederation, no treasury, no supplies of materials of war, signed the declaration of independence, which had been engrossed on parchment. The first, after the President, to write his name was Samuel Adams, to whom the men of that day ascribed "the greatest part in the greatest revolution of the world." The body was somewhat changed from that which voted on the fourth of July. Chase was now present, and by his side Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a new member in whom the long disfranchised Catholics of Maryland saw an emblem of their disinthralment. Wythe and Richard Henry Lee had returned from Richmond; Dickinson and two of his colleagues had made way for Clymer, Rush, and others; Robert Morris, who had been continued as a representative of Pennsylvania, now joining heartily with John Adams and Jefferson and Franklin, put his hand to the instrument, which he henceforward maintained with all the resources

II.

CHAP. of his hopeful mind. Mackean was with the army, and did not appear on the roll before 1781. For New York, Philip Livingston and Lewis Morris joined with Francis Lewis and William Floyd.

1776.

Aug.

2.

American independence was the work not of one, or a few, but of all; and was ratified not by congress only, but by the instincts and intuitions of the nation; just as the sunny smile of the ocean comes from every one of its millions of waves. The courageous and unselfish enthusiasm of the people was an inexhaustible storehouse of means for supporting its life; the boundlessness of the country formed its natural defence; and the selfasserting individuality of every state and of every citizen, though it forbade the organization of an efficient government, with executive unity, imposed on Britain the impossible task of conquering them one by one.

CHAPTER III

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE IN EUROPE.

JULY-OCTOBER, 1776.

III.

SINCE America must wage a war for existence as CHAP. a nation without a compacted union, or an efficient government, there was the more need of foreign 1776. July. alliances. The maritime powers, which had been pursued by England with overbearing pride till they had been led to look upon her as their natural foe, did not wait to be entreated. On the seventh of July, when there was danger of a rupture between Spain and Portugal, Vergennes read to the king in council his advice:

"The catholic king must not act precipitately; for a war by land would make us lose sight of the great object of weakening the only enemy whom France can and ought to distrust. The spirit and the letter of the alliance with Austria promise her influence to hold back Russia from falling upon the king of Sweden, or listening to English overtures. In Holland it will be proper

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